paraquat
<div id="s3" class="tsec sec" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.9991px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="s3-0-12" class="sec sec-last" style="clear: both;"><h3 id="s3-0-12title" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em; color: rgb(114, 65, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Pesticide and Herbicide Exposure</h3><p id="p45" class="p p-first" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;">Four studies investigated paraquat exposure among farmers, including palm oil workers.<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R36" rid="R36" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" id="tag_811473731" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">36</a>-<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R39" rid="R39" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" id="tag_811473746" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">39</a></span> Among 119 paraquat handlers and 54 non-handlers on a range of farms in Costa Rica, including oil palm plantations, exposure to paraquat was only detected among paraquat handlers on spray day; levels varied by crop and not among workers.<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R38" rid="R38" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" id="tag_811473727" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">38</a></span> This study and another one found no association with lung disease.<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R37" rid="R37" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" id="tag_811473741" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">37</a></span> Exposure to a range of pesticides among farmers, including plantation workers in Sabah, Malaysia, was reported to increase the risk of having abnormalities in three out of five semen quality parameters (sperm count, motility and teratospermia), although differences were not found by type of pesticide (paraquat or malathion) and the study sample sizes were small (62 exposed).<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R39" rid="R39" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" id="tag_811473732" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">39</a></span></p><p id="p46" class="p p-last" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;">In addition to exposure to paraquat, palm oil workers are known to be exposed to other pesticides, however, the literature on this subject is limited. For example, studies in both Cameroon and Malaysia found that the main herbicides used by the oil palm growers are paraquat and glyphosate while metalaxyl, maneb, and captan are used as fungicides and cypermethrin and carbaryl are the most common insecticides.<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R40" rid="R40" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">40</a>,<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#R41" rid="R41" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">41</a></span></p></div></div><div id="s4" class="tsec sec" style="clear: both; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.9991px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.86666em !important;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820316/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url("//static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4160049/img/2846531") 100% 43.5% no-repeat transparent; padding-right: 17px; margin-right: 3px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(100, 42, 143);">Go to:</a></div><h2 class="head no_bottom_margin ui-helper-clearfix" id="s4title" style="font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0px; color: rgb(152, 87, 53); min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Discussion</h2><p id="p47" class="p p-first" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;">We found that many of the common tasks undertaken by workers on oil palm plantations during harvesting were associated with increased risks of MSD, and that the prevalence of MSDs reported in most studies was high. Additionally, palm oil workers were at risk of infectious diseases and stress and mental disorders because of their working and living environments and were also exposed to a range of pesticides, in particular, paraquat. In general, work on oil palm plantations remains largely unmechanized, and reliant on low-paid workers. This lack of automation increases the risk of work-related injury and disease for these workers.</p></div>