Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Pesticide Exposure in Agriculture

Abstract

The harmful effects of acute pesticide poisoning have been well documented as an established hazard of agricultural work, while the evidence of the association between chronic pesticide exposure and health consequences, continues to emerge. Despite many pesticides have been banned or restricted in several developed countries, exposures to these toxic agents are still occurring in most of the developing world. The objective of this review is to determine the effectiveness of educational interventions designed to reduce exposure to pesticides in order to prevent health effects in agricultural workers. Intervention approaches to prevent pesticide exposure in agriculture vary vastly from country to country probably depending on the level of development achieved. Although many of the papers on educational safety interventions reported some positive results, the availability of randomized controlled trials for this topic is limited and several interventions exclusively measured changes in attitudes or knowledge of participants, with scarce efforts to determine if there was a consistent reduction in pesticide exposure.
We conclude that although educational interventions show some efficacy at raising participants’ awareness of pesticide risks, studies using better quality educational approaches are needed.