Compliance with required pesticide-specific protective equipment use

Background This study measured compliance with pesticide‐specific protective gear use requirements practiced by farmers applying pesticides to field crops. Materials and Methods Two hundred and twenty randomly selected dairy farmers were interviewed 1 week after pesticide application to determine use of personal protective equipment while applying at least 1 of 15 possible restricted use pesticides (response rate = 82.4%). Results Among the three most common pesticides used (dicamba, atrazine, and cyanazine), the proportions of farmers fully complying with gear use requirements were 8.8, 8.6, and 2.5%, respectively. For those same pesticides, the proportions (and 95% CI) using none of the required gear were 56.9% (47.3–66.5%), 38.6% (27.2–50.0%), and 47.5%(32.0–63.0%), respectively. Conclusions Both full and partial compliance with required personal protective equipment was low for each of the 15 chemicals applied by the applicators in this sample. Am. J. Ind. Med. 41:70–73, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.