Pesticides in Lebanon: a knowledge, attitude, and practice study.

Pesticides, despite their known toxicity, are widely used in developing countries. Evaluating the pattern of their use would be interesting to assess the appropriateness of adequate intervention. Using a standardized questionnaire, a knowledge, attitude, and practice study was performed in two Lebanese regions, in which a group of agricultural workers was compared to workers of the general population and a third group of pesticide distributors. Agricultural workers were exposed to pesticides during cropping, mixing, loading, and application (100%). They had low pesticide knowledge scales compared to pesticide distributors and to the general population workers (P<10(-7)). The preventive measures they took were low, and the lower their knowledge was, the lower were the preventive measures applied (P<10(-3)). Pesticide safety education is necessary in order to induce protective behavior among agricultural workers. The general population may also benefit from increasing their awareness regarding pesticides.

Symptoms and acute pesticide intoxication among agricultural workers in Lebanon.

Pesticides are known for their toxicity and are still widely used, especially in agriculture. Increasing attention is being focused on the health effects affecting humans occupationally exposed to pesticides, particularly agricultural workers. The objective of this study was to assess the association between occupational exposure to pesticides with recurrent symptoms and acute intoxications, in comparison with other workers in Lebanon. A cross-sectional study was undertaken, where a standardized questionnaire was administered to 89 exposed and 88 non exposed workers. Subjects exposed to pesticides reported more upper respiratory tract infections (PR = 9.39 ; p < 10(-4)), anorexia (PR = 3.63 ; p = 0.03), epistaxis (PR = 2.97; p = 0.02), immunoallergic (PR = 1.58 ; p = 0.01) and gastrointestinal (PR = 2.13 ; p < 10(-4)) symptoms. Acute pesticide intoxications requiring hospitalization were also more common (PR = 4.26; p = 0.01). Adjustment over potential confounding did not change the results, except for the appearance of an association of central (PR = 1.50 ; p = 0.04) and autonomic nervous systems symptoms (PR = 3.92 ; p = 0.01) with agricultural work in Mount Lebanon. Our results suggest that agricultural workers have a higher prevalence of multiple symptoms, which may be due to subacute intoxications by pesticides that did not need hospitalization. In addition, these workers have a higher risk of having an acute intoxication due to pesticides, exposing them to life-threatening situations.