One of the principal aims of the survey was to assess the underst

One of the principal aims of the survey was to assess the understanding by the surveyed group of pesticide applicators and farmers of five user precautions that Selleckchem Dabrafenib Syngenta and other manufacturers consider are key steps to the safe and effective application of pesticides (http://​www.​croplifeasia.​org/​ref_​library/​croplifeAsia/​AgroLinksDec2007​.​pdf). The knowledge gained from the survey was intended to be used to identify gaps in future training programmes. The five key steps of such safe use training are as follows: 1. Awareness

of the risks associated with pesticide use and exercising caution at all times.   2. Reading and understanding the instructions provided on the product label.   3. Good personal hygiene.   4. Care and maintenance of application equipment.   5. Ku-0059436 in vivo Knowledge of the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed when using pesticides, and understanding that PPE should be a last line of defence to avoid exposure after taking steps 1 to 4.   Dasgupta et al. (2007) noted that information on the health impact of pesticides is quite limited in many developing countries and much of it is based on surveys of self-reported signs and symptoms. Typically, these investigations have been small in size and have measured health impact and agrochemical relatedness of symptoms in a wide variety

of ways (Chitra et al. 2006; Yassin et al. 2002; Kishi et al. 1995; Kishi 2002; Lu 2005; Culp et al. 2007; Ntow et al. 2006; Mancini et al. 2005), making it difficult to compare health impacts in different groups of users.

Some surveys have been less reliant on self-reported measures of health impact, but most of those have focused on exposure to organophosphates (Dasgupta et al. 2007; London et al. 1998; Gomes et al. 1999; Ngowi et al. 2001). The survey described in this report Smoothened collected a wide range of information about the health impact of agrochemicals and the behaviour of large groups of users from a wide variety of developing countries and a number of regions in developed countries where agrochemical practices are less well developed. The survey also targeted users who are expected to be at the highest risk of exposure. Information on self-reported signs and symptoms was collected in the present survey, but it was collected in a uniform manner, although some of the smaller surveys have been able to collect more specific information on incidents and exposure circumstances. Matthews (2008) concluded that most users had a working knowledge of the requirements for safe use and also concluded that a high proportion were able to achieve this as indicated by the low numbers of incidents affecting their health. The present report looks in greater detail at the causes and types of health incidents reported by users and aims to assess whether the five key steps described above do help to prevent such health incidents.

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