Bakhsh Khuda, Ahmad Naeem, Kamran M Asif, Hassan Sarfraz, Abbas Qasir, Saeed Rashed, Hashmi M Sadiq
Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Vehari, Pakistan.
Public Health Engineering Department, Vehari, Pakistan.
BMC Public Health. 2016 Sep 13;16(1):961. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3635-3.
Farm workers and female cotton pickers are exposed to residual impacts of pesticide use in cotton production, in addition to dust, ultraviolet radiation, etc. Cotton picking causes various health hazards among cotton pickers with varied health cost. A soil bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is incorporated in cotton seed through genetic modification and it has resistance against certain bollworms of cotton. So it is considered that Bt cotton fields have less pesticide exposure compared to non-Bt cotton fields. This study was designed to examine and compare the impacts and health cost of cotton picking among female cotton pickers working in Bt and non-Bt cotton fields.
The study used the data collected from Vehari district of Pakistani Punjab. Health hazards and associated health cost of the respondents involved in Bt cotton picking were compared with those who harvested non-Bt cotton. Comparative use of the personal protective measures among those respondents was also examined. Health cost function and its determinants were analyzed using ordinary least square method.
Findings of the study showed that 61 % cotton pickers from Bt cotton households reported one or more health effects of pesticide during picking season whereas this percentage for non-Bt cotton households was 66 %. Health impacts included skin problems, headache, cough, flu/fever, eye irritation and sleeplessness, however, percentage of these health impacts was comparatively higher among non-Bt cotton households. Health cost from exposure to pesticide use in cotton was US$ 5.74 and 2.91 per season for non-Bt cotton and Bt cotton households, respectively. Education, picking in Bt cotton fields and preventive measures were significantly related with health cost.
Cotton pickers working in Bt cotton fields are found to have less occupational health hazards compared to those working in non-Bt cotton fields. Thus generating awareness among cotton pickers for adopting precautionary measures during harvesting and the use of Bt cotton seed can result in a decline in the ill-effects of cotton picking.
除了灰尘、紫外线辐射等，农场工人和女性棉花采摘工还会受到棉花生产中农药使用的残留影响。棉花采摘给棉花采摘工带来各种健康危害，且健康成本各异。一种名为苏云金芽孢杆菌（Bt）的土壤细菌通过基因改造被植入棉花种子中，它对棉花的某些棉铃虫具有抗性。因此，人们认为与非Bt棉田相比，Bt棉田的农药暴露较少。本研究旨在调查和比较在Bt棉田和非Bt棉田工作的女性棉花采摘工采摘棉花的影响及健康成本。
本研究使用了从巴基斯坦旁遮普省 Vehari 区收集的数据。将参与Bt棉花采摘的受访者的健康危害及相关健康成本与采摘非Bt棉花的受访者进行比较。还考察了这些受访者个人防护措施的使用情况。使用普通最小二乘法分析健康成本函数及其决定因素。
研究结果表明，来自Bt棉花种植户的61%的棉花采摘工报告在采摘季节受到一种或多种农药健康影响，而非Bt棉花种植户的这一比例为66%。健康影响包括皮肤问题、头痛、咳嗽、流感/发烧、眼睛刺激和失眠，然而，这些健康影响的比例在非Bt棉花种植户中相对较高。非Bt棉花种植户和Bt棉花种植户因接触棉花生产中使用的农药而产生的健康成本分别为每季节5.74美元和2.91美元。教育程度、在Bt棉田采摘和预防措施与健康成本显著相关。
与在非Bt棉田工作的棉花采摘工相比，发现在Bt棉田工作的棉花采摘工职业健康危害较小。因此，提高棉花采摘工在收获期间采取预防措施的意识以及使用Bt棉花种子可减少棉花采摘的不良影响。
