Tag: AWs: Agricultural Workers

Abstract BackgroundAgricultural work is subject to the health risks inherent to a rural environment and at the same time to those deriving from the specific work process involved. India being a country of agriculture, majority of its population is engaged in agriculture based activities in a varied manner either directly or indirectly. This sector of activity being most unorganized, very little attention has been given to the occupational health problems of these workers.Objectives1) To find out the magnitude of cases of agricultural poisoning2) To find out the protective measures being used by the AWs 3) To give the necessary recommendations.MethodologyIt is a Cross-Sectional study. The study was conducted from the period of June 2009 to December 2011.Data collection was done through asking questionnaire from the patients/relatives; clinical examination and clinical case records of the patients. Data was analyzed in the form of percentage (%) and presented in the tabular form. Chi- square (χ2) test was applied as a test of significance with the help of statistical software SPSS statistics (version- 17)ResultsTotal 305 patients of agricultural poisoning were studied, out of these 181 (59.34%) were males and 124(40.66%) were females. Majority (69.84%) of the respondents have some kind of addiction. Majority of the cases of insecticide poisoning were due to OPP (44.97%), followed by Amitraz compound (22.15%), Organochlorine compounds (18.79%), Pyrethrins and Pyrethroids (7.38%) and least cases of Carbamates poisoning (6.71%). Only 15.08% were using any kind of PPE. [avf_view name="Article Addons" view-id="66d98451c48e3"]