Pesticide Knowledge, Attitudes, and Clothing Practices of Turkish Farmers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess Turkish farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and clothing practices during pesticide activities. Seventy male farmers from seven districts of the Aegean region of Turkey were interviewed. Farmers indicated a high level of knowledge of adverse health effects associated with pesticides. In contrast to their level of knowledge, over 50% of the farmers had the attitude that pesticides would not be harmful to them. The type of clothing most often worn further supported the farmers’ attitudes: T-shirts or long-sleeve shirts, denim pants, leather shoes, or sandals, all of which provide little protection. Therefore, farmers’ knowledge on the harmful effects of pesticides did not correlate with their clothing practices. Additionally, farmers’ attitudes and clothing practices were inconsistent with each other. A weak but significant correlation between attitudes and clothing practices with a negative direction also supported this. Furthermore, participant farmers indicated bringing contaminated clothing inside the home and laundering contaminated work clothes with regular family clothes, potentially exposing family members by take-home contamination. These findings suggest that the development of training programs to reduce pesticide exposure would benefit Turkish farmers.