Abstract
BackgroundAdverse health effects caused by pesticide exposure have been reported in occupied Palestinian territory and the world at large. The objective of this paper is to compare patterns of pesticide use in Beit-U'mmar village, West Bank, between 1998 and 2006.MethodsWe studied two populations in Beit-U'mmar village, comprised of: 1) 61 male farmers and their wives in 1998 and 2) 250 male farmers in 2006. Both populations completed a structured interview, which included questions about socio-demographic factors, types of farming tasks, as well as compounds, quantities, and handling of pesticides. Using the 1998 population as a reference, we applied generalized linear regression models (GLM) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) in order to estimate prevalence differences (PD) between the two populations.ResultsIn 1998, farmers used 47 formulated pesticides on their crops. In 2006, 16 of these pesticides were still in use, including five internationally banned compounds. There were positive changes with less use of large quantities of pesticides (>40 units/year) (PD -51; CI -0.60, -0.43), in applying the recommended dosage of pesticides (PD +0.57; CI +0.48, +0.68) and complying with the safety period (PD +0.89; CI+0.83, +0.95). Changes also included farmers' habits while applying pesticides, such as less smoking (PD -0.20; CI-0.34, -0.07) and eating at the work place (PD -0.33; CI-0.47, -0.19). No significant changes were found from 1998 to 2006 regarding use of personal protective equipment, pesticide storage, farmers' habits after applying pesticides, and in using some highly hazardous pesticides.ConclusionsThe results were based on two cross-sectional surveys and should be interpreted with caution due to potential validity problems. The results of the study suggest some positive changes in the handling of pesticides amongst participants in 2006, which could be due to different policy interventions and regulations that were implemented after 1998. However, farm workers in Beit -U'mmar village are still at risk of health effects because of ongoing exposure to pesticides. To the best of our knowledge, no studies on long-term changes in pesticide use have been reported from developing countries.
Highlights
Adverse health effects caused by pesticide exposure have been reported in occupied Palestinian territory and the world at large
To the best of our knowledge, no studies on long-term changes in pesticide use have been reported from developing countries
They included identical questions on agricultural and farming activities, such as the number of years working in agriculture; the types of farming tasks performed; the number of years farmers had been using pesticides; the total quantity of pesticides applied per year; the frequency with which pesticides were applied annually; the length of time that pesticides were applied per hour/year; the type of spraying equipment used; and the type of cultivated crops where pesticides were used (Table 2), the names of the most commonly used pesticides were provided (Table 3)
Summary
Adverse health effects caused by pesticide exposure have been reported in occupied Palestinian territory and the world at large. Exposure to pesticides may result in acute and chronic health problems, including temporary acute effects like irritation of eyes and excessive salivation, as well as chronic diseases like cancer and reproductive and developmental disorders [7]. In oPt, agriculture contributes to 33% and 24% of the Gross National Products (GNP) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, respectively [20]. In the Gaza Strip, it is estimated that the annual use of pesticides, including some pesticides which have been suspended or banned for use in different parts of the world [12,18,19,20,21], exceeds 250 metric tonnes, in addition to 1000 metric tonnes of methyl bromide. In the West Bank in 1995, 123 different pesticide compounds with a total quantity of approximately 730 tonnes were used [22]
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