In Thailand, pesticide use has increased exponentially over the past 15 years causing critical public health concern. We used a geographic information system and applied a remote sensing method in an integrated manner on land use data to model the spatial patterns of pesticide exposure. We also used toxicological data to quantify the health effects in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributed to pesticide use in Thailand. We found that 56%of the total population (35,144,284 persons) had potential pesticide drift at their residences. Pesticide exposure was mostly due to glyphosate and paraquat applied to rice farms and atrazine applied to sugarcane farms, which were more widespread in the central and northeastern regions of the country. The total burden caused by pesticide use equated to 10,045 DALYs, of which more than half (52%) was due to use of paraquat. Regarding policy implications, all relevant sectors should work on reducing paraquat use in crop fields. Reduction of pesticide exposure should be placed as the top priority for making health-related pesticide management policies.
Several chemicals, including occupational carcinogens (OCs), have been used in Thailand. Apart from asbestos and silica, other OCs need to be identified for further monitoring and management. The study aimed to identify and conduct priority setting of these carcinogens in Thailand. The methods of the study were applied from Hanlon’s method for priority setting. The first step was to identify OCs from the lists of the National Hazardous Substance Registry by using the criteria as follows: 1) being classified as OCs by Loomis et al., and 2) having high amount of import/export in the country during 2018–2020. After that, the identified agents were ranked according to three criteria: 1) size of the problem, 2) severity of the problem, and 3) feasibility of interventions. The results found that 18 occupational carcinogens were identified and 12 of them were still allowed to be used in the country. According to available information, seven agents were matched for priority setting, and the top three scored OCs included 1) arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds, 2) trichloroethylene, and 3) formaldehyde. Further action plan includes health risk assessment, setting up of health surveillance, and implementation of preventive and control measures in the target workplaces.
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