PESTICIDE EXPOSURE INDEX: PRACTICES AMONG WOMEN FROM AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY IN SOUTHEAST MEXICO

Abstract

The adverse effects of pesticides on public health have been well documented in different populations across the world. Families of agricultural workers, particularly their wives, face pesticide exposures through a number of complex patterns even when they do not directly engage in agricultural work. Nonetheless, these patterns of exposure among women in agricultural communities remain understudied. Unfortunately, in Mexico there are no studies examining these patterns yet. In consequence, the main goals of this study were to: 1) evaluate pesticide exposure in a rural community of Southeast Mexico, 2) examine the patterns of environmental and para-occupational pesticide exposure, and 3) document the para-occupational and environmental pesticide exposure among women who are not agricultural workers but have an agricultural family or are wives of agricultural workers. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 78 women who did not themselves participate in any agricultural activity, but lived in an agricultural community. Questionnaires and interviews were used to construct a Pesticide Exposure Index (PEI) estimating the degree of pesticide exposure among women from agricultural families and wives of agricultural workers. Through the PEI we showed that women living in agricultural communities using pesticides are inherently exposed to a certain level of pesticides. With the PEI we showed that women from agricultural families, especially wives of agricultural workers, have a long-term para-occupational pesticide exposure that should not be underestimated because they are not agricultural workers.