Related Factors in Outbreak of Health Disturbance from Pesticides in Farmers / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

A questionnaire survey was conducted to clarify the actual states of pesticide poisoning (disorders) and its related factors amang 178 male and 232 female farmers.<BR>The results were as follows.<BR>1) Of the subjects 30.7% complained of some health disturbance from pesticides, without significant difference in prevalence between males and females.<BR>2) The most comman symptom was skin hazard (39.7%), followed by nausea (34.9%) and headache (32.5%).<BR>3) Captafol (21.4%) and methomyl (12.7%), which are contained in common pesticides, were recognized as the cause of poisoning.<BR>4) The highest prevalence of health disturbance from pesticides were seen in [orange only] growers (72.7%) among mixed crop groups, followed by [rice+ orange] producers (71.4%), and [rice+ sugar cane +sweet potato] cultivators (55.9%). These higher prevalence groups were also estimated to be the users of the higher amount of pesticide.<BR>5) Significant coefficient correlations were seen between the prevalence of health disturbance from pesticides and the duration and yearly times of pesticide spraying and daily spraying hours.<BR>6) A relatively larger proportion of farmers has a knowledge about pesticide poisonig. However a few of them take effective protective measures at pesticide handling.<BR>The reverse correlation was seen between the prevalence of health disturbance from pesticides and the degree of reliance on effectiveness of pesticides.<BR>The present study indicates that more effective education for safty use of pesticides to both producers and users, and development of non-pesticide use agriculture are essential to protect agricultural workers from health distubance from pesticides.