author(s)
Ajit Singh and SS Jheeba

abstract
Though the use of agrochemicals has led to an increase agricultural productivity, their use has also been associated with many direct and indirect negative impacts on human health resulting in loss of working efficiency. 2000 people receive emergency care annually for actual or suspected pesticide poisoning, and approximately 10% are admitted to the hospital. Each year, 20-40 people die of acute pesticide poisoning in Rajasthan. Still unknown, however, is the number of affected workers in the Rajasthan who never see a doctor and who therefore go undiagnosed and unreported Pesticides as such are toxic chemicals and represent risk to use. The level of risk increases, where users are often illiterate, ill trained and do not possess appropriate protective equipments. This leads to higher incidences of ill effects of pesticides. Therefore, human pesticide poisoning and illnesses are clearly the largest environmental costs paid by the society for their use. This section presents different aspects of pesticides use by the sample households like the respondent’s characteristics, pesticides impact on farmer’s health, use of protective clothing while spraying pesticides, sources of awareness, knowledge of the households related to pesticides use, level of safety/precautionary measures, health impact or symptoms of diseases, and treatment measures of pesticide poisoning.