Assessment and consequences of pesticides on the health of the population of Mala

Abstract

Background In Peru, the use of pesticides is very common in the agricultural sector to protect crop varieties, which in turn causes damage to human health due to their toxic effects. The objective of this study was to assess the consequences of pesticides on the health of the population of Mala, Peru Methods This was a non-experimental, descriptive and cross-sectional study. A total of 315 inhabitants of the District of Mala between the ages of 18 and 50 years were evaluated. The method used was a survey and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire. Results The pesticide most frequently used by farmers was Malathion (43.5%), followed by Clopyrifos (17.5%), Dicrotophos (14.6%) and finally Carbofuran (14%). The most frequent main symptoms of pesticide use were nausea (17.5%) and salivation (10.2%). Exposure time ranged from 30 minutes (23.8%) to 2 hours (16.8%). Conclusions Malathion (43.5%) was found to be the most commonly used pesticide by farmers in Mala and the main symptom of pesticide use was headache (55.9%).