Fertility Problems Associated With Pesticide Use Among Farmers in Metro Vigan

Abstract

The study primarily aimed to determine the fertility problems associated with pesticide use among farmers in the municipalities of Metro Vigan. It also sought to determine the socio-demographic profile of the respondents like age, occupation, educational attainment, monthly income; pesticide-related factors like distance of farm from the house and the frequency of exposure to pesticides; the common pesticidas used by the farmers and the level of practice of the farmers on the correct use of pesticidas and the relationship between the fertility problems and the set of variables mentioned. The study involved 133 female farmers from the different municipalities of Metro Vigan. A questionnaire checklist was the main instrument used in the gathering of data used in the study. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the samples used in the study. Frequency, percentage, mean and simple correlational
analysis were the statistical tools used to treat the data. Based from the findings, the following conclusions were drawn: the respondents are between 40-44 years old, farmers by occupation, have finished high school level and college level and have a monthly income between 15,001 - 20,000. The respondents have houses situated less than 1 kmfrom the farm and are "Sometimes" (with 4-6 monthsperiod) exposed to pesticides. The most common pesticides used are lanate, karate, serin, atabron pinnate, decisandbiodan. There is a "high" level of practice of farmers on the correct use of pesticides. On fertility problems, there is a minimal level of problems since the respondents have 3-4 pregnancies, have delivered their babies infull term, have 3- 4 live births, did not suffer abortion, have 1-2 years birth interval of their children and have minimal number of children with physical defects. There is a "very low" occurrence of the common symptoms of pregnancy among mothers. On the correlation between fertility problems and the other given set of variables, the following were found to be significantly related: On socio-demographic variables, age is significantly related to gravidity, parity and live births. There is also a significant relationship between educational attainment and gravidity, parity, live births, and birth interval. There is a significant relationship between occupation and common symptoms during pregnancy. On pesticide-relatedfactors, there is a significant relationship between distance from farm and the common symptoms during pregnancy. There is also a significant relationship between frequency of exposure to pesticides and the common symptoms during pregnancy. The level of practice is also significantly related to abortion.