Pesticide use in Thailand: Current situation, health risks, and gaps in research and policy

Abstract

Agriculture in Thailand, which employs over 30 percent of the workforce and contributes significantly to the country’s gross domestic product, is a key sector of its economy. Import and use of pesticides has increased over the past decade due to Thailand's major role as a leading exporter of food and agricultural products. The widespread and poorly regulated use of pesticides presents a potential risk to the health of farmers, farm families, the general population including children and the environment. This article is a result of the Southeast Asia GEOHealth Network Meeting of February 2019. It summarizes the current situation on pesticide use and regulation in Thailand and reports research findings on the potential health and environmental impacts of pesticide use, as well as highlighting gaps in research that could play an important and influential role in future policy initiatives on pesticides. Although Thailand has made remarkable progress in improving agricultural health and safety and similarly strong research and policy programs are being developed in other countries in the region, there are still significant gaps in research and policy that need to be filled.

Keywords:

• Pesticide use
• exposure
• poisoning
• agricultural health and safety
• policy initiative
• Thailand
• Southeast Asia

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this work was provided by the Fogarty International Center and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the Global Environmental and Occupational Health program awards (U01TW010091 and U2RTW010088). Lindsay Jaacks’s work was supported by the India GEOHealth (Global Environmental and Occupational Health) Hub, funded by the NIH Fogarty International Center (U01TW010097 and U2RTW010108). Dana Boyd Barr’s work was supported by NIEHS grants (R01ES026082 and P30ES019776).