Pesticide handling in farming activities involves substantial hazards for the rural population and for the environment. In Latin America, it is estimated that the population at risk of being affected by heavy metals is over 4 million. This research describes the different types of exposure to pesticides and heavy metals in a rural population (Loma del Gallo), considering both environmental and occupational exposure. This study consists of an inspection in a former pesticide factory (QUIMAGRO), analysis of heavy metals in samples from surface and ground water in the community close to the factory, and a survey to the local population about their perceptions of pesticide exposures. Containers with 34.6 tons of chemicals improperly stored were identified in the former factory and removed by the government. Arsenic and cadmium were found in groundwater, and the highest values were 0.012 and 0.004 mg/l, respectively. These contaminants were also detected in most surface water samples, with maximum values of 0.026 and 0.0001 mg/l, respectively. Results of the survey show that of the 44 participants 42 % were farmers. Farmers used 19 different pesticide products containing 11 active ingredients. The most used active ingredients were paraquat (65 %), methamidophos (35 %), and atrazina (29 %). Eighty-two percent of the farmers did not use personal protective equipment. In addition to the pesticides used in the agriculture of the area, pesticide containers were removed from the QUIMAGRO area, but the pollution was still present at time of sampling and it is evident by the odor of the site. Surface water had the major concentration of heavy metals than the groundwater. Loma del Gallo population has been exposed to toxic pesticide from QUIMAGRO and agriculture for many years. The farmers carry out mishandling of pesticides and they not use PPE.

Introduction: The occupational toxic risks from agricultural activities in El Salvador affect human and environmental health. The objective of this paper is to describe the management of pesticide by farmers confirmed with a chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) not associated to diabetes mellitus or hypertension. Methods: The study involved 42 male patients older than 18 years old with confirmed CKDu that have participated in different stages of pesticides management. This is a cross-sectional study; it was conducted from January to June 2011, in three communities of Bajo Lempa region, El Salvador. An interview was especially designed to investigate which pesticides were used and the farmer practices at different stages of pesticide use. Statistical descriptive analysis was carried out for the several studied variables. Results: All interviewed people had a direct relationship with agricultural activities. The majority of patients had poor education, 19% were illiterate and 55% only have primary education. Most farmers with CKDu had been exposed more than 10 years to hazardous pesticides. The most used pesticide was Hedonal/2, 4 D (100%). 95% interviewed patients mixed different pesticides and 63% dumped empty pesticide containers in the fields. Interviewees did not use appropriate personal protective equipment (100%). Conclusions: There is high use of hazardous pesticides by patients and some of these are banned and some are legal in El Salvador, but prohibited by other countries. Interviewed CKDu patients had high exposure to toxic pesticides due to the misuse in almost all stages. There is inadequate legislation and a poor law enforcement to prevent the misuse of pesticides in El Salvador. R. Mejía et al.

Introduction: In El Salvador Mosquito Borne Diseases (MBDs) is a serious public health problem due to produce morbidity and mortality. They produce a high economic loss, which contributes to the collapse of the public health system. Over the years, the Salvadoran public health system has invested large amounts of resources to minimize the problem through campaigns against MBDs. Despite this, the population is still affected by diseases such as dengue, and more recently chikungunya and zika outbreaks. The aim of this study is to evaluate sanitation conditions variables and identify knowledge, attitudes, practices related to the prevention of MBDs. Methods: A cross-sectional survey about sanitation conditions and knowledge, attitudes and practices on prevention of MBDs of inhabitant's ≥ 15 years from an urban community of a municipality with the highest number of cases reported in 2015. Results: Majority of respondents (98.2%) had direct supply of drinking water; however 96.4% of respondents were agreed that they had an inconsistent water supply. Regarding MBDs prevention respondents showed high acceptable knowledge (76.8%), high favorable attitude (92.1%) and an acceptable implementation of practices toward prevention reproduction of mosquitoes (58.5%) and a poor implementation of practices to prevent mosquito bites (38.3%). Conclusions: The findings revealed high acceptable knowledge about MBDs and a high favorable attitude regarding to prevent them, but also revealed a scarce implementation of prevention practices. The generalized storage of water on non-covered barrels because the inconsistent water supplies, can be source of proliferation of mosquitoes and therefore increases the risk How to cite this paper:

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This contribution describes the creation of a landslide hazard assessment model for San Salvador, a department in El Salvador. The analysis started with an aerial photointerpretation from Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of El Salvador (MARN Spanish acronym), where 4792 landslides were identified and georeferenced along with 7 conditioning factors including: geomorphology, geology, rainfall intensity, peak ground acceleration, slope angle, distance to road, and distance to geological fault. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were utilized to assess the susceptibility to landslides, achieving results where more than 80% of landslide were properly classified using in-sample and out of sample criteria. Logistic regression was used as base of comparison. Logistic regression obtained a lower performance. To complete the analysis we have performed interpolation of the points using the kriging method from geostatistical approach. Finally, the results show that is possible to derive a landslide hazard map, making use of a combination of ANNs and geostatistical techniques, thus the present study can help landslide mitigation in El Salvador.

Abstract:The presence of heavy metals in water resources directly affects consumer health. The quality of surface water resources in Central America is usually low due to the presence of metals and other pollutants. The lack of analytical instrumentation to perform routine monitoring of water has encouraged the development of easy tools to facilitate the determination of heavy metals in waters in remote sites. In this study, we evaluated the use of different sorbents, such as Adsorbsia As600 (titanium dioxide), Iontosorb Oxin, 8-hydroxyquinoline bearing functional groups, and Duolite GT-73, with thiol functionality, for Cd, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Al extraction. It was found that both Adsorbsia As600 and Iontosorb Oxin allowed the adsorption of all metals, and the recovery was achieved using either HCl or ethylenediaminetetraacetic sodium salt (EDTA) solutions. Hence, Adsorbsia As600 was employed for in situ sampling in the metal contamination evaluation of water samples (from 15 wells and nine storage tanks) from the municipality of Torola, Mozarán, El Salvador. The developed procedure allowed all the metals in the samples to be detected, and Ni and Al were found to be above Salvadoran guidelines for drinking water quality.

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