Study estimates acute pesticide poisoning affects 402 million to 433 million farmworkers annually

A study published in Frontiers in Public Health estimates that about 46% of the world’s farmers and farmworkers experience unintentional acute pesticide poisoning each year. The research used publicly available data from 2006 through 2023 and was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network.

The authors estimated roughly 11,000 annual deaths, with nearly 60% in India, and called for better surveillance and a phaseout of highly hazardous pesticides. They said available reporting remains inadequate and did not assess long-term health effects.