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Exposure to pesticides and health effects on farm owners and workers from conventional and organic agricultural farms in Costa Rica : Protocol for a cross-sectional study

Fuhrimann, Samuel ; Winkler, Mirko S. ; Staudacher, Philipp ; Weiss, Frederik T. ; Stamm, Christian ; Eggen, Rik I.L. ; Lindh, Christian H. LU orcid ; Menezes-Filho, José A. ; Baker, Joseph M. and Ramírez-Muñoz, Fernando , et al. (2019) In JMIR Research Protocols 8(1).
Abstract

Background: Pesticide use is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Costa Rica. This increase poses health risks to farm owners, farm workers, and communities living near agricultural farms. Objective: We aimed to examine the health effects associated with occupational pesticide exposure in farm owners and workers from conventional and organic smallholder farms in Costa Rica. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 300 owners and workers from organic and conventional horticultural smallholder farms in Zarcero County, Costa Rica. During the baseline study visit, we administered a structured, tablet-based questionnaire to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, pesticide exposure, and... (More)

Background: Pesticide use is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Costa Rica. This increase poses health risks to farm owners, farm workers, and communities living near agricultural farms. Objective: We aimed to examine the health effects associated with occupational pesticide exposure in farm owners and workers from conventional and organic smallholder farms in Costa Rica. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 300 owners and workers from organic and conventional horticultural smallholder farms in Zarcero County, Costa Rica. During the baseline study visit, we administered a structured, tablet-based questionnaire to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, pesticide exposure, and health conditions (eg, respiratory and allergic outcomes and acute pesticide intoxication symptoms) and administered a neurobehavioral test battery (eg, Finger Tapping Test and Purdue Pegboard); we measured blood pressure, anthropometry (height, weight, and waist circumference), and erythrocytic acetylcholinesterase activity and also collected urine samples. In addition, a functional neuroimaging assessment using near-infrared spectroscopy was conducted with a subset of 50 study participants. During the follow-up study visit (~2-4 weeks after the baseline), we administered participants a short questionnaire on recent pesticide exposure and farming practices and collected hair, toenail, and urine samples. Urine samples will be analyzed for various pesticide metabolites, whereas toenails and hair will be analyzed for manganese (Mn), a biomarker of exposure to Mn-containing fungicides. Self-reported pesticide exposure data will be used to develop exposure intensity scores using an exposure algorithm. Furthermore, exposure-outcome associations will be examined using linear and logistic mixed-effects regression models. Results: Fieldwork for our study was conducted between May 2016 and August 2016. In total, 113 farm owners and 187 workers from 9 organic and 83 conventional horticultural smallholder farms were enrolled. Data analyses are ongoing and expected to be published between 2019 and 2020. Conclusions: This study is one of the first to examine differences in health effects due to pesticide exposure between farm owners and workers from organic and conventional smallholder farms in an LMIC. We expect that this study will provide critical data on farming practices, exposure pathways, and how occupational exposure to pesticides may affect farm owners and workers’ health. Finally, we hope that this study will allow us to identify strategies to reduce pesticide exposure in farm owners and workers and will potentially lay the groundwork for a future longitudinal study of health outcomes in farm owners and workers exposed to pesticides.

