Human health costs of pesticide use among smallholder farmers in cotton zones of Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa

Abstract

While precautionary efforts are being made to minimize human health problems associated with agricultural pesticides, the continued oc- currence of occupational poisoning from these chemicals raises major concerns among stake- holders. Information gap on human health problems associated with pesticides poses major obstacles to making informed policy de- cisions, particularly in developing countries where most of the poisonings occurs. In this study, we identified acute human health symp- toms associated with pesticide use in cotton zone of Côte d’Ivoire and, documented the re- sponse of rural households to the symptoms. The results show that cotton farmers in Cote d’Ivoire suffer from different occupational health hazards from exposure to agricultural pesticides. Key health symptoms reported by pesticide applicators are headache, rheum, cough, skin rash and sneezing. Pesticide ap- plicators reported four times higher symptoms of ill health than other household members who do not normally handle pesticides. Although, households recognized pesticides as an im- portant cause of ill health, some of the symp- toms have been accepted as norm by individu- als who apply pesticides. Official data on pesti- cide poisoning in the country is most likely to be seriously under-estimated as applicators visited formal health centers for medical assis- tance in only 2% of poisoning cases reported. There is a high likelihood that households in the study area under-estimated pesticide-related health costs in making farm production deci- sion-making. Approaches to use economic in- struments for reliable monitoring and reporting procedures to formulate appropriate policies and regulations to minimize exposure to pesti-cides are recommended. Health planners and policy makers should aim at reducing the risks posed by pesticide to farm households by, im- proving awareness of farmers; promote com- plementary approach (e.g. Integrated Pest Management) and, use of economic instruments and improved surveillance to bridge the gap in the documentation of pesticide poisoning cases among farmers