Adverse respiratory health and hematological alterations among agricultural workers occupationally exposed to organophosphate pesticides: a cross-sectional study in North India.

Clicks: 1017
ID: 35283
2013
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Overall Quality Improving Quality
79.5 /100
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AI Quality Assessment 🥈 High Quality
80.5 /100
Academic Rigor 88.0%
Novelty 70.0%
Clarity 85.0%
Key Strengths
  • Clear and concise writing style
  • Well-defined research question
  • Appropriate statistical analysis
Areas for Improvement
  • Cross-sectional design limits causal inference
  • Relatively small sample size
  • Focus on a single region in North India limits generalizability
AI Recommendations

Future studies should consider longitudinal designs to investigate the long-term effects of organophosphate pesticide exposure. Expanding the study to include a more diverse population would also enhance the generalizability of the findings. Further research could explore the specific mechanisms by which organophosphates affect respiratory and hematological health.

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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Non-protective work practices followed by farm workers during spraying of pesticides lead to occupational exposure among them. OBJECTIVE: This study is designed to explore the respiratory health and hematological profile of agricultural workers occupationally exposed to OP pesticides. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional study was undertaken among 166 pesticide sprayers working in mango orchards of Lucknow district in North India compared with 77 controls to assess the respiratory illness, lung functions, cholinesterase levels and hematological profile. A questionnaire based survey and clinical examination for respiratory health were conducted among study subjects. Lung function test was conducted among study subjects by using spirometer. Cholinesterase level as biomarker of OP pesticides and hematological profile of study subjects were investigated in the laboratory by following the standard protocols. RESULTS: Overall respiratory morbidity observed among exposed subjects was 36.75%. Symptoms for respiratory illness like dry cough, productive cough, wheezing, irritation of throat and blood stained sputum were found to be significantly more (p<0.05) among pesticide sprayers than controls. Lung function parameters viz. PEFR, FEV1, %PEFR predicted, %FEV1 predicted and FEV1/FVC were found to be significantly decreased (p<0.05) among pesticide sprayers as compared to controls. Exposure wise distribution of respiratory illness and lung functions among pesticide sprayers show that the exposure duration significantly elevates (p<0.05) the respiratory problems and significantly decreases (p<0.001) lung functions among pesticide sprayers. Activities of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase were found to be significantly depleted (p<0.001) among pesticide sprayers as compared to controls which show the exposure of OP pesticides among them. The hematological profile viz. RBC, WBC, monocytes, neutrophils, MCV, MCH, MCHC and platelet count were significantly altered (p<0.001) in pesticide sprayers than controls. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the unsafe occupational exposure of OP pesticides causes respiratory illness, decreased lung functions and hematological alterations among pesticide sprayers.
Reference Key
fareed2013adverseplos Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Fareed, Mohd;Pathak, Manoj Kumar;Bihari, Vipin;Kamal, Ritul;Srivastava, Anup Kumar;Kesavachandran, Chandrasekharan Nair;
Journal PloS one
Year 2013
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0069755
URL
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3723784?pdf=render
Keywords
Organophosphate pesticides agricultural workers respiratory health Hematological alterations cross-sectional study lung function cholinesterase occupational exposure

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