Pesticide usage and greenhouse workers in Narlıdere and Balcova district

Pesticide Usage and Greenhouse Workers in Narhdere and Balçova District ABSTRACT Pesticides are chemical materials that has been widely used especially after Second World War in order to increase the quality and quantity of agricultural products. This increase in their consumption leads harmful effects on environment and human health. Health problems those associated with pesticides are in the fields of public and health preventive medicine but the production, sales and consumption of this materials which are harmful for health have medico-legal aspects. Human health problems due to the occupational and environmental exposures to these chemicals subject to many medico-legal problems. As in other developing countries there is no reliable data about the usage of pesticides in our country. In this study we performed a face to face questionnaire with 131 people working at the greenhouses of Narhdere and Balçova region of İzmir city. All the data obtained evaluated by a computer based statistical program. None of the workers had legal records, 63.8 % had primary school education, 49.2 % of them were living at the same agricultural area, 46.2 % were the owner of the greenhouse and 42.3 % had medical insurance. The worker himself applied pesticides with a ratio 86.9 %. Unfortunately 59.3 % of the workers did no used to have protective materials while their application during appliance. There were no record about the application method, site, amount, duration and other useful information of the pesticides. As a conclusion, we mentioned that legal and educational needs of the pesticide applicators should be discussed on the basis of reliable data about the subject. Key words; Pesticides, chronic exposure, greenhouse's workers, occupational exposure, medicolegal approache.