Investigation The Awareness of Farmers on Agricultural Health and Safety Rules About Pesticides in Sanliurfa / Turkey

In this study, it is aimed to determine the awareness level and educational status of agricultural workers in Sanlıurfa countryside regarding agricultural occupational health and safety. The survey area is located in Sanlıurfa and the sample is composed of 140 farmers from 38 randomly selected villages. 30.88% of the farmers who were surveyed stated that there was redness and burning in the eyes after agricultural spraying. According to the results of the survey; 67.94% of the farmers did not receive agricultural spraying training, 61.36% did not receive first aid training and 72% of them did not receive occupational health and safety training. A statistically significant difference has been observed between the chi-square test for comparing the rates of problems after using the pesticide (P <0.01). According to this, the most common problems are eye redness and burning and at least three of these problems have been seen at the same time (59.55% of the total). The least experienced problems are breathing difficulties, fever, and vomiting. According to the Fisher's Exact test, those who received training in any of the educational subjects tend to take other training, while in the same way, they have attempted not to receive training in another subject that has not been trained in one of the educational subjects (P <0.01).


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Abstract-In this study, it is aimed to determine the awareness level and educational status of agricultural workers in Sanlıurfa countryside regarding agricultural occupational health and safety.The survey area is located in Sanlıurfa and the sample is composed of 140 farmers from 38 randomly selected villages.30.88% of the farmers who were surveyed stated that there was redness and burning in the eyes after agricultural spraying.According to the results of the survey; 67.94% of the farmers did not receive agricultural spraying training, 61.36% did not receive first aid training and 72% of them did not receive occupational health and safety training.A statistically significant difference has been observed between the chi-square test for comparing the rates of problems after using the pesticide (P <0.01).According to this, the most common problems are eye redness and burning and at least three of these problems have been seen at the same time (59.55% of the total).The least experienced problems are breathing difficulties, fever, and vomiting.According to the Fisher's Exact test, those who received training in any of the educational subjects tend to take other training, while in the same way, they have attempted not to receive training in another subject that has not been trained in one of the educational subjects (P <0.01).

I. INTRODUCTION
Agricultural working is the most prevalent kind of employment in the world and it has been recently that concerns of agricultural safety and health have become popular research.
Agricultural technologies development and production processes are threatening the health and safety of agricultural workers.Although not well appreciated, farming is among the most hazardous of occupations; there are a significant number of deaths each year, many related to equipment, especially tractors [1].
The historical development of occupational health and safety in Turkey has developed in parallel with the work life.As a result of industrialization, the development of production methods and tools has paved the way for the emergence of problems in occupational health and safety.Along with industrialization, there has been a significant increase in occupational diseases and occupational accidents in our country.Then, the necessary legal, medical and On June 30, 2012, within the framework of harmonization with the European Union, the Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety has been adopted.Definitions have been made in this law and the scope of the responsibilities of the employers has been explained.Turkey to improve the current situation in the EU harmonization framework, made laws, objectives, information, and documents have been asked to examine.
This research examines agricultural health and safety provision from farmers' perspectives, to address the question of farmers' health, safety and education needs to be met?The farmers encounter many health and safety risks during their daily work [20].
The survey area Sanliurfa is one of the provinces located in Southeastern Anatolia Project which is the largest scale and also the one most effective regional development plans so far.The project area includes 9 provinces (Adiyaman, Batman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Sanliurfa, and Sirnak) located in the Southeastern of Turkey.The objectives of the Project include improving the level of income and geared to developing water and land resources of the region and it was planned to launch 22 dams, 19 hydraulic power plants and irrigation investments covering 1.8 million hectares of land in the region.[17].
Additionally, statistics clearly indicate that they are a high-risk group, and the results of searches show that this area has attracted very little research attention.The service Hasan Sahin, and Zehra Anli Investigation The Awareness of Farmers on Agricultural Health and Safety Rules About Pesticides in Sanliurfa/Turkey providers and policymakers should consider providing educational farmer programs that will promote effectively awareness about pesticide safety and the health of farm workers.
The term "pesticide" combines the root words pest (an annoyance or scourge) and cide (from the Latin for killer or act of killing) [4].Pesticides are chemical substances that are used to kill pests, including insects, rodents, fungi and unwanted plants (weeds).Pesticides are used to kill vectors of disease, such as mosquitoes and to kill pests which damage crops.Pesticides are also potentially toxic to other organisms, like humans, and it needs to be used safely [16].
The widespread overuse of pesticides in agriculture has generated increasing concerns about the negative effects of pesticides on human health and the environment [18].The need to evaluate pesticide use in rural populations, particularly in developing countries, is urgent [2].
Annual consumption of pesticide is around 400-700 grams per hectare in Turkey.Although the fluctuations in annual pesticide consumption in Turkey has increased by 270% between the years 1979-2007.In other words, there has been an increase of 9.64% per year.Especially the increase rate observed in recent years is noteworthy [19].
Although the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and human health are known, its use is increased.There are some studies about the harmful effects of pesticides on human health in developing countries, but there are limited data on the use of pesticides in Turkey [5].How farmers protect themselves against pesticide exposure has important public health consequences [6].Evidence of the association between agrichemical exposure and specific cancers continues to emerge.Since 1990, more than 30 studies investigating cancer among farmers have been published in peer-reviewed journals [7].
Many scientific studies, investigating the use of protective equipment among farmers, the risk information and the level of protective equipment knowledge were modeled as binary variables and, it was found that providing health risk information and producer network membership increased the health risk information of farmers [3].
In some similar studies, the results show that; a great majority of farmers (>90%) considered pesticides to be harmful to human health, but less than 20% of them used masks, impermeable clothes, or gloves during pesticide application [8].According to the findings of the study, it suggests that older and less educated farmers should be targeted for health and safety programs [9].
A lot of research shows that the educational programs and, elementary school training modules on pesticides and the use of safe pesticide results, appears that an educational intervention might have a modest impact in how farmers protect themselves when using pesticides [10].
Some researchers express that, the agricultural occupational health and safety service should be effective in changing the farming population's health and safety attitudes and behaviors through a social based program [15].
The main determinant of safe behavior is the farmer's approach to safety in other situations, but formal training in the use of pesticides is also associated with the frequency of using personal protective equipment.Farmers' efforts should be directed at changing general attitudes toward health and safety, as well as providing specific training in the handling of pesticides [11].
Rather than focusing on educational strategies, comprehensive interventions are needed to reduce both exposure and health risks which farmers faced.Improvements in labeling measures to reduce costs for the adoption of safe behaviors, promotion of control measures other than PPE and support for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) etc. [12].
Generally, farmers receive little training on pesticide safety, but interest in the possibility of further training for workers is high, but it has been seen that collective solutions to problems of pesticide safety are possible within the framework of public health response.
In assessing occupational exposure to hazardous agrichemicals, it appears that most potentially exposed workers are tractor drivers and backpack sprayers primarily involved in pesticide application and, to a lesser extent, mixing activities [13].
There is a lack of regulations and legislation to control pesticides as well as training programs for farmers to monitor use and to initiate training programs for pesticide consumers [14].

