OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- Canadian and Latin American researchers have found that potato farmers of the Carchi Province of Ecuador suffer from decreased mental capacity as a result of their high exposure to chemical insecticides.
Their research documents how this exposure affects the farmers' decision-making abilities, leading to lower productivity. "Exposure to insecticides and fungicides has harmful effects - neurological and skin related - on the health of Carchi's rural population and health disorders undermine farmers' ability to make efficient farming decisions," says Dr Donald Cole from Ontario's McMaster Institute of Environment and Health. He will explore this topic further in a conference taking place tonight at the Université du Québec in Montreal.
This study is part of a larger project jointly funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Rockefeller Foundation, and other donors to reduce pesticide use and related health problems among potato farmers in the Carchi Province of Ecuador. The project, lead by researchers from McMaster University and the International Potato Center (CIP), involves scientists from many research institutions.
Dr Cole, a Canadian physician researcher, is one of the keynote speakers at the Ecohealth Lecture Series 2000-2002 touring Canada this month. The series, made possible through an academic fellowship from IDRC, is also taking place in Toronto, Halifax and Edmonton. It is organized by Dr Donna Mergler, neurotoxicologist and professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
The lecture aims to encourage awareness and discussion of an ecosystem approach to human health. This approach is based on the premise that the health of human populations depends on healthy, sustainable ecosystems.
Many of the farmers in Carchi Province, where 8,000 commercial growers account for 40% of the national potato production, operate mixed potato-and-dairy farms. They are among the country's heaviest pesticide consumers. Using backpacks, they apply pesticides an average of seven times during the crop growth period, - using up to 43 active ingredients.
Direct skin contact with pesticides, leaky sprayers, and a lack of protective clothing contribute to the farmers' health problems. The researchers found a pesticide poisoning rate of 171 per 100,000 population, similar to the highest rates recorded elsewhere in the developing world.
See url: http://www.idrc.ca/media/pesticides_e.htm -- -- Barbara McElgunn, R.N. Health Policy Officer Learning Disabilities Association of Canada
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