Community monitoring for the surveillance of exposure to the use of pesticides in Paraguay 2018

Abstract

Within the CONACYT Project "Building socio-environmental and public health standards with the primary sector to increase competitiveness in the markets PIN15-1103.CONACYT/ALTER VIDA” a Community Monitoring Questionnaire was applied for the exhibition and possible impacts on health for the use of pesticides, the objective of this article is to validate the community monitoring questionnaire and present the data of the field work. The design of the study was observational and descriptive, taking two communities dedicated to agricultural production, one in Caaguazú and the other in San Pedro. The sampling was not probabilistic by snowball comprising those exposed to pesticides in both selected districts, with a maximum distance of 1 kilometre to crops or plantations. The variables analyzed include filiation's data, use and exposure of agrochemicals, use of personal protection equipment, and management of pesticide residues, training, and health. Cronbach's alpha was also applied to study the reliability of the instrument. All analyzes were done with SPSS 25. In conclusion, it has been detected that the management in the use of agrochemicals in the analyzed population must be reinforced in several areas, from training, management in use, final disposal, among others. The instrument has good internal consistency.