Evaluation and Comparison of Self-Protection Behaviors of Farmers on Pesticides Usage in Eastern Provinces of Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study and evaluate self-protection behaviors of agriculturists against pesticides use in 8 Eastern provinces of Thailand under the responsibility of the Office of Disease Prevention and Control Region 6, which included Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat, Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, Prachinburi, and Sa Kaeo. The samples were 1,860 agriculturalists ramdomly selected from the 8 provinces. Data were collected by using questionnaire to obtain information on self-protection behaviors during pesticide use. It was found that the samples in 4 provinces were at moderate level with regard to pesticide mixing, with the scores 50% and above while samples from the other 4 provinces were at lower level which must have been improved. As for the self-protection behaviors during pesticide spraying, the samples in 5 provinces were at the 'must-be-improved' level, with the score lower than 50%; and 'must be urgently improved' in 3 provinces as the score was lower than 25%. For self-protection behavior after pesticide spraying, the samples from 2 provinces were at the 'must-be-im-proved' level, while the other 6 provinces needed urgent improvement. It was noticed that most samples had correct practice in pesticide mixing, but ignored the correct practices during and after pesticide spray-ing. The authors recommended that efforts should be paid to promote the development or innovations to improve knowledge and awareness on the harm and health hazards from the use of pesticides.