“I Do Not Have the Time of Being sick”: Para-Occupational Exposure and Women’s Health Risk Perception in an Agricultural Community

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Few studies have explored the relationship between para-occupational exposure and risk perception in farmers’ families. Women are indirectly involved in agricultural activities, even though their roles most of the time are hidden. Women’s para-occupational exposure and risk perceptions are important to describe, since women have a key gender role in the family’s health care and possibly in the impact of acting regarding pesticide safety education. Furthermore, in farmer families, the impact of para-occupational pesticide exposure on women’s health has been neglected.

Aim

Analyze pesticide para-occupational exposure scenario, knowledge, and health risk perception among women living in a farmer community.

Methods

A mixed methodology was used. Two groups of women were identified to screen the exposure scenario: Women living in a farming family and women not living in a farming family. Data on para-occupational pesticide exposure and intradomicile practices were collected by questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to identify health risk perception and risk practices.

Results

We observed a complex pesticide exposure scenario. All women were potentially exposed to pesticides through several pathways. One-third of the participants lived near a farming family or in proximity to neighbors that used pesticides at home, and one of every three women referred to spending time in a farmer’s home. Among the group of women in a farming family (n = 18) stored pesticides inside the home was common; having the “safety practice” of storing pesticides in high places to avoid children being exposed. Women not living in farmimg families (n = 11) felt overexposed due to living in an agricultural community and agricultural drift exposure. Women from this group also mentioned feeling fear of developing cancerous diseases as well as fertility problems.

Conclusions

Knowledge and risk perception of pesticide exposure are similar between groups; however, women living in farming families were less willing to attend preventive health check-ups or educational programs than women not living in a farming family.

KEYWORDS:

• Pesticides
• para-occupational
• risk perception
• women

Acknowledgments

PROMEP from SEP by Grant. All the authors thank the local council from Muna, Yucatan, Muna’s Medical Centre and SSY for their support to invite participants to the study. Special thanks to all the women participants in the study and families who open their homes to share their day-to-day life, knowledge, and experience with us.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ Rebozo: a loose, sleeveless coat made from cotton or silk fabric that a woman uses to cover her back, head, or shoulders.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Secretaría de Educación Pública de México. Subsecretaría de Educación Superior. Programa de Mejoramiento del Profesorado (PROMEP). Apoyo a la Incorporación de Nuevos PTC otorgado a NPH. Número de oficio de la carta de liberación PROMEP/103.5/10/4437.