A Study on the Variety of Pesticide Poisonings in Hamedan (West Iran) in Dec 2007to Dec2008

Introduction: Pesticide poisoning is an important cause of worldwide mortality, especially in developing countries. Due to the fact that, Hamadan (a province in the west of Iran) is an agricultural area, every year some people are poisoned by these products. Material & methods: This prospective & cross-sectional study was designed to analyze the various causes of pesticide poisoning in patients who had been referred to Farshchian Hospital of Hamadan (referral center of the province for poisoning). The information was obtained from the patients themselves, and their relatives. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS software version 13. Results: The study showed that out of 1692 cases of poisoning in one year, 234(13.8%) had consumed pesticides, most of which (86.3%) were due to suicidal attempts. The most common pesticides used were: organophosphates (59.8%), Parquet (15.4%) and zinc phosphate (12.8%). Greater number of mortalities occurred with the use of organophosphate (10 patients, 4.3%). The Results showed that organophosphates are the most frequently used pesticides for attempting suicide. Conclusion: Educating the users and the community about the dangers of pesticides is essential to increase awareness about the toxicity of these agents and reduce the prevalence of poisoning.