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Pesticide risk perceptions among bystanders of aerial spraying on bananas in Costa Rica.

ABSTRACT: Little is known about how bystanders perceive risks from pesticide use in areas with frequent aerial spraying of pesticides. This research aims to better understand how bystanders (school workers) from three counties of the Limón province in Costa Rica, who did not have a contractual relationship with agricultural production, perceive risks of pesticides in the areas where they work and live. A face-to-face survey was carried out among 475 school workers, of whom 455 completed all 33 questions on pesticide risk perception. An exploratory factor analysis characterized underlying perceptions of pesticide exposure. Nine factors explained 40% of total variance and concerned severity and magnitude of perceived risk, manageability, benefits and support of pesticide use, amongst others. We subsequently analyzed what variables explained the five factors with satisfactory internal consistency, using separate multivariable linear regression models. Older school workers, (male) elementary teachers, and women school workers (particularly from schools situated near agricultural fields with aerial spraying of pesticides), felt greater severity and/or magnitude of risk from pesticide use. This study shows that bystanders are concerned about health risks from pesticide use. Their risk perceptions are not only shaped by gender and age like previously reported in the literature, but also by job title and geographical context. Understanding of what hazards people care about and how they deal with them is essential for successful risk management, bystanders should therefore be considered as a relevant actor in debates around pesticide issues and for informing the development of regulations and risk reduction strategies.

SUBMITTER: Barraza D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7529952 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundPrevious epidemiological studies have reported associations of pesticide exposure with poor cognitive function and behavioral problems. However, these findings have relied primarily on neuropsychological assessments. Questions remain about the neurobiological effects of pesticide exposure, specifically where in the brain pesticides exert their effects and whether compensatory mechanisms in the brain may have masked pesticide-related associations in studies that relied purely on neuropsychological measures.MethodsWe conducted a functional neuroimaging study in 48 farmworkers from Zarcero County, Costa Rica, in 2016. We measured concentrations of 13 insecticide, fungicide, or herbicide metabolites or parent compounds in urine samples collected during two study visits (approximately 3-5 weeks apart). We assessed cortical brain activation in the prefrontal cortex during tasks of working memory, attention, and cognitive flexibility using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We estimated associations of pesticide exposure with cortical brain activation using multivariable linear regression models adjusted for age and education level.ResultsWe found that higher concentrations of insecticide metabolites were associated with reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex during a working memory task. For example, 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy; a metabolite of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos) was associated with reduced activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (β = -2.3; 95% CI: -3.9, -0.7 per two-fold increase in TCPy). Similarly, 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA; a metabolite of pyrethroid insecticides) was associated with bilateral reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (β = -3.1; 95% CI: -5.0, -1.2 and -2.3; 95% CI: -4.5, -0.2 per two-fold increase in 3-PBA for left and right cortices, respectively). These associations were similar, though weaker, for the attention and cognitive flexibility tasks. We observed null associations of fungicide and herbicide biomarker concentrations with cortical brain activation during the three tasks that were administered.ConclusionOur findings suggest that organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides may impact cortical brain activation in the prefrontal cortex - neural dynamics that could potentially underlie previously reported associations with cognitive and behavioral function. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the feasibility and utility of fNIRS in epidemiological field studies.

Project description:Pesticides are used globally in agriculture and pose a threat to the health of farmers, communities, and the environment. Smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries have generally a low socio-economic status and educational level. Consequently, they are particularly vulnerable to negative impacts of pesticides on their health, yields, or land. In a Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices study, we compared the pest management practices between a market-oriented farming system in Zarcero County, Costa Rica, and a subsistence-based farming system in Wakiso District, Uganda. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among smallholder farmers from Costa Rica (n = 300) in 2016 and from Uganda (n = 302) in 2017. We enrolled conventional and organic farmers, but also farmers with mixed practices and non-applicators of any pest management strategy. We found that the majority of pesticides used in both case studies are classified as highly hazardous by the World Health Organization. While more than 90% of smallholder farmers from both countries were aware of the negative health effects of pesticide exposure, <11% in Costa Rica and <2% in Uganda reported using personal protective equipment every time they handled or applied pesticides. Hygiene and other safe use practices were not adopted by all farmers (<61%), especially among farmers applying more hazardous pesticides. Conventional farmers from Costa Rica (14%) and Uganda (19%) reported disposing pesticide residuals into rivers. Using a logistic regression we found that organic farmers were more likely to having been trained on safe pesticide use practices. Using a robust regression, we observed that smallholder household income was primarily driven by education and not directly by the use of synthetic pesticides. Our results suggest that negative effects of pesticides can be managed over the whole life cycle, from purchase, via storage and application to residual and waste management by fostering professionalization of farmers. We advise future safe use and handling interventions to consider the pesticide use-related socioeconomic and demographic findings highlighted in this paper.

