Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
A new study reveals that nearly half of the world's farmers suffer from unintentional pesticide poisoning annually, resulting in approximately 11,000 deaths. Experts are calling for urgent global action to phase out highly hazardous chemicals.
Why it matters
The high rate of pesticide poisoning highlights a major public health and environmental crisis in the global agricultural sector that requires immediate regulatory intervention.
A farmer sprays pesticide on sesame fields in Burkina Faso, west Africa. Photograph: Alamy A farmer sprays pesticide on sesame fields in Burkina Faso, west Africa. Photograph: Alamy Pesticides Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities
Prefer the Guardian on Google Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found.
Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network , found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year.
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