Tool for Monitoring Acute Pesticide Poisoning (T-MAPP)
Numerous studies show that acute pesticide poisoning is a widespread and serious problem. However, it is often an invisible problem.
Because their chemistry is so varied, pesticides cause a wide range of signs and symptoms of poisoning that can be difficult for clinicians to diagnose. We also know that large numbers of farmers suffer health impacts from pesticides without seeking any medical treatment. In poorer countries they may not be within easy reach of medical services or they may not be able to afford them. Many are so used to suffering adverse health effects from pesticides that they treat it as part of the job, expecting to need bed rest and to experience severe headaches and rashes as a matter of course.
Even when incidents are diagnosed and treated, they are often not recorded in a systematic way by health services or shared within governments between ministries responsible for health and agriculture. Pesticide poisoning remains largely hidden and ignored.
PAN UK’s studies in cotton farming in Benin, for example, show rates of over 60% smallholder farmers experiencing health problems each year. Many farmers suffer multiple times in a season. Acute health effects can include respiratory issues, eye and skin lesions, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, loss of consciousness, seizures and even death.
T-MAPP, a powerful new tool
PAN UK has developed an innovative mobile app to make data collection more efficient and to support extension services and other relevant field workers to collect data directly from end users. T-MAPP can cope with interrupted connectivity, common in rural areas, and it is very light on battery and data usage.
Working with Dr Valentina Gallo, an Epidemiologist at Queen Mary’s University, and using specialist expertise acquired through decades of surveying farmers in the field, PAN UK has created a tool that captures important information about the severity of the incident as well a the type of pesticide and conditions of use.
The app helps to identify locations, products or practices that are linked to high incidence of acute pesticide poisoning, enabling more effective targeting of resources to tackle the problem effectively. It collects data about farmers and farmworkers, as well as conditions of use on the farm, such as use of PPE, type of spray equipment, relevant training, farm size and crops grown. It also records up to three pesticides that have caused acute impacts on the health of the respondent and detailed information about the most recent poisoning incident, for example, formulation and concentration, symptoms experienced and days taken off work.
What has T-MAPP found to date?
So far, 2,779 surveys of cotton and vegetable farmers from five countries have been submitted using the app.
To date, 39% of respondents have reported incidents of acute pesticide poisoning which occurred in the previous 12 months. Of those affected, more than half (56%) had suffered similar incidents twice or more over the previous year. 10% of the cotton and vegetable farmers reported severe effects of acute pesticide poisoning. These include significant impact on nervous system function such as loss of consciousness, tremors; permanent damage to eyesight or severe chemical burns.
Besides the personal cost, there is an economic impact too. 33% of farmers who reported such incidents took time off work and 1% lost 30 days or more.
The widespread problem of acute pesticide poisoning and repeated exposure year after year has very concerning implications for chronic health effects too, such as cancers or Parkinson’s disease.
How is the T-MAPP data useful?
To date, we have used the app in five countries and in six languages. Partners in those countries include the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, government regulators, universities, sustainability standards and NGOs.
The data is being used in a variety of ways:
- To help sustainability standards to improve the way they address pesticides issues
- To inform priorities and target resources for pesticide risk reduction
- To monitor the impact of pesticide risk reduction interventions
- To support decisions by national regulatory authorities
- To help national authorities to comply with responsibilities to the chemical conventions
- For academic research
- To raise awareness of a hidden problem
What next?
The app is helping to reveal a very significant, but largely hidden problem. We are already receiving a high level of interest from a variety of researchers, governments, sustainability standards and UN agencies to use the app to better understand the problem and find ways to tackle it.
‘The app gives our field agents relevant questions to ask, makes it easy for farmers to answer. It helps us to collect data on a much larger scale than has ever been possible. I highly recommend this system for anyone who wants to understand how pesticides are really being used by farmers or farm workers and their impact on health.’
Delphine Bodjrenou, Gender Coordinator, OBEPAB, Benin
If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please contact PAN UK.
We are grateful to the Laudes Foundation for their support to develop this innovative tool.