Project description:This study aimed to investigate the residual characteristics of pesticides drifted by unmanned aerial spray according to buffer strip, windbreak, and morphological characteristics of non-target crops, suggest prevention for drift reduction, and finally conduct a risk analysis on pesticides exceeding the maximum residue limit (MRL) or uniform level (0.01 mg/kg) of the positive list system (PLS). Non-target crops were collected around the aerial sprayed area (paddy rice) in Boryeong, Seocheon, and Pyeongtaek after UAV spray. When pesticides were detected in more than three samples, Duncan's multiple range test was performed. In cases where pesticides were detected in only two samples, an independent sample t-test was conducted (p < 0.05). The drift rate of pesticides tends to decrease by up to 100% as the buffer distance from aerial sprayed area increases or when a windbreak, such as maize, is present between two locations. Thus, the reduction of drifted pesticides could be effective if both factors were applied near the UAV spray area. Moreover, the residue of drifted pesticides was found to be the highest in leafy vegetables such as perilla leaves or leaf and stem vegetables such as Welsh onion, followed by fruit vegetables and cucurbits, owing to the morphological characteristics of crops. Therefore, selecting pulse or cereal such as soybean or maize as a farm product near the UAV spray area can be considered to minimize the drift. For pesticides that exceed the MRL or PLS uniform level, %acceptable dietary intake is 0-0.81% with no risk. Additionally, employing pesticides approved for both paddy rice and farm products in UAV spraying can effectively minimize instances where MRL or PLS are exceeded. Therefore, this study aims to provide farmers with effective guidelines for mitigating drift. Furthermore, we strive to promote stable and uninterrupted food production while facilitating the utilization of agricultural technologies such as UAV spraying to address labor shortages and ensure sustainable food security.

Project description:Rationale: MicroRNAs have emerged as crucial post-transcriptional and network regulators in inflammatory diseases, including asthma. We hypothesized that peripheral blood miRNA would be associated with airflow obstruction in children with asthma, and that some of these effects would also be observable in adults with COPD. Methods: We analyzed small RNA-Seq data from 365 peripheral blood samples from the Genetics of Asthma in Costa Rica Study (GACRS). GACRS comprised children from the Central Valley of Costa Rica age 6-14 years with physician-diagnosed asthma and ≥2 respiratory symptoms or asthma attacks in the prior year. FEV1/FVC percent-predicted was dichotomized at 100%, splitting the cohort into those with and without evidence of airflow obstruction and used as our primary outcome. Differentially expressed (DE) miRs were identified using the DESeq2 package in R with a 10% FDR and adjustment for age, gender, and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use. We attempted to replicate the top airflow obstruction-associated microRNAs from the GACRS study in the COPDGene study, in which blood microRNA data were available in 439 current and former smoking adults with and without airflow obstruction (defined as raw FEV1/FVC < 0.7). Results: After QC, we had 361 samples and 649 miRs for DE analysis. Of the 361 samples, 220 and 141 were from subjects without and with airflow obstruction, respectively. We found 1 upregulated (let-7e-5p p=0.0004) and 2 downregulated (miR-342-3p p=0.0002; miR-671-5p p=0.0001) miRs in subjects with airflow obstruction compared to those without airflow obstruction. These three miRNAs were then tested for association with airflow obstruction in the COPDGene study, in which let-7e-5p was upregulated (p = 0.064) and miR-342-3p (p =0.085) was downregulated in participants with FEV1/FVC < 0.7 (n=196) compared to those with FEV1/FVC > 0.7 (n=243). Differentially expressed miR’s target genes were enriched for PI3K-Akt, Hippo, WNT, MAPK, and focal adhesion signaling pathways. We also separately considered the targets of only the two miRNAs that were also associated with FEV1/FVC in the adult current and former smokers, where PI3K-Akt, MAPK and Hippo signaling pathways were among the top five most enriched pathways. Conclusion: Three DE miRs were linked to airflow obstruction in children with asthma. Two miRs were associated with FEV1/FVC in current and former smoking adults. These miRs were involved in asthma and COPD-related pathways: PI3K-Akt, Hippo, MAPK, and focal adhesion signaling pathways. Together these findings provide important evidence that these two disorders may share genetic regulatory systems that contribute to airflow obstruction.

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Pesticide risk perceptions among bystanders of aerial spraying on bananas in Costa Rica.

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