How to protect agricultural workers from exposure to pesticides: Effectiveness of woven and natural resin-coated fabrics

Abstract

Agricultural workers in low and middle-income countries usually wear their everyday clothing made of woven fabrics during pesticide application. Different characteristics of various woven fabrics have different abilities to prevent the penetration of pesticides through to the skin. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this study is that agricultural workers in Thailand can choose a suitable fabric of protective clothing to protect themselves from pesticide exposure. This study aims to investigate pesticide penetration levels in different woven fabrics, and to explore factors affecting levels of pesticide penetration through fabrics. In addition, our study aims to produce cotton fabrics coated with a natural resin to obtain water-repellent characteristics and evaluate their effectiveness in protecting against pesticides. Four pesticides used in the testing process were chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, paraquat, and glyphosate. The results found that a suitable fabric to protect agricultural workers from pesticide exposure is a fabric which made of 100% cotton and have greater weight. With regard to natural resin-coated fabrics, fabric C1-R showed the highest levels of effectiveness in protecting against the pesticides (range between 89%-95%). The natural resin-coated fabric is an alternative fabric in the protection against pesticides for agricultural workers in low and middle-income countries when commercial PPE are prohibitively expensive.

Efficiency of Gum Rosin-Coated Personal Protective Clothing to Protect against Chlorpyrifos Exposure in Applicators

“…The results of the experiment by Naksata and Naksata (2016) showed that its water resistance lasted more than 24 h, and its contact angle of water repellency was greater than 120° [ 18 ]. The study by Sapbamrer et al [ 6 ] investigated the efficiency of denim fabric for protection against chlorpyrifos in a laboratory (a gravimetric method) according to the ISO 22608 standard and compared the efficiency of denim and gum rosin-coated denim. The findings revealed that the uncoated gum resin denim had a protective efficiency of 60.8% and the gum rosin-coated denim had a protective efficiency of 93.6%.…”

“…Therefore, some pesticides could penetrate through skin, depending on the types of pesticides and the characteristics of fabrics. Previous studies have indicated that types of fabric, weight, thickness, yarn twist, and wicking were all factors affecting pesticide penetration [ 6 , 27 ] Therefore, wearing everyday PPC for protecting against pesticides should be considered as unacceptable.…”

“…Although most pesticide handlers wore long-sleeved shirts and long trousers to protect themselves from dermal exposure to pesticides, these items of personal protective clothing (PPC) did not meet the standard for chemical protection. This PPC is usually made of woven fabric, therefore pesticides can pass through the skin, depending on the type of pesticide and the type and weight of the fabric [ 6 , 7 ]. Commercial PPC has proven to meet the standard for protection against chemicals, but pesticide handlers in low and middle-low-income countries cannot purchase commercial PPC because it is relatively expensive and is usually single-use (disposable).…”

Development of Pesticide Sprayer Robot Prototype for Chilli Farm Agricultural Application

“…Manual sprayer also requires a lot of personnel and results in an inefficient and inconsistent pesticide coating, requiring the use of more pesticides. On the other hand, some researchers discovered that direct exposure to pesticides and a lack of knowledge about personal protective equipment usage (coveralls, protective boots, glasses/goggles, gloves, respirator and hat) when handling pesticides in open fields or greenhouse could cause symptoms such as headaches, skin irritation, nausea, itchy eyes, dizziness, fatigue, coughing, poor vision, stomach ache, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, vomiting and increased risk of acute and chronic health effects include cancers [4,5,6]. Researchers claimed that the farm workers who spray with small hoses are more likely to develop occupational pesticide behaviors and lung cancer than those who spray with large hoses [5].…”