Development of Health Impact and Safety Prevention Model for Farmers Using Chemical Pesticides with Community Participation

Abstract

Farmers extensively use pesticides hurts their health and safety, and contamonates the environment. This study aimed to develop a health impact and safety prevention model for farmers using chemical pesticides with community participation in Ban Rom Pho Thong health promoting hospital, Wangyai district, Khon Kaen province. It was conducted in three phases. First Phase began with situation analysis; and farmers had access to information. A participated AIC meeting was conduced to construct a model for preventing health and safety hazards based on a sample of 195 persons and in-depth interviews with 15 network partners. In the Second Phase: the model was developed and implemented by organizing health impact, safety prevention behavior, and knowledge promotion activities. There was an experimental group of 40 subjects. For the Third Phase: the model was implemented and evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed by using Two Way ANOVA and One-Way MANOVA as well as the content analysis for qualitative data. The results revealed that 65.1% of farmers had moderate-level of knowledge. The overall health and safety impact prevention behaviors from pesticide use were at the incorrect level. (Mean=1.48, SD=0.22). The health impact and safety prevention model comprised three components: (1) concepts and principles of Cohen’s involvement idea and Afhoff and Rogers’ motivation for disease prevention; (2) organize training workshops handing out a manual innovation for reducing toxic waste, and (3) network partners to carry out activities to reduce health and safety impacts After experimenting with the pattern and following up. The experimental group had a significantly higher level of knowledge and behavior in preventing health and safety impacts from chemical pesticide use when compared to those before the model implementation (p<0.05). Serum cholinesterase test results found that: the normal blood level was significantly higher than before using the model. They were most satisfied with the improvement. Thus, network partners should be encouraged to participate in the program in order to prevent health risk and promote safety when using pesticides.