The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

Manjula Weerasinghe; Melissa Pearson; Ravi Peiris; Andrew H Dawson; Michael Eddleston; Shaluka Jayamanne; Suneth Agampodi; Flemming Konradsen

doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040748

The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

Manjula Weerasinghe, Melissa Pearson, Ravi Peiris, Andrew H Dawson, Michael Eddleston, Shaluka Jayamanne, Suneth Agampodi, Flemming Konradsen

Department of Immunology and Microbiology

8 Citations (Scopus)

64 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In 15% to 20% of self-poisoning cases, the pesticides used are purchased from shops just prior to ingestion. We explored how pesticide vendors interacted with customers at risk of self-poisoning to identify interventions to prevent such poisonings. Two strategies were specifically discussed: selling pesticides only to farmers bearing identity cards or customers bearing pesticide 'prescriptions'. Vendors reported refusing to sell pesticides to people thought to be at risk of self-poisoning, but acknowledged the difficulty of distinguishing them from legitimate customers; vendors also stated they did want to help to improve identification of such customers. The community did not blame vendors when pesticides used for self-poison were purchased from their shops. Vendors have already taken steps to restrict access, including selling low toxic products, counselling and asking customer to return the next day. However, there was little support for the proposed interventions of 'identity cards' and 'prescriptions'. Novel public health approaches are required to complement this approach.

Original language	English
Journal	Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
Volume	20
Issue number	2
Pages (from-to)	134-137
Number of pages	4
ISSN	1353-8047
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040748
Publication status	Published - Apr 2014

Keywords

Agrochemicals
Commerce
Female
Humans
Male
Pesticides
Risk Assessment
Rural Population
Sri Lanka
Suicide
Surveys and Questionnaires

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040748Licence: CC BY-NC

Inj Prev-2014-Weerasinghe-134-7Final published version, 146 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

Weerasinghe, M., Pearson, M., Peiris, R., Dawson, A. H., Eddleston, M., Jayamanne, S., Agampodi, S., & Konradsen, F. (2014). The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka. Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 20(2), 134-137. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040748

The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka. / Weerasinghe, Manjula; Pearson, Melissa; Peiris, Ravi et al.

In: Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, Vol. 20, No. 2, 04.2014, p. 134-137.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Weerasinghe, M, Pearson, M, Peiris, R, Dawson, AH, Eddleston, M, Jayamanne, S, Agampodi, S & Konradsen, F 2014, 'The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka', Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 134-137. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040748

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abstract = "In 15% to 20% of self-poisoning cases, the pesticides used are purchased from shops just prior to ingestion. We explored how pesticide vendors interacted with customers at risk of self-poisoning to identify interventions to prevent such poisonings. Two strategies were specifically discussed: selling pesticides only to farmers bearing identity cards or customers bearing pesticide 'prescriptions'. Vendors reported refusing to sell pesticides to people thought to be at risk of self-poisoning, but acknowledged the difficulty of distinguishing them from legitimate customers; vendors also stated they did want to help to improve identification of such customers. The community did not blame vendors when pesticides used for self-poison were purchased from their shops. Vendors have already taken steps to restrict access, including selling low toxic products, counselling and asking customer to return the next day. However, there was little support for the proposed interventions of 'identity cards' and 'prescriptions'. Novel public health approaches are required to complement this approach.",

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The role of private pesticide vendors in preventing access to pesticides for self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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