Compliance with required pesticide-specific protective equipment use.
BACKGROUND
This study measured compliance with pesticide-specific protective gear use requirements practiced by farmers applying pesticides to field crops.


METHODS
Two hundred and twenty randomly selected dairy farmers were interviewed 1 week after pesticide application to determine use of personal protective equipment while applying at least 1 of 15 possible restricted use pesticides (response rate = 82.4%).


RESULTS
Among the three most common pesticides used (dicamba, atrazine, and cyanazine), the proportions of farmers fully complying with gear use requirements were 8.8, 8.6, and 2.5%, respectively. For those same pesticides, the proportions (and 95% CI) using none of the required gear were 56.9% (47.3-66.5%), 38.6% (27.2-50.0%), and 47.5%(32.0-63.0%), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Both full and partial compliance with required personal protective equipment was low for each of the 15 chemicals applied by the applicators in this sample.
Perry
Melissa J
MJ
Occupational Health Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. mperry@hsph.harvard.edu
Marbella
Anne
A
Layde
Peter M
PM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010575:Pesticides / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D010575:Pesticides