Pesticide practices: mirrors perceptions and beliefs
Pesticides are not health threats as long as the person is
immune
Most respondents did make some attempts to protect themselves
against pesticides but around a quarter of the respondents
took no special precautions. The foremost reason given
was that they were immune or not susceptible to pesticides
because malakas ang kanilang dugo or kaya ng kanilang dugo
ang mga gamot ng halaman (their blood is strong or their blood
can take pesticides). Others who suffered ill effects of pesticides
described the reactions as ‘allergy’ to pesticides.
Immunity or non-susceptibility is seen as inherent to the
person and not the result of precautions taken. It is associated
with ‘strong blood’, good health and youth explaining
farmers’ notion that pesticides only harm certain types of
people (i.e., the old, the weak) and not those who are
immune and that pesticides are harmful only under certain
conditions (Table 3).
The concept of immunity has led to farmers’ employing their
sons or hiring young people as pesticide applicators, as soon as
they are old enough to spray, in the belief that young men are
less susceptible to pesticide poisoning because they are younger
and stronger. In the same 1991 survey, 47 per cent did the
spraying themselves (farmers), whereas 41 per cent used family
labour, often their sons. The average age of hired pesticide
applicators was 25, ranging from 17 to 35. This may explain
findings on young males in farming communities facing an
abnormally higher risk of cardiac problems than older males
because they are generally the pesticide applicators.19,32,33