GEJALA NEUROTOKSIK PADA PETANI PENYEMPROT SAYUR DI DESA SERANG KECAMATAN KARANGREJA KABUPATEN PURBALINGGA

Abstract

Pesticides are toxic substances farmers use to protect plants by eradicating or controlling various pests in the agricultural sector. The routine use of pesticides can cause agricultural land to become polluted and directly affect human health, such as damaging the nervous system, which can cause neurotoxic symptoms. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between various risk factors for pesticide exposure and neurotoxic symptoms. This type of research is analytic observational with a cross-sectional research approach. The population in this study were farmers who were members of a farming group in Serang Village Purbalingga of 1443 people. The sample in this study was 90 vegetable farmers who employed a simple random sampling method. Data were collected using the German version of the Q18 questionnaire—univariate and bivariate analysis using the Chi-Square statistical test. The results showed that 55 farmers (61.1%) experienced neurotoxic symptoms, 48 farmers (53.3%) used organophosphate pesticides, 49 farmers (54.4%) found inappropriate pesticide dosage, worked for >10 years found 71 farmers (78.9%), duration of spraying >2 hours found 34 farmers (37.8%), spraying frequency ≥3x/week found 40 farmers (44.4%), and three farmers (3.3%) found risk spraying time. Bivariate analysis proves that there is a relationship between pesticide dosege (p= 0.016), working period (p= 0.001), spraying duration (p= 0.011), spraying frequency (p= <0.001), and the unrelated variable was the type of pesticide (p= 0.170), and spraying time (p= 1.000). This study concludes that the variables of pesticide dosage, working period, duration of spraying, spraying frequency and spraying position have a relationship with neurotoxic symptoms in pesticide-spraying vegetable farmers in Serang Village Purbalingga.