Accidental Exposure of Farmers to Pesticide Poisons-A Retrospective Study at Tertiary Health Care Centre of Maharashtra

Indian agriculture has witnessed green revolution. Since then use of pesticides is at its peak. During period July to November 2017 around 32 deaths occurred in Yavatmal and near districts due to accidental exposure to pesticides. Hence there is need for giving special attention to accidental exposure of farmers to pesticides. We carried out a retrospective study of patients admitted to General Medicine units of our tertiary care Government hospital due to accidental exposure to pesticides during the period January to November 2017. We found total 81 patients were admitted due to same, maximum no. of exposure occurred in the months of September and August.42 % of total patients belonged to the age group 21-30 years and 88 % were male. Poisoning due to ingestion due to non-washing of hands was found to be most common route of poisoning. Less number of patients were coming from more peripheral areas suggestive of less awareness at more peripheral areas.10.53 % (8) patients had severe illness and required ventilator support and 2 patients died despite standard care and treatment. Mean duration of hospitalisation was 4.56 days. There is need for educating farmers about safe methods of handling pesticides also it important to strongly enforce health education.