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publication status
published
subject
keywords
Acetylcholinesterase, Agriculture, Costa Rica, Farm workers, Near-infrared spectroscopy, Neurobehavioral outcomes, Pesticide exposure assessment, Pesticides, Respiratory outcomes
in
JMIR Research Protocols
volume
8
issue
1
article number
e10914
publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85085364746
ISSN
1929-0748
DOI
10.2196/10914
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the study participants and staff (A Alfaro, C Hyland, A Campos, S Colombari, M Quirós-Lépiz, G Rodríguez, A Ulloa, and H Wey). We would also like to thank D Rojas for his support with the fNIRS assessments, C Wesseling and B van Wendel de Joode for their assistance with the questionnaire design, B Eskenazi for her insights on the neurobehavioral test selection, and Christian Schindler for his statistical support. This work was made possible by research supported by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica, Forschungsfonds of the University of Basel, and the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS). Publisher Copyright: © Samuel Fuhrimann, Mirko S Winkler, Philipp Staudacher, Frederik T Weiss, Christian Stamm, Rik IL Eggen, Christian H Lindh, José A Menezes-Filho, Joseph M Baker, Fernando Ramírez-Muñoz, Randall Gutiérrez-Vargas, Ana M Mora. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 25.01.2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
id
e550e08f-1ca6-478d-9811-18bff4b11e2a
date added to LUP
2023-09-26 10:34:22
date last changed
2023-09-26 12:05:17
@article{e550e08f-1ca6-478d-9811-18bff4b11e2a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Pesticide use is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Costa Rica. This increase poses health risks to farm owners, farm workers, and communities living near agricultural farms. Objective: We aimed to examine the health effects associated with occupational pesticide exposure in farm owners and workers from conventional and organic smallholder farms in Costa Rica. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 300 owners and workers from organic and conventional horticultural smallholder farms in Zarcero County, Costa Rica. During the baseline study visit, we administered a structured, tablet-based questionnaire to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, pesticide exposure, and health conditions (eg, respiratory and allergic outcomes and acute pesticide intoxication symptoms) and administered a neurobehavioral test battery (eg, Finger Tapping Test and Purdue Pegboard); we measured blood pressure, anthropometry (height, weight, and waist circumference), and erythrocytic acetylcholinesterase activity and also collected urine samples. In addition, a functional neuroimaging assessment using near-infrared spectroscopy was conducted with a subset of 50 study participants. During the follow-up study visit (~2-4 weeks after the baseline), we administered participants a short questionnaire on recent pesticide exposure and farming practices and collected hair, toenail, and urine samples. Urine samples will be analyzed for various pesticide metabolites, whereas toenails and hair will be analyzed for manganese (Mn), a biomarker of exposure to Mn-containing fungicides. Self-reported pesticide exposure data will be used to develop exposure intensity scores using an exposure algorithm. Furthermore, exposure-outcome associations will be examined using linear and logistic mixed-effects regression models. Results: Fieldwork for our study was conducted between May 2016 and August 2016. In total, 113 farm owners and 187 workers from 9 organic and 83 conventional horticultural smallholder farms were enrolled. Data analyses are ongoing and expected to be published between 2019 and 2020. Conclusions: This study is one of the first to examine differences in health effects due to pesticide exposure between farm owners and workers from organic and conventional smallholder farms in an LMIC. We expect that this study will provide critical data on farming practices, exposure pathways, and how occupational exposure to pesticides may affect farm owners and workers’ health. Finally, we hope that this study will allow us to identify strategies to reduce pesticide exposure in farm owners and workers and will potentially lay the groundwork for a future longitudinal study of health outcomes in farm owners and workers exposed to pesticides.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fuhrimann, Samuel and Winkler, Mirko S. and Staudacher, Philipp and Weiss, Frederik T. and Stamm, Christian and Eggen, Rik I.L. and Lindh, Christian H. and Menezes-Filho, José A. and Baker, Joseph M. and Ramírez-Muñoz, Fernando and Gutiérrez-Vargas, Randall and Mora, Ana M.}},
  issn         = {{1929-0748}},
  keywords     = {{Acetylcholinesterase; Agriculture; Costa Rica; Farm workers; Near-infrared spectroscopy; Neurobehavioral outcomes; Pesticide exposure assessment; Pesticides; Respiratory outcomes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{JMIR Publications Inc.}},
  series       = {{JMIR Research Protocols}},
  title        = {{Exposure to pesticides and health effects on farm owners and workers from conventional and organic agricultural farms in Costa Rica : Protocol for a cross-sectional study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/10914}},
  doi          = {{10.2196/10914}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}