Abstract:
Background: The aim of the present study was to assess whether long-term exposure to pesticides is associated
with adverse health effects in professional pesticide sprayers.
Methods: The study was conducted in Lake Eyasi Basin and Ngarenanyuki in Arusha region, during the dry
season in September-October 2013. In a cross-sectional study, 97 short-term exposed men with at most three months
as professional sprayers were compared with 60 long-term exposed men with experience of at least five years as
professional sprayers. The study participants were aged 18-30 years, drawn from the same source population and
interviewed using semi structured questionnaire. The questions focused on spraying procedures and on present and
recurrent medical history including presence of selected six known pesticide induced health conditions.
Results: Organophosphates, carbamates, dithiocarbamates and pyrethroids were the most applied insecticides
but also organochlorine fungicides and endosulfan were frequently applied. The majority of the sprayers reported
unsafe pesticide use. Mean pesticide uses in litres, spray frequency per crop and per week were 637, and 1.3
respectively for about 270 days a year. Respiratory disease symptoms were the most frequently reported (46/157;
29.3%) followed by skin (27/157; 17.2%), and sight (24/157; 15.3%). When adjusted for age and other predictors,
long-term exposed sprayers had significantly higher self-reported occurrences of peripheral neuropathy (OR=7.7,
CI95%: 1.045-56.728, p=0.045) and respiratory disorders (OR=0.2, CI95%: 0.067-0.501, p=0.001) compared
with short-term exposed. Furthermore, 10 sprayers, all long-term exposed reported poor libido and erection
problems. Conclusions: These findings document lack of safety knowledge, safe pesticide management and the
implementation of protective measures as well as suggesting that long-term exposure to pesticides increase the risk
of experience disease conditions compared to short-term exposure.
