Health Symptoms Related to Pesticide Use in Farmers and Laborers of Ecological and Conventional Banana Plantations in Ecuador

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Hanns Moshammer¹  Lisbeth Weitensfelder¹  Peter Wallner¹  Michael Poteser¹  Kathrin Lemmerer¹  Michael Kundi¹  Hans-Peter Hutter¹ 

[1] Department of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University Vienna, 1090 Wien, Austria;

关键词: banana farming;    occupational health;    pesticides;    pesticide sprayers;    ecological farming;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph18031126

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Conventional banana farming is pesticide-intensive and leads to high exposure of farmworkers. Ecuador is the world’s biggest exporter of bananas. In this field study in 5 communities in Ecuador, we recorded potentially pesticide-associated subjective health symptoms in farmworkers and compared pesticide users to workers in organic farming. With one exception, symptom rates were always higher in the pesticide-exposed group. Significance was reached in 8 out of 19 investigated symptoms with the highest odds ratios (and smallest p-values) for local irritation like skin and eye irritation (OR = 3.58, CI 1.10–11.71, and 4.10, CI 1.37–12.31, respectively) as well as systemic symptoms like dizziness (OR = 4.80, CI 1.55–14.87) and fatigue (OR = 4.96, CI 1.65–14.88). Moreover, gastrointestinal symptoms were reported more frequently by pesticide users: nausea (OR = 7.5, CI 1.77–31.77) and diarrhea (OR = 6.43, CI 1.06–30.00). The majority of farmworkers were not adequately protected from pesticide exposure. For example, only 3 of 31 farmworkers that had used pesticides recently reported using gloves and only 6 reported using masks during active spraying. Improved safety measures and a reduction in pesticide use are necessary to protect the health of banana farmworkers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown