Abstract
The aim of this longitudinal study is to assess how pesticide use may impact metabolic biomarkers by collecting and comparing data from conventional (n = 13) and organic farmers (n = 225) every eight months for four rounds. Farmers were interviewed about family health history, food consumption behaviors, self-reported health problems, agricultural activities, and history of pesticide use. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Blood samples were collected for total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), blood glucose, and triglycerides. A linear mixed model with random intercepts for subjects was used to compare the metabolic biomarkers between conventional and organic farmers and to examine the impact of the number of pesticide spray days for all four rounds after controlling for covariates. The conventional farmers reported using insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The marginal means for chemical farmers were significantly higher than organic farmers for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference. Increasing the number of days of spraying either insecticides or fungicides was associated with an increase in HDL, LDL, and cholesterol levels. Increasing the number of herbicide spray days was associated with an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a decrease in BMI. These findings suggest that pesticide-using conventional farmers may be at higher risk of metabolic disease in the future.
Highlights
Pesticides are important for agricultural production; the widespread use of pesticides may be putting humans at risk for adverse health effects [1]
The conventional farmers comprised a higher percentage of male farmers, while the organic farmers had a similar male to female ratio
In our previous cross-sectional study, we found that conventional farmers who currently use pesticides had a significantly higher risk of abnormal metabolic and cardiovascular health biomarkers, including clinically abnormal levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), waist circumference
Summary
Pesticides are important for agricultural production; the widespread use of pesticides may be putting humans at risk for adverse health effects [1]. In Thailand, 131,308 tons of pesticides were imported in 2019, including 88,846 tons of herbicides, 16,897 tons of insecticides, 19,334 tons of fungicides, and 6231 tons of other pesticides [2]. In Thailand, acute poisoning remains a risk factor for pesticide use. We had 4001 pesticide-poisoning cases and 520 deaths during the period of October 2018 to June 2019 [2,3]. Little work has been done to investigate the potential for chronic health effects from pesticide use by farmers in Thailand. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 4178; doi:10.3390/ijerph17114178 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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