Artículos científicos

URI permanente para esta colecciónhttp://10.0.96.45:4000/handle/11056/14755

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Pesticide Exposure and Respiratory Health of Indigenous Women in Costa Rica
(Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and American Journal of Epidemiology, 2009-02-18) Fieten, Karin; Kromhout, Hans; Heederik, Dick; van Wendel de Joode, Berna
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2007 to evaluate the relation between pesticide exposure and respiratory health in a population of indigenous women in Costa Rica. Exposed women (n ¼ 69) all worked at plantain plantations. Unexposed women (n ¼ 58) worked at organic banana plantations or other locations without pesticide exposure. Study participants were interviewed using questionnaires to estimate exposure and presence of respiratory symptoms. Spirometry tests were conducted to obtain forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in 1 second. Among the exposed, prevalence of wheeze was 20% and of shortness of breath was 36% versus 9% and 26%, respectively, for the unexposed. Prevalence of chronic cough, asthma, and atopic symptoms was similar for exposed and unexposed women. Among nonsmokers (n ¼ 105), reported exposures to the organophosphate insecticides chlorpyrifos (n ¼ 25) and terbufos (n ¼ 38) were strongly associated with wheeze (odd ratio ¼ 6.7, 95% confidence interval: 1.6, 28.0; odds ratio ¼ 5.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.4, 25.6, respectively). For both insecticides, a statistically significant exposure-effect association was found. Multiple organophosphate exposure was common; 81% of exposed women were exposed to both chlorpyrifos and terbufos. Consequently, their effects could not be separated. All findings were based on questionnaire data. No relation between pesticide exposure and ventilatory lung function was found.
Pesticide use in banana and plantain production and risk perception among local actors in Talamanca, Costa Rica
(Elsevier, 2011-07) Barraza, Douglas; Jansen, Kees; van Wendel de Joode, Berna; Wesseling, Catharina
The Talamanca County in Costa Rica has large-scale banana and small-scale plantain production, probably causing pesticide exposure in indigenous children. We explored to what extent different community actors are aware of children’s pesticide hazards and how their awareness related to socioeconomical and cultural conditions. Methods comprised eight focus groups with fathers and mothers separately, 27 semi-structured interviews to key actors, and field observations. As a whole, the indigenous plantain farmers and banana plantation workers had some general knowledge of pesticides concerning crop protection, but little on acute health effects, and hardly any on exposure routes and pathways, and chronic effects. People expressed vague ideas about pesticide risks. Inter-community differences were related to pesticide technologies used in banana and plantain production, employment status on a multinational plantation versus smallholder status, and gender. Compared to formalized practices on transnational company plantations, where workers reported to feel protected, pesticide handling by plantain smallholders was not perceived as hazardous and therefore no safety precautions were applied. Large-scale monoculture was perceived as one of the most important problems leading to pesticide risks in Talamanca on banana plantations, and also on neighboring small plantain farms extending into large areas. Plantain farmers have adopted use of highly toxic pesticides following banana production, but in conditions of extreme poverty. Aerial spraying in banana plantations was considered by most social actors a major determinant of exposure for the population living nearby these plantations, including vulnerable children. We observed violations of legally established aerial spraying distances. Economic considerations were most mentioned as the underlying reason for the pesticide use: economic needs to obtain the production quantity and quality, and pressure to use pesticides by other economic agents such as middlemen. Risk perceptions were modulated by factors such as people’s tasks and positions in the production process, gender, and people’s possibilities to define their own social conditions (more fatalistic perceptions among banana workers). The challenge for the future is to combine these insights into improved health risk assessment and management that is culturally adequate for each particular community and agricultural context.

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Examinando Artículos científicos por browse.metadata.procedence "Instituto Regional de Estudios en Sustancias Tóxicas, Universidad Nacional"