Pesticides and Health in Vegetable Production in Kenya

Abstract

The health effects of pesticide use have become one of the major public health problems worldwide. In developing countries, frequent exposure to pesticides by farmers and farm workers is very common [1–3]. The frequent exposures to pesticides result in both short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) illnesses. Scientifically confirmed pesticide-related acute illnesses include headaches, stomach pains, vomiting, skin rashes, respiratory problems, eye irritations, sneezing, seizures, and coma [4]. The chronic illnesses include cancer, asthma, dermatitis, endocrine disruption, reproductive dysfunctions, immunotoxicity, neurobehavioral disorders, and birth defects [5–13]. Furthermore, deaths resulting from direct exposure to pesticides are also common [14]. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimate pesticide poisoning rates at 2-3 per minute [14]. The largest numbers of pesticide poisonings and deaths are said to occur in developing countries [15]. It has been argued that pesticiderelated health issues constitute a serious threat to development and can easily reverse or undermine the gains made in agricultural growth [16]. Poor access to health services and the inability of medical professionals to recognize pesticiderelated morbidity raise further concerns [17]. Although pesticide-related poisoning is still not as high or more pronounced in Africa as in Asia, it is a growing problem as the increasing intensification of agricultural production with more widespread use of pesticides will result in possible increase in pesticide poisoning [18]. In Kenya, pesticide use and farmers health have been documented by some empirical studies [19–21]. However, these studies were based on a snap shot of cross-sectional surveys and a clear trend of poisoning is not well understood. In addition, only two studies looked at the determinants of pesticide-related acute poisoning symptoms among farmers [19, 20]. However, the problem is that pesticide poisoning effects on human are not random but rather depend on other unobserved characteristics such as genetic characteristic. Such effects cannot be captured with cross-sectional data as utilized in the above studies. Thus the true underlying causal relations may be very different, either larger or smaller, compared with those noted in those researches. The objective of this paper therefore is to examine the incidences and the determinants of acute pesticide poisoning among vegetable farmers in Kenya controlling for unobserved heterogeneity