Congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Occupational Pesticide Exposure in Cordoba, Argentina. An Assessment Based on Self-Reported Information of Agricultural Applicators.
Reunión:
Congreso; IEA World Congress of Epidemiology.; 2011
Institución organizadora:
International Advisory Committee (IAC)
Resumen:
Occupational pesticide exposure is a global health concern in
agricultural settings. During the last 20 years, Argentina has
experienced a process of ?agriculturalization? characterised by a strong
and continuous increase in the land area dedicated to crop growing.
Cordoba, located in the center of the country, is one of the most
important cropping province; its cultivated area increased from
3.397.050 ha in 1994/95 to 6.810.500 ha in 2009/10. Moreover, an
extensive agricultural model was set up based on the production with
glyphosate-resistant transgenic soybean, no-till and intensive use of
fertilisers and pesticides since 1996. In fact, a strong growth in the
marketing of pesticides was observed: 155 million pounds in 1995 to 600
million pounds in 2007. Nevertheless, environmental impact and human
health effects is poorly studied in this region. A population-based
study of 880 agricultural applicators was carried out between 2007 and
2010. An exposure assessment was performed based on self-reported data.
Workers completed a validated questionnaire describing several
socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics, pesticide and personal
protective equipment use, lifetime exposure years and their health
conditions. The main results indicate that our population is composed by
young men (34.9 y, SD 11.04); 71% of them have mixed/applied pesticides
up to 10 years and 46.5% live <500 m with respect to the next
sprayed crop. Furthermore, 67% do not use adequate PPE and 65% apply on
an average of 7000 ha/year. Our research shows a risk scenario that
warrants further evaluation particularly for chronic health effects
occurrence.