Safety Measures, Pesticide Concerns and Resources Utilized among Young Adult Workers: A Brief Report

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Resources on pesticide information are widely available; however, little is known about the concerns young agricultural workers have about pesticides, whether they use existing resources to find information about pesticides, and how these resources influence safety behaviors such as personal protective equipment (PPE) use.

Objectives

To examine demographic characteristics, safety measures, concerns about pesticide use and resources for pesticide information.

Methods

Young agricultural workers were recruited through three collegiate agricultural programs and completed an online questionnaire related to pesticide safety and use.

Results

Most participants who applied pesticides reported always wearing gloves (60.5%), using a tractor with an enclosed cab (68.4%), and always wearing long pants (76.3%). Among all participants, pesticide drift to crops (65.1%) and water contamination (62.3%) were the biggest concerns among young agricultural workers. The internet was the most utilized source to locate information about pesticides (76.4%), with the most common internet resources being online materials from universities or colleges (71.6%), the government (69.1%), or pesticide companies (66.7%). Accessibility (90.6%) and speed (78.3%) were the most common reasons for using the internet for information. Misinformation was the most common barrier (80.2%).

Conclusions

Future studies should examine the accuracy and accessibility of pesticide information available on the internet since young adult workers rely on these resources for pesticide information.

KEYWORDS:

• Pesticide information
• young adult workers
• agriculture
• pesticides
• internet

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Marsha Cheyney for her assistance in developing the survey questions and Dr. Jonathan Davis who helped with developing the methods for analyzing the survey data. We would also like to thank the collegiate institutions involved for helping recruit participants for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Fellowship support was provided by the Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety at the University of Iowa through Training Grant No. T42OH008491, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Funding was also provided by the University of Iowa College of Public Health through the Advancing Graduate Student Success Award to assist in compensating study participants. Study team members were also supported through funds from the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center (Grant No. CE003095) and the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (Grant No. U54OH007548).