Farm workers and farmers exposed to PARAQUAT.

Paraquat claims most of its poison victims among farm workers and farmers who are not protected when they spray the herbicide. Most applicators in developing countries have no access to the kind of protective clothing that manufacturers recommend.

Very often farm workers simply cannot afford protective clothing, safety goggles, and masks that would shield them from the poison spray or else they don't know enough about the risks. Also, wearing heavy protective clothing in the tropics may be impractical or impossible for many users. Decades-long information campaigns on the part of the pesticide manufacturers have done little to change that.

Surveys in developing countries show just how many farm workers are exposed to the poison that is paraquat: In Vietnam up to 85% of users wear no gloves when they spray, 89% have neither shoes nor boots, 56 % are forced to work with spray equipment that leak.