Valuation of Risk Factors Associated to the Handling and Exposure Habits of Organophosphates and Carbamates in Workers and Inhabitants of the Bateas District, Municipality of Tibacuy, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Valuation of risk factors associated to the handling and exposure habits of organophosphates and carbamates in workers and inhabitants of the Bateas District, Municipality of Tibacuy, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
The use of pesticides in agriculture has been a determinant for the control of plagues. Nevertheless, these chemical agents inadequate, especially by farmers, is reflected by its harmful effects on the human body, such as poisoning and death, mostly in underdeveloped countries. The present work had as its object to value the risk factors associated with the habits of handling of and exposure to organophosphate and carbamate pesticides by means of a structured questionnaire, the measurement of the cholinesterase activity and hematohidrosis parameters in workers and inhabitants of the Bateas District, Municipality of Tibacuy, Cundinamarca, Colombia, related to the presence of poisoning.
It was found that the most outstanding risk factors were the inadequate use of elements of personal protection and the nonevacuation previous to the fumigation. 100% of the participant population in the study had low levels of cholinesterase activity; between 0.056 pH/hour and 0.445 pH/hour in men and 0.052 pH/hour to 0.264 pH/hour in women, with an average value of 0.148 pH/hour (value of reference: men from 0.855 to 0.881 pH/hour, women from 0,836 to 0.859 pH/hour). Epidemiologic population studies are important, because they allow to value and to identify any phenomenon that is a risk for the well-being of a population.
