Moreira, A.; da Silva, M.V. Pesticide Application as a Risk Factor/Behaviour for Workers’ Health: A Systematic Review. Environments2023, 10, 160.
Moreira, A.; da Silva, M.V. Pesticide Application as a Risk Factor/Behaviour for Workers’ Health: A Systematic Review. Environments 2023, 10, 160.
Moreira, A.; da Silva, M.V. Pesticide Application as a Risk Factor/Behaviour for Workers’ Health: A Systematic Review. Environments2023, 10, 160.
Moreira, A.; da Silva, M.V. Pesticide Application as a Risk Factor/Behaviour for Workers’ Health: A Systematic Review. Environments 2023, 10, 160.
Abstract
The main objective of this review is to determine the main risks that agricultural workers are exposed to during pesticide application, which may have a harmful effect on their health and on public health. This systematic review was based on the PRISMA guidelines. A search for articles was conducted in the Medline/PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases. Fifteen articles were selected considering their assessment of agricultural workers' knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, practices, and behaviours, identifying the main risks and risk factors for disease associated with the unsafe handling of pesticides. The main risk factors identified were age, education, pesticide safety training, farming experience, and contact with other farmers/intermediaries resulting in pesticide access. The most frequent risk behaviours were: application of pesticides without personal protective equipment (PPE), incorrect disposal of empty packaging and waste, and undervaluation of label information, as well as other unsafe practices. A multidisciplinary and more effective training must be delivered in order to enhance pesticide safe usage. This will empower workers to adopt more conscious and safer behaviours while using pesticides.
Keywords
behaviour, pesticides, food safety, environmental and occupational exposure, agricultural workers.
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Sustainable Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
