total pesticide exposure calculation among vegetable farmers in benguet, philippines总农药接触计算中蔬菜的农民格特,菲律宾.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2009, Article ID 412054, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2009/412054 Research Article Total Pesticide Exposure Calculation among Vegetable Farmers in Benguet, Philippines Jinky Leilanie Lu National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila, Ermita, Manila 1100, Philippines Correspondence should be addressed to Jinky Leilanie Lu, jinky lu@ Received 13 November 2008; Revised 31 March 2009; Accepted 6 October 2009 Recommended by How-Ran Guo This was a cross-sectional study that investigated pesticide exposure and its risk factors targeting vegetable farmers selected through cluster sampling. The sampling size calculated with P = .05 was 211 vegetable farmers and 37 farms. The mean usage of pesticide was 21.35 liters. Risk factors included damaged backpack sprayer (34.7%), spills on hands (31.8%), and spraying against the wind (58%). The top 3 pesticides used were pyrethroid (46.4%), organophosphates (24.2%), and carbamates (21.3%). Those who were exposed to fungicides and insecticides also had higher total pesticide exposure. Furthermore, a farmer who was a pesticide applicator, mixer, loader, and who had not been given instructions through training was at risk of having higher pesticide exposure. The most prevalent symptoms were headache (64.1%), muscle pain (61.1%), cough (45.5%), weakness (42.4%), eye pain (39.9%), chest pain (37.4%), and eye redness (33.8%). The data can be used for the formulation of an integrated program on safety and health in the vegetable industry. Copyright © 2009 Jinky Leilanie Lu. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the