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 140 farmers were surveyed in 38 villages in the province of Sanliurfa.A questionnaire form has been filled with questions such as age, level of education, gender, type of agriculture, the type of pesticide used.In addition, a form consisting of 28 questions about occupational health and safety rules has been filled in.
Survey study; • Multiple-choice questions have been asked in the survey.• Survey analysis has been performed using Fisher's Exact test.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the survey show that the personal protective equipment (PPE) such as glasses, gloves, masks they use during the pesticide application has been used much less or they use wrong/missing due to lack of information.
In the question of whether you use masks during the application, the average of 40% to 54% of the surveyed farmers answered yes.It has been observed that the use of masks during the application of agricultural drugs is relatively less than that of special clothing, hat, and gloves.
The question of whether you use special clothing during the spraying, 134 out of the surveyed respondents: 13 are literate and 53.85% of them answer yes while 46.15% say no; 50% of them graduated from primary school, 22.00% of them yes, 66% no, 6.00% partially, 6% gave the other answer; 24 of them were middle school graduates, 54.17% of them answered yes, 37.50% of them answered no and 8.33% partially answered; 33 of them were high school graduates and 42.42% of them were yes, 45.45% were no, 9.09% were partially, 3.03% were other answers; 12 of them are university graduates and 58.33% of them answered yes, 33.33% of them answered not, 8.33% are partial; 2 of them have a master's degree, 50.00% of them answered yes, 50.00% of the answered as no.
The question of whether you use gloves during spraying and fertilization, 136 out of 136 respondents answered like that: 14 of them are literate, 50.00% of them said "yes", 42.86% said "no", 7.14% said "sometimes"; 52 of them are primary school graduates, 40.38% of them said "yes", 32.69% said "no", 26.92% said "sometimes".
24 of them are middle school graduates and 45.83% of them answer yes while 25.00% of them say no, 29.17% of them sometimes answer; 33 of them are high school graduates, 51.52% of them answered yes, 30.30% answered no, 18.18% answered sometimes; 12 of them are university graduates and 58.33% of them answered yes, 33.33% of them answered no, 8.33% answered sometimes; one of them was graduate and 100.00% of them have no answer.
The question of whether the respondents received any training, certificate or qualification regarding the use of tractors stated that 15.32% had received training, 17.75% had received a certificate and 66.95% had a license (Table 3).In the question of what type of accidents occurred when working with agricultural tools and equipment, 17.29% said that the tractor was overturned, 34.59% had tissue damage, 12.78% had lost their hands and other organs and the remaining 35.34% had some other accidents.According to the chi-square test in terms of the rate of accidents occurring (P<0.01).According to this, the most frequent accidents were tissue damage and other accidents, while the least was hand and other organs (Table 4).

TABLE I :
DO YOU USE MASKS DURING AGRICULTURAL SPRAYING?

TABLE III :
HAVE YOU TAKEN ANY COURSE, SEMINAR OR TRAINING FOR TRACTORS DRIVING?

TABLE IV :
WHAT KIND OF ACCIDENTS OCCURRED WHILE WORKING WITH AGRICULTURAL TOOL MACHINES?