Hazard of pesticides on the hearing of farmers.

Abstract

Introduction: As the population of world is increasing there is increased use of pes-ticides to enhance the crop production. Farmers are trying different types of chemi-cals to kill harmful germs, but they are exposing themselves to different hazards. Throughout the world insecticides are used to kill insects that harm crops. These insecticides are usually neurotoxic. They have a lethal effect on the nervous trans-mission. Peoples who are exposed to these poisons are also at great risk of neuro-toxic effects .Objective: To study the effects of pesticides on the hearing of the farmers. It was a retrospective and descriptive type of study which was conducted in the department of physiology in association with department of ENT.Methodology: This retrospective study done between Mar 2019 to Aug 2019 at ENT department of Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad. 100 subjects (50 study group having exposure to pesticides for at least five years, while 50 subjects as controls having no history of exposure to pesticides during last 5 years) were selected. The selected participants were subjected to a detailed otoscopic examination and if no other cause e.g. conductive deafness was found, the selection was finalized. The finalized participants were undergone through a comprehensive audiometric evalu-ation.Results: showed pesticide damages the hearing (P= .003). There was no link be-tween the age of farmers and hearing loss (1.00). It was found that as the duration of exposure increased the intensity of hearing loss increased (.001). It was also de-tected that that hearing loss was more frequent in nonprofessional than in profes-sionals (.001).Conclusion: This study revealed that pesticide affects sense of hearing in humans.
 Keywords: Pesticide, hearing loss, Farmers.