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Assessments of occupational health hazards of tobacco farmworkers in Andhra Pradesh, India

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Abstract

Objective

The present study aims to find occupational health hazards during agricultural operations performed by tobacco farmworkers and their relationship with different personal and occupational parameters.

Methods

A study was carried out among 120 tobacco farmworkers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Two soil regions (Northern light and Southern light soils) were selected based on the Tobacco Board of India (2019–20) to collect data through personal interviews with the help of a developed survey proforma. Gender-stratified and odds ratio (OR) analyses were used to examine variables associated with occupational health problems.

Results

Tobacco farm workers frequently experienced symptoms of Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), namely headache (14.2%), nausea (11.7%), dizziness and increased sweating (9.2%), weakness (7.5%), exposed running eyes (2.5%), and breathing difficulty (1.7%). They also occasionally had skin diseases, with the highest percentage of allergy (4.2), itching (3.33), rashes (2.5), and 1.0 % for superficial wounds, contact dermatitis, and traumatic skin lesions. The odds ratio (OR > 1) exposure was associated with higher odds of outcome; the values for the female gender, age (20–40 years), working months (1 to 4) per year, protective clothes, without protective gloves, headcovers, and footwear were 2.22, 1.80, 1.28, 5.39, 4.15, 3.39, and 5.78, respectively, showing higher odds of GTS.

Conclusions

GTS symptoms are a common illness that causes discomfort and loss of productivity. In tobacco cultivation, few operations involve working with bare hands, making the workers vulnerable to nicotine absorption and skin diseases. Few injuries were observed associated with the loading and unloading of tobacco leaves during curing in the barns. To prevent occupational health hazards, development of appropriate, cost-effective interventions suitable for farmworkers is needed, along with creating awareness of the potential hazards among them.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi; facilities were provided by ICAR-Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry, in Andhra Pradesh, India. We are also thankful to workers for sparing their time of interactions. The funding source from the Post-Graduate School ICAR-IARI, New Delhi is duly acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, 110012, India

    Achugatla Kesav Kumar, Adarsh Kumar & Hari Lal Kushwaha

  2. ICAR- Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi, 110012, India

    Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan

  3. Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, 110012, India

    Debashis Chakraborty

  4. Division of Vegetable Science, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, 110012, India

    Bhopal Singh Tomar

Authors
  1. Achugatla Kesav Kumar
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  5. Debashis Chakraborty
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  6. Bhopal Singh Tomar
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Contributions

AKK designed the study, conducted survey, and helped in writing—original draft, data analysis, and interpretation of the work. AK designed the study, supervised the work, reviewed, and edited the original draft. RV helped in writing and editing of data, analysis and interpretation of the work. HLK contributed to managing the work, writing, and conceptualizing the interventions. DC contributed to suggestions for conducting the survey. BST conceptualized the interventions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Achugatla Kesav Kumar.

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Conflict of interest

Achugatla Kesav Kumar, Adarsh Kumar, Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan, Hari Lal Kushwaha, Debashis Chakraborty, and Bhopal Singh Tomar declared that we have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Most of the farmworkers were illiterate. However, they were explained about the study, and verbal consent was taken for their participation. Moreover, no treatment/interference was done in their routine work; only observations were recorded.

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Supplementary file1 (PDF 349 KB)

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Kumar, A.K., Kumar, A., Vaidhyanathan, R. et al. Assessments of occupational health hazards of tobacco farmworkers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Toxicol. Environ. Health Sci. 15, 335–344 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13530-023-00186-5

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