Читать книгу Hidden Hunger and the Transformation of Food Systems - Группа авторов - Страница 12

People get sick because they work under unhealthy conditions. Farmers, agricultural laborers, and other food chain workers get sick as a result of exposure to health risks in the field, factory or workplace, including acute and chronic pesticide exposure risks, production line injuries, and livelihood stresses. Pesticides alone are responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year, with 99% of these in developing countries [3]. Children are among those exposed to pesticides via ingestion, inhalation, or dermal contact, and are uniquely vulnerable to adverse effects due to developmental, dietary, and physiological factors [4]. The costs of pesticides extend far beyond farmers’ health bills, and also include lost productivity and income. Estimations of economic costs are difficult to come by. In the USA, where direct and indirect costs from occupational morbidity and mortality amount to USD 250 billion, the highest mortality rates have been found to be in the agricultural, food manufacturing, and food preparation industries [5]. In the UK, it is estimated that the health-related benefits of withdrawing approval for seven active substances used in pesticides could reach GBP 354–709 million in avoided healthcare costs for the maximum exposed farmworker population aged over 30 years. Extrapolating these figures, such benefits could reach EUR 3,568–7,160 billion over 30 years for the entire EU population [6].