Occupational health and safety in agriculture. A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of occupational diseases in the agricultural sector is higher than in other industries, since agricultural workers are at higher risk of exposure to different chemicals and pesticides, and are more prone to occupational accidents.Objective: To conduct a review of recent literature on occupational health and risk in agriculture.Materials and methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, SciencieDirect and Scopus using the following search strategy: type of articles: original research papers; language: English; publication period: 2006-2016; search terms: "agricultural health", "agrarian health", "risk factors", "epidemiology", "causality" and "occupational", used in different combinations ("AND" and "OR").Results: The search yielded 350 articles, of which 102 met the inclusion criteria. Moreover, 5 articles were found in grey literature sources and included in the final analysis. Most research on this topic has been conducted in the United States, which produced 91% (97/107) of the articles included.Conclusions: Most studies on health and safety in agriculture focused primarily on the harmful effects of occupational exposure to agrochemicals and pesticides, and the consequences of occupational accidents. However, since more than 90% of these studies come from the United States, a more comprehensive approach to health in agriculture is required, since what is reported here may be far from the reality of other regions, especially Latin America.