Publication date: 

23 Jun 2021

Ref: 

European Respiratory Journal 2020 56: 656

Author(s): 

Ratanachina J, Amaral A, De Matteis S, Cullinan P, Burney P.

Publication type: 

Article

Abstract: 

There is a growing literature on the potential risks posed by farming to respiratory health. The majority of studies have been conducted in high-income countries. The aim of this survey was to assess the association of lung function and respiratory symptoms with farming, particularly pesticide use in an agricultural province in Thailand. Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional survey of adults aged 40 to 65 in Nan, Thailand, between May and August 2019. We randomly recruited 345 farming villagers and enriched the sample with 82 government employees. All participants performed post-bronchodilator spirometry and completed a questionnaire on demography, environment, farming, pesticide use and respiratory symptoms. Associations of respiratory outcomes with exposure were examined by regression analysis. Results: The response rate was 94%. Only 11% of the participants were current smokers. The prevalence of chronic airflow obstruction in villagers was 5.5%. Farming villagers had lower percent predicted post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC (98.3% sd=7.5 vs 100.3% sd=4.0; p=0.04) than government employees. There was no association between farming activities (e.g. ploughing, threshing, harvesting, fertilizer use), the use of specific herbicides (glyphosate and paraquat), insecticides (organophosphates and pyrethroids) or fungicides and either respiratory symptoms or lung function. The exception was atrazine, for which duration (p-trend<0.01), intensity (p-trend=0.01) and cumulative hours (p-trend=0.01) of use were all positively associated with FEV1/FVC. Conclusion: This study shows that chronic airflow obstruction is uncommon in Nan, Thailand. Farming and pesticide use are unlikely to be a major cause of respiratory problems there.