Pesticide poisonings Costa Rica

Statistics from the National Institute of Insurances in Costa Rica indicate that aldicarb was the number one cause of pesticide poisonings in the banana... 

In 1986, during the first week that aldicarb was used on Standard Fruit Co. s banana plantations in Rio Fro, Costa Rica, more than 100 workers were poisoned by the pesticide. 

Occupational pesticide poisonings have been considered a serious problem in Costa Rica for many years (e.g. Thrupp, 1989). The number of registered poisoning cases can be assumed to be lower than the actual number of poisonings as monitoring is based on voluntary information provided by poison victims and physicians. 

Thrupp, L.A., Direct Impact DBCP poisoning in Costa Rica . Dirty Dozen Campaigner May 1989 Schonfield, A., Anderson, W. and Moore, M., PAN s Dirty Dozen Campaign — the view at ten years . Global Pesticide Campaigner, Vol. 5 No. 3, September 1995... 

Table 4. Analysis of registered pesticide poisoning cases in Costa Rica in 1994.

Figure 7. Distribution of pesticide poisonings in 1994 according to age (source Centro Nacionai de Control de Intoxicaciones, San Jose, Costa Rica).

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