In agriculture, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) plays a major role in safeguarding the health of farmworkers due to the prevalence of hazardous agrochemicals. Most safety interventions in agriculture prioritise PPE use as a matter of paramount importance (Garigou et al., 2020). Yet, this overemphasis on PPE use is problematic because it shifts the responsibility of ensuring workplace safety to individuals, instead of creating a safer system. 

 

According to Garrigou et al. (2020), many new agrochemicals entering the market are only gaining legislative approval because companies and governments assume PPE use to be sufficient in keeping farmworkers safe. While they do provide some form of protection, this assumption overestimates the effectiveness of PPE. It is difficult for PPE to reach its fullest protective potential because it depends on two main conditions that are seldom fulfiled: the equipment has to be effective under practical conditions, and farmworkers need to utilise them appropriately. 

 

• Condition 1: Effective equipment

It is difficult to assess if PPE is truly effective at minimising agrochemical exposure because of the complexities of working conditions in agriculture. Most experimental processes for testing PPE do not account for a multitude of scenarios that could influence the exposure pathway. For instance, laboratory tests do not account for many on-site working conditions such as the environmental conditions, farmers’ behaviour, and the types of activities. In field studies that seek to re-create onsite conditions, Garrigou et al. (2020) argue that findings tend to overestimate PPE effectiveness because they do not account for all working scenarios. For instance, they do not account for farmers’ exposure to a combination of agrochemicals, which is likely to form secondary pollutants that reduce the effectiveness of PPE. Moreover, each PPE material is only effective against specific pesticides but not others, which further complicates farmers’ choice in PPE.

 

• Condition 2: Farmworkers

Agrochemicals that farmworkers purchase come with labels that indicate the minimum PPE that they should wear while working with the product. The main types of PPE include coveralls, rubber boots, resistant hats, goggles, resistant gloves, and filter masks. However, many do not adhere to the guidelines and only wear a fraction of the recommended number of PPE (Sookhtanlou & Allahyari, 2021).

While training programs can help increase uptake, the lack of knowledge is not the main problem. The main issue lies in cost and comfort (Garrigou et al., 2020). Access to affordable PPE continues to be the main hurdle in ensuring farmers’ safety, especially when different pesticides and agriculture activities require multiple equipment changes in a day. Thermal and mechanical discomfort, obstruction of movements, and fatigue deter farmworkers from using all the recommended PPE while handling agrochemicals. These constraints make it unfeasible for farmworkers to rely solely on PPE to cope with agrochemical pollution.

 

Based on the hierarchy of control (Figure 1), interventions that eliminate hazard sources should take precedence over PPE to effectively and sustainably reduce occupational hazards (NIOSH, 2021). While PPE is important, the approval process for new agrochemicals should not assume that PPE use is a given condition, and recognise the complexities on the ground. 

 

Figure 1: The hierarchy of control in managing occupational safety (NIOSH, 2021)

References

Garrigou, A., Laurent, C., Berthet, A., Colosio, C., Jas, N., Daubas-Letourneux, V., Jackson Filho, J. -., Jouzel, J. -., Samuel, O., Baldi, I., Lebailly, P., Galey, L., Goutille, F., & Judon, N. (2020). Critical review of the role of PPE in the prevention of risks related to agricultural pesticide use. Safety Science, 123, 104527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.104527

Sookhtanlou, M., & Allahyari, M. S. (2021). Farmers’ health risk and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during pesticide application. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 28(22), 28168-28178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12502-y

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2021). Hierarchy of Controls. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html