Rice farmers in vietnam and pesticides

In the peer reviewed scientific journal The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health a devastating article was published this year on the fate of rice farmers in vietnam, in Kienxuong District, Thaibinh Province.

"Semen samples of 1,036 rice farmers were obtained by manual masturbation and screened at Commune Health Stations."

No less than 156 of these samples were abnormal!

The normal factors responsible for low quality and abnormal semen were subtracted from the results, age, smoking and alcohol drinking, by means logistic regression.

it turned out that the results were then correlated to:

"distance of less than 300 meters from household to rice fields and duration of work over 10 years as a farmer"

In other words exposure to pesticides.

Even workers that wore protective clothing during the use of pesticides suffered from abnormal semen.

It is indeed ironic that these unselfish farmers that work hard to provide food for their offspring and others may not enjoy the joys of having offspring of their own.

references

Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2007 May;38(3):569-75. [I]Impacts of pesticide use on semen characteristics among rice farmers in Kienxuong District, Thaibinh Province, Vietnam.[/I]