Personal Protection from Agricultural Chemicals among Older Farmers in Nakhon Pathom Province
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Abstract
Significance: Most of the older persons who work as farmers in Nakhon Pathom province still use agricultural chemicals to increase productivity and eliminate pests despite evidence that their physical condition is deteriorating, because the process of excreting chemicals from the body is ineffective due to the deterioration of the liver and kidneys. This study aims to examine personal protection from agricultural chemicals among older farmers in Nakhon Pathom Province. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed in this study. Data were collected from 179 older farmers through the administration of a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. They showed that most of the persons in the sample had practiced personal protection from agricultural chemicals at a good level. The top three behaviors that were the most practiced were immediately cleansing the body when arriving home after using chemicals (85.5%), wearing long sleeves (83.8%), and separating contaminated laundry (83.2%). The lowest three protection behaviors were wearing a rubber apron at all times (41.9%), visiting a doctor/health worker when there is an illness or discomfort (57.0%), and wearing rubber gloves at all times (58.7 %).
Therefore, the development of chemical labels, innovative gloves, and chemical-resistant rubber fabrics which would be friendly to older people should be recommended. Also, establishing a safety agriculture policy, and monitoring safe agricultural chemicals use are recommended.
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