Pesticides and occupational safety and health in Zimbabwe

Abstract

In Zimbabwe, the Department of Occupational Safety, Health and Workers’ Compensation in the Ministry of Labour collates, analyses and develops information systems out of reported accidents or cases of poisoning occurring throughout industry. The accidents/poisoning cases also include those due to pesticides. Reporting systems of accidents/poisonings are poor and deteriorating due to poor control strategies. This is because there is lack ol safety guidelines, enforcement machinery, low level of functional literacy among workers and users and lack of social security or health insurance schemes. It is therefore important to improve the accident/poisoning reporting system so as to get reliable representative statistics about occupational safety and health especially in association with pesticide poisonings.