Pesticides in Intensive Cultivation: Effects on Working Conditions and Workers' Health

  • Albiano, Nelson F.;
  • de Bujan, Elisa C.;
  • Loria, Dora I.;
  • Matos, Elena L.;
  • Sobel, Norma
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AUTHOR ABSTRACT

A survey was made of greenhouse workers in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in order to assess the safety of pesticide application procedures and their possible effects on health. This work also served as a pilot project that helped to determine the feasibility of doing a similar nationwide survey.

Two population groups were studied, these being 154 people growing flowers for cutting and another 188 raising ornamental potted plants. Members of both groups generally lived in the places where they worked and were predominantly Oriental. Interviews conducted with group members sought information about demography, personal habits, the types of tasks performed, pesticides used, protective measures taken, and possible pesticide-related health effects.

The results confirmed that the work done by both study groups involved extensive exposure to a wide range of pesticides and suggested that the number of products used had increased substantially since 1964. The data also indicated that both study groups made indiscriminate use of a wide range of pesticides, took inadequate protective measures, and experienced a wide range of acute and chronic intoxication symptoms. Such symptoms were far less common among those applicators who took adequate protective measures than among those who did not.

JOURNAL AND NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE ID#

JOURNAL: Bull Pan Am Health Organ. 1987; 21(4): 405-415.

Note: Bulletin of the Pan American Health Organization.

NLOM ID#: 88150354 .

Publication #: 88150354

This document was extracted from the CDC-NIOSH Epidemiology of Farm Related Injuries: Bibliography With Abstracts, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

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