Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.
Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
J Occup Environ Hyg. 2022 Sep;19(9):509-523. doi: 10.1080/15459624.2022.2100403. Epub 2022 Aug 3.
Over the past three decades, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta has experienced a significant increase in agricultural productivity, partly achieved through increased agrochemical use. To abate negative effects on human and environmental health, several national programs were launched to enhance safer pesticide use. This study aimed to assess the patterns and relationships of official sustainable agriculture educational programs, pesticide safety knowledge, and practices of smallholder farmers in the Mekong Delta. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 400 smallholder farmers from three communes in Thoi Lai district (Can Tho province) from March to May 2020. Twenty-four questions on pesticide safety knowledge and practices were used to identify traits using latent class analysis. Adjusted generalized linear regression was used to assess determinants of pesticide safety knowledge and estimate associations of pesticide safety knowledge with pesticide practices. 96.2% of participants have used at least one WHO class II pesticide during the past year while the use of specific personal protective equipment was limited mainly due to unavailability (37.0%) or discomfort (83.0%). High education (Odds Ratio (OR), 95% Confidence Interval; 3.84, 1.70-9.45), exposure to official educational programs (1.87, 1.13-3.12), peer-to-peer knowledge exchange (3.58, 2.18-6.00), and learning from governmental extension services (2.31, 1.14-4.98) were positively associated with increased pesticide safety knowledge. Compared to poor practices, pesticide safety knowledge was increasingly positively associated with intermediate (1.65, 1.02-2.66) and good pesticide practices (8.96, 2.58-31.12). These findings highlight the importance of school education and educational programs, access to PPE, and addressing discomforts of PPE to improve the protection of farmers from pesticide exposures. Simultaneously, pesticide market authorization processes should be reconsidered to promote the authorization of less toxic products. Further in-depth studies on the nature of pesticides used, nonuse of personal protective equipment, and effectiveness of educational programs will further define leverage points for safer pesticide use.
在过去的三十年里，越南湄公河三角洲的农业生产力有了显著提高，部分原因是农用化学品使用的增加。为了减轻对人类和环境健康的负面影响，越南启动了几个国家项目来加强安全使用农药。本研究旨在评估官方可持续农业教育项目、小农户农药安全知识和实践的模式和关系。本研究于 2020 年 3 月至 5 月期间在芹苴省迪石区的三个公社对 400 名小农户进行了横断面调查。使用 24 个关于农药安全知识和实践的问题，使用潜在类别分析来识别特征。使用调整后的广义线性回归来评估农药安全知识的决定因素，并估计农药安全知识与农药实践的关联。在过去的一年中，96.2%的参与者至少使用过一种世界卫生组织(II 类)农药，而具体的个人防护设备的使用则因缺乏可用性（37.0%）或不舒适（83.0%）而受到限制。高教育（优势比（OR），95%置信区间；3.84，1.70-9.45）、接触官方教育项目（1.87，1.13-3.12）、同伴间知识交流（3.58，2.18-6.00）和从政府推广服务中学习（2.31，1.14-4.98）与增加农药安全知识呈正相关。与不良实践相比，农药安全知识与中等（1.65，1.02-2.66）和良好的农药实践（8.96，2.58-31.12）呈正相关。这些发现强调了学校教育和教育项目、个人防护设备的可及性以及解决个人防护设备不适的重要性，以提高农民对农药暴露的保护。同时，应重新考虑农药市场授权程序，以促进更安全的产品的授权。进一步深入研究所使用农药的性质、不使用个人防护设备和教育项目的有效性将进一步确定更安全使用农药的杠杆点。
