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Kyoung-Mu Lee, School of Public Health, Seoul National Universuty, Seoul, Korea, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea, Seoul, 110799, South Korea, 82-2-740-8397, kmlee92@snu.ac.kr and Moon-Ho Chung, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, 28 Youngon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea, Seoul, 110-799, South Korea.
To provide the basic data on the pesticide use and pesticide exposure among the farmers, a cross sectional survey was conducted in Korea (Jul.-Sep. 1999). Study subjects (n=412) were the male farmers who spray pesticide in Kyoung-Ju area, Korea. Information on pesticide use, risk perception, chronic symptoms, acute symptoms while pesticide spraying, pesticide intoxication accident, safety rules, and protective equipment was collected by self-administered questionnaire. The proportion of those who have special location for pesticides storage was only 5%, and that of those who lock the storage location was only 14%. As to the treatment of bottles after use, most common response was 'store in home' (61%), and as to the treatment of vinyl packages after use, those who 'burn in home' (48%) were most common. Organophosphates and carbamates were used most commonly and 'Herbicide (Paraquat)' (38%) was accepted as the most hazardous. The acute symptoms were 'itching sense of skin' (51%), 'dizziness/headache' (51%), 'fatigue' (45%), and 'eye glaring' (39%) etc. Among safety rules, 'change clothes after spraying' (90%) and 'take a bath after spraying' (89%) were kept relatively well, and for protective equipments, hat (92%), boots (87%), mask (89%), and protective clothes (lower) (84%) were put on relatively well. The factors associated with acute pesticide poisoning were the extent of keeping safety rules, spraying time, orchard cultivation, agricultural area, and spraying days per year. And the factors associated with chronic symptoms were acute symptoms while pesticide spraying, agricultural area, farming career, extent of keeping safety rules, extent of agricultural work, pesticide exposure index.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Pesticide Exposure, Agricultural Work Safety
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.