Abstract
Modern agriculture, practiced after the “green revolution” worldwide, aims to maximize production in order to provide food for the growing world population. Thus, farmers are required to modernize their practices through the mechanization of land use and, above all, the use of chemical pesticides to control agricultural pests. However, in addition to combating the target pest, chemical pesticides indirectly affect a wide range of species, including humans, leading to health damage. Among the main problems caused by the use of pesticides is the genotoxicity caused by chronic exposure. The present study aims to verify the occurrence of genetic damage in farmers who are occupationally exposed to agrochemicals compared to people of other professions that do not use toxic substances (control group). The research was conducted with 36 male participants (18 farmers and 18 control group, ages 24–71 for the farmer group and 22–61 for the control group). The comet assay and micronucleus test results revealed a higher rate of genetic damage in the group of farmers than in the control group. A questionnaire answered by the farmers showed that the Personal Protect Equipment (PPE) is used incorrectly or not used. In summary, our results indicate that farmers are exposed to occupational hazards. To mitigate this risk, we conducted awareness campaigns to notify the farmers of the risks and highlight the importance of using PPE correctly. Intensive efforts and training are thus required to build an awareness of safety practices and change the attitudes of farm workers in the hope of preventing harmful environmental and anthropogenic effects.
Highlights
The use of pesticides in the world has become a common and theoretically necessary practice in modern agriculture with the advent of the so-called “Green Revolution”, which is a wide-scale program to boost worldwide agricultural production [1]
The questionnaires were applied only to the farmers because there were specific demographic questions only for this group, such as: “How long have you worked with pesticides? How many pesticide applications do you do per year? What types of pesticides do you use? Do you use Protect Equipment (PPE) when making pesticide applications? Have you ever been poisoned by the use of pesticides? What were the symptoms? How many times have you been through this?” The answers obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed descriptively
Our study found no clear correlation between the age of the study participants and the damage rate, either by the micronucleus test or by the comet assay, studies performed by other authors such as the meta-analysis of Merhi et al [9] concluded that a long period of exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of hematopoietic tissue tumors and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Summary
The use of pesticides in the world has become a common and theoretically necessary practice in modern agriculture with the advent of the so-called “Green Revolution”, which is a wide-scale program to boost worldwide agricultural production [1]. The chronic effects caused by continuous long-term exposure have not been characterized properly. These effects include carcinogenesis, neurotoxicity, problems in reproductive development and immunological effects. They are poorly known because the latent effects of some of these chemicals may only become apparent after 18 years of absorption [3]
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