Hence, this immunity belief increases the risk of young people
to cardiovascular-related problems, supposedly uncommon
among young people, through recurrent pesticide exposure
from an early age.
Analogy of human and plant care calls for pesticide use
Pesticides may also be seen as necessitated by belief in the analogy
of human and plant health care. Farmers often suggest a
parallel in managing or caring for the health of plants and
humans, resulting in many overlaps in the linguistic terminologies
employed for both humans and plants. To Filipino farmers,
rice plants at the early stage are more vulnerable to pest
infestations than at the ripening stage like a baby is more susceptible
to illnesses and diseases than an adult. Thus, farmers
usually applied pesticides in the first 40 days after transplanting,
mostly against leaf feeding insects like the leaffolder. Scientific
evidence, however, had shown that leaffolder damage at
the vegetative stage could not affect crop yield because plants
could still recover.34 Farmers often commented that ‘If the
plants are still young, they have to be taken care of’ to prevent
pest infestation, ensure good health and eventually good yield.
In the same way that a sick baby is given medicines, a young
rice crop needs pesticides for its sickness.
Dichotomy in pesticide perception: poison and medicine
The concept of pesticides configures into a dichotomy – a poison
to pests and a medicine to plants. In one category, pesticides
are referred to as gamot (medicine), because they heal the
illness or disease of the plant.35 The other category labels them
as pestisidyo, or even lason (poison) because pesticides kill the
pests that damage their crops.
The dual concept of pesticides leads to divergent views on
their health effects to humans, that pesticides are either harmless
or harmful (Table 4). According to farmers, pesticides are
harmful because they not only kill the pests but also people and
animals. As one farmer told us
My neighbor died 20 years ago. He sprayed during noon time.
He was about to finish his work, but he vomited, felt weak, fell
down, fainted, and died before reaching the hospital.