Social Vulnerability to Pesticide Exposure in Children from an Agricultural Community in Mexico

The child population can be exposed to environmental pollutants, including pesticides that seriously affect their development. Pesticides are used to control vectors and pests in homes, agriculture and other sectors. Children are exposed to pesticides through different pathways. In this sense, it is of the utmost importance to know how children perceive the risk of exposure to pesticides. This study was aimed at identifying the sources that could increase the pesticide exposure and level of knowledge children have about the use and management of these compounds. A descriptive study was carried out, a structured questionnaire was applied to 373 children, 206 children from an community-a (area with a high use of pesticides) and 167 children from community-b (reference population). The results of our work show that more than 50% of infants in first, second, third, and sixth elementary-school grades are uninformed concerning what a pesticide is. The responses obtained from the children revealed that they are in great proximity to these compounds at home through the use of household insecticides (96.57%), in the form of a spiral (95.45%) and repellents (94.19%). In addition, 37.76% responded that they had observed pesticide containers for agricultural use at home. Drawings made by the participants suggest a broad perception of the effects of pesticides in their communities. In conclusion, the lack of knowledge of pesticides in the child population reveals several exposure risk factors, as well as a great variability in the manner in which children in Mexico perceive problems derived from use of these compounds.