Worldwide unintentional acute pesticide poisoning

Poisoning of humans by pesticides has long been considered a serious public health problem. As early as 1990, a World Health Organization (WHO) working group estimated that about one million unintentional pesticide poisonings occur each year, leading to serious manifestations including nearly 20,000 deaths . Populations in developing countries are particularly affected and the actual number of cases is probably much higher, due to unreported cases. Thus, re-examining the WHO assessments, another estimate concluded at around 25 million cases of occupational pesticide poisoning per year.

Thirty years later, it is clear that the global use of pesticides has increased to 4.1 million tonnes per year in 2017, an increase of almost 81% compared to 1990 . Even if this increase is heterogeneous on the scale of the planet (+ 484% in South America, + 97% in Asia but stable in Europe), a much larger number of farmers and workers are likely to be exposed pesticides today all over the world. Therefore, the estimates quoted above are most likely no longer relevant.

Source: generations-futures.fr (Automatically translated from French)