University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Health and Society, Department of General Practice and Community Medicine, Section for Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology.
Environ Health. 2010 Oct 19;9:63. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-9-63.
Adverse health effects caused by pesticide exposure have been reported in occupied Palestinian territory and the world at large. The objective of this paper is to compare patterns of pesticide use in Beit-U'mmar village, West Bank, between 1998 and 2006.
We studied two populations in Beit-U'mmar village, comprised of: 1) 61 male farmers and their wives in 1998 and 2) 250 male farmers in 2006. Both populations completed a structured interview, which included questions about socio-demographic factors, types of farming tasks, as well as compounds, quantities, and handling of pesticides. Using the 1998 population as a reference, we applied generalized linear regression models (GLM) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) in order to estimate prevalence differences (PD) between the two populations.
In 1998, farmers used 47 formulated pesticides on their crops. In 2006, 16 of these pesticides were still in use, including five internationally banned compounds. There were positive changes with less use of large quantities of pesticides (>40 units/year) (PD -51; CI -0.60, -0.43), in applying the recommended dosage of pesticides (PD +0.57; CI +0.48, +0.68) and complying with the safety period (PD +0.89; CI+0.83, +0.95). Changes also included farmers' habits while applying pesticides, such as less smoking (PD -0.20; CI-0.34, -0.07) and eating at the work place (PD -0.33; CI-0.47, -0.19). No significant changes were found from 1998 to 2006 regarding use of personal protective equipment, pesticide storage, farmers' habits after applying pesticides, and in using some highly hazardous pesticides.
The results were based on two cross-sectional surveys and should be interpreted with caution due to potential validity problems. The results of the study suggest some positive changes in the handling of pesticides amongst participants in 2006, which could be due to different policy interventions and regulations that were implemented after 1998. However, farm workers in Beit -U'mmar village are still at risk of health effects because of ongoing exposure to pesticides. To the best of our knowledge, no studies on long-term changes in pesticide use have been reported from developing countries.
在被占领的巴勒斯坦领土和世界范围内，都有报道称接触农药会对健康造成不良影响。本文的目的是比较 1998 年至 2006 年西岸 Beit-U'mmar 村的农药使用模式。
我们研究了 Beit-U'mmar 村的两个人群，包括：1）1998 年的 61 名男性农民及其妻子；2）2006 年的 250 名男性农民。这两个群体都完成了一份结构式访谈，其中包括社会人口因素、农业任务类型以及化合物、数量和农药处理方面的问题。我们使用 1998 年的人群作为参考，应用广义线性回归模型（GLM）和 95%置信区间（CI）来估计两个群体之间的患病率差异（PD）。
1998 年，农民在作物上使用了 47 种配方农药。2006 年，仍在使用其中的 16 种农药，包括 5 种国际禁用化合物。使用较少的大量农药（>40 单位/年）（PD-51；CI-0.60，-0.43）、使用推荐剂量的农药（PD+0.57；CI+0.48，+0.68）和遵守安全间隔期（PD+0.89；CI+0.83，+0.95）的情况有了积极的变化。变化还包括农民在施药时的习惯，如减少吸烟（PD-0.20；CI-0.34，-0.07）和在工作场所进食（PD-0.33；CI-0.47，-0.19）。从 1998 年到 2006 年，在使用个人防护设备、农药储存、施药后农民的习惯以及使用某些高危害性农药方面，没有发现显著变化。
这些结果基于两项横断面调查，由于潜在的有效性问题，应谨慎解释。研究结果表明，2006 年参与者在处理农药方面出现了一些积极变化，这可能是由于 1998 年之后实施了不同的政策干预和法规。然而，Beit-U'mmar 村的农场工人仍面临着接触农药的健康风险。据我们所知，没有来自发展中国家的关于农药使用长期变化的研究报告。
