Knowledge and behavior regarding pesticide use: a survey among caregivers of children aged 1–6 years from rural China

Abstract

Little is known about pesticide exposure risks for children in rural areas in China, many of whom have been left behind by migrant workers. To survey caregivers of children in rural China and assess their pesticide use and disposal methods, the measures were used to protect the children and their perceptions of the adverse effects of pesticides on children’s health. Three or four villages in each of Xinhua, Gongan and Sansui Counties in China were selected by random cluster sampling. The main caregivers of children aged 1–6 years were surveyed in face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire used was adapted from the World Health Organization “Exposure to Pesticides: Standard Protocol” survey and similar studies. The study included 464 caregivers (mean age, 46.4 years), who were most commonly the children’s grandparents (65.3%). Among the caregivers, 41.9% were educated to middle school level or higher, 45.4% had a household income < 297 USD, and 29.7% had received education/training about pesticide use/adverse health effects in children. The score for caregivers’ knowledge of the adverse effects of pesticides on children’s health was higher in those who had received education/training (5.1 ± 2.6 vs. 3.4 ± 2.5, P < 0.001). Factors associated with unsafe behaviors during pesticide use included grandparent as the caregiver (odds ratio [OR] 0.551; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.368–0.824; P = 0.004), annual income < 297 USD (OR 0.580; 95% CI 0.395–0.853; P = 0.006), and insufficient health-related education/training (OR 0.436; 95% CI 0.286–0.665; P < 0.001). Improved education and training are needed to promote the safe use of pesticides by caregivers of children in rural China. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-019-05560-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Assessment on knowledge and perception regarding health risks of pesticide usage among farmers

“…The type of conduct with the personal health and hygiene while handling the pesticide was found that a majority 337(81.8%) of participants generally did not eat, drink, or smoke while applying pesticides though 75(18.2%) have a habit of eating, drinking or smoking as shown in Table 2. Similarly, in a study conducted by Deng et al [20], 78.6% do not eat, drink, or smoke during the pesticide application.…”

“…From our study, we had observed that 135(32.8%) farmers get knowledge from retailers, 179(43.4%) from co-farmers, 52(12.6%) from consultancies and 46(11.2%) from the government sector, about pesticides, including the new products. Deng et al [20] surveyed in Northern China and found that 34.5% of the respondents had received pesticide information from pesticide distributors, about 54.4% from co-workers, 41.1% from their own experience and 25.7%, 16.6% and 7.3% from TV, newspaper and internet respectively. Our study reports that only 98(23.7%) of the farmers will read the instructions given on the container or pamphlets but 314(76.3%) participants denied to read, as presented in Table 2 among them 124(39.4%) had the reason of small letter, 78(24.8%) was not interested to read the instructions, 57(18.1%) has no time to read, 27(8.5%) selected unknown language and 28(8.9%) don't know to read.…”

“…With a non-significant interest in the current study 46(45.5%) participants re-use containers of pesticide for storing food items or water as shown in Table 2. According to the study conducted by Mustapha and Mubushar et al [21], the common way of disposing of empty pesticide containers was placing them in garbage containers and/or dumpsters for disposal at the landfill (50%), incinerating them on the farm (43%), or delivering them to the municipality hazardous waste collection sites for disposal (39%) and the respondents (25%) [6], [20]- [30].…”

Chlorpyrifos residue level and ADHD among children aged 1–6 years in rural China: A cross-sectional study

“…These results indicate that CPF exposure is related to the environment in which the participants live as well as the methods used to assess their exposure. Furthermore, knowledge of pesticide use influences children's pesticide exposure, indicating the importance of caregiver awareness (27).…”

A miniaturized method for fast, simple, and sensitive pesticide analysis in soils

“…Particularly affected groups are subsistence farmers, who rely solely on food grown on their own land to feed themselves. Quite often, this coincides with a lack of knowledge on correct and safe handling, storage, application or disposal of pesticides or even the general hazards associated with these substances (Oesterlund et al 2014;Jallow et al 2017;Sapbamrer 2018;Ndayambaje et al 2019;Mubushar et al 2019;Deng et al 2019;Olisah et al 2020).…”