Objective To understand the characteristics of counseling cases related to pesticide poisoning, and the pesticide spectrum that caused poisoning, to explore the impact of pesticide management regulations on pesticide poisoning control, and to provide a reference for the prevention and control strategy of pesticide poisoning.
Methods The data of national consultation cases of pesticide poisoning from 2011 to 2020 were collected, the counseling time, region, type of pesticide poisoning, gender and age distribution were analyzed, and the effects of policies on pesticide poisoning were discussed.
Results There were a total of 16 683 counseling cases of pesticide poisoning from 2011 to 2020, with a gender ratio of 1.28∶1, and the most cases were concentrated in May. The top five provinces for counseling cases were Henan (2 428, 14.55%), Hebei (1 635, 9.80%), Shandong (1 435, 8.60%), Anhui (1 304, 7.82%) and Jiangsu (926, 5.55%). The number of pesticide poisoning counseling cases decreased year over year. 9 469 poisoning cases were caused by insecticides (accounting for 56.76%), 4 371 cases were caused by herbicides (accounting for 26.20%), and 1 609 poisoning cases were caused by fungicides with low toxicity (accounting for 9.64%). Totally, 15 786 counseling cases were due to self- medication, misuse, accidents, and occupational exposure. The highest proportion of self-medication was in 7 763 cases, accounting for 46.53%, followed by misuse (4 438 cases, accounting for 26.60%) and occupational exposure (2 850 cases accounting for 17.08%). There was a statistical difference of poisoning causes between men and women (P < 0.01), men were more affected by occupational exposure and women were more affected by self-medication. Misuse was the most common cause for the infants aged 6 years and below, with a sex ratio of 2.56∶1, while self-medication and occupational exposure were the main causes for adults over 18 years old.
Conclusions The characteristics of counseling cases related to pesticide poisoning were obvious. The number of counseling cases has been significantly reduced since the use of (extremely) toxic pesticides has been banned or restricted. Policy intervention has a significant effect on the control of pesticide poisoning, and targeted prevention and control measures should be continuously taken in different populations and regions to reduce the occurrence of pesticide poisoning.
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