and Integrated Pest Management - part - usaid

328 PI.ZScTI)EN MIANAGMI.1N-I' ANDIPII INSOt'IlElAS'IA
in manufacture, formulation, and parking of pesticides. Such methods are time
,onsuming, expensive and need to be well planned. Further, within each
category of workers exists great variations o' work practices and exposure to
pesticides, a feature which is particularly important if attempts are to be made to
exiralpolite the findings of a study in a given situation. A recent study
undertaken by Jeyaratnam et al. (1987) among a community of agricultural
workcrs in Indoncsia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand (Table 1)indicated that
the problem was quite extensive, confirming the view that hospital records only
show a fraction of the real problem.
CONTROL OF ACUTE PESTICIDE POISONING
Finally, the purpose of collecting any data is to identify the factors causing
the problem in order that action be instituted to contain the problem. Studies
(lone in the Southeast Asian region show that the major factors contributing to
"cute pesticide poisoning, particularly among occupational groups, are (i) lack of
knowledge among users, (ii) poor implementation of existing legislative
controls, (iii) lack of practical protective clothing for pesticide users, (iv) poor
maintenance of spray equipmint, and (v) unnecessary use of pesticide mixtures.
A strategy needs to be developed to remedy the identified deficiencies in order to
contain the problem of acute pesticide poisoning. Often the problem
encountered is to esiablish in the minds of decision makers the importance of and
the urgency to control the problem of acute pesticide poisoning. This is
particularly so in Ministries of Hcadth as they often believe that other health
problems have a greater priority. This is not necessarily correct, as studies in
Sri Lanka (Jeyaratnamn et al. 1982) have shown that the problem of acute
pesticide poisoning is greater than those health problems traditionally recognized
as being important. Farinstance, in 1978 more than 1000 deaths were due to
acute pesticide poisoning, whereas a total of only 572 deaths were due to
poliomyeli6ps, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, while malaria did not
cause a single death.
Table 1. Percentage of workers with pesticide poisoning among agricultural
workers and pesticide users (Jeyaratnam et al. 1987).
Country %agricultural %agricultural %pesticide %pesticide
workers ever workers users ever users
Poisoned poisond/yeara poisoned poisoned/yeara
Indonesia 4.1 0.08 13.8 0.3
Malaysia 13.3 6.7 14.5 7.3
Sri Lanka 4.6 2.7 11.9 7.1
Thailand 8.1 NA 19.4 NA
;INA = data not available