[Pesticide impact on health: a study of tomato cultivation].

OBJECTIVE In addition to water contamination, the presence of pesticide residues in food poses a risk to the population, being a serious public health problem in Brazil. With the purpose of getting a better understanding of this scenario, the use of pesticides in tomato crops in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, was studied. METHODS Questionnaires were applied to obtain social and environmental information as well as morbidity rates and additional data on rural workers involved in tomato plantations in two regions of Pernambuco, Brazil. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS The results obtained in the two studied regions show that there is a lack effective policies to both protect the health of rural workers who have to deal with pesticides and the environment which has already been severely damaged.