Abstract Pesticides are toxic chemicals commonly used in agriculture. No previous studies have been carried out to assess the respiratory health indicators among agricultural workers who are being continuously exposed to pesticides. So, this pilot study aims to determine the respiratory health effects of occupational exposure to pesticides for those workers in Palestine. A cross-sectional study was conducted in one district in Palestine as a pilot study. Lung function tests (LFTs) are measured using a spirometer. Forced spirometry was used to measure the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC), the FEV1/FVC ratios and prevalence of restrictive and obstructive lung diseases of the two groups were investigated and compared. A total of 98 workers were screened. Their mean age was 41.9 ± 13 years while the mean duration of exposure to agricultural chemicals was 27.8 ± 7.2 years. According to the type of lung status, 92% of the workers showed lung diseases, 80% were restrictive lung disease, 12% were obstructive lung disease and 8% of workers were normal. The mean FEV1 of the sample was 2.6 ± 0.8 compared with normal reference value of 3.9 ±0.6 [ P-value =0.010]. On the other hand, the mean FVC for the study sample was 3.2±1.4 compared with the normal reference value of 5 ± 0.6 [P-value =0.023]. The ratio of these two parameters was 85.4 ± 15.5 compared with a normal reference ratio of 79 ± 2.7 [ P-value=0.6 ].In this study, we concluded that agricultural workers who are exposed to pesticides suffer from variety of diseases that pose a serious risk to public health, mainly on the lung disease (mainly restrictive lung diseases). 

Title

Moroccan Journal of Chemistry

Publisher

Mohammed Premier University

Publisher Country

Morocco

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

0.552

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

5

Year

2017

Pages

266-271