Research Article Increase in the Risk of Respiratory Disorders in Adults and Children Related to Crop-Growing in Niger Ali Mamane, 1 Jean-François Tessier, 2 Ghislaine Bouvier, 1 Roger Salamon, 2,3 Pierre Lebailly, 4 Chantal Raherison, 1,5 and Isabelle Baldi 1,6 1 ISPED, Equipe Epid´ emiologie des Cancers et des Expositions Environnementales, Centre Inserm U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Center, Universit´ e de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 2 ISPED, Centre Inserm U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Center, Universit´ e de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 3 Service d’Information M´ edicale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 4 UMR 1086 Cancers et Pr´ eventions, Universit´ e de Caen Basse-Normandie, Caen, France 5 Service des Maladies Respiratoires, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 6 Service de M´ edecine du Travail, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France Correspondence should be addressed to Jean-Franc ¸ois Tessier; jean-francois.tessier@isped.u-bordeaux2.fr Received 8 September 2016; Revised 25 November 2016; Accepted 30 November 2016 Academic Editor: Evelyn O. Talbott Copyright © 2016 Ali Mamane et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background and Objective. Environmental factors are an increasing concern for respiratory health in developing countries. Te objective of this study was to investigate whether Nigerien people living in cultivated areas have more respiratory symptoms than those living in pastoral areas. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 in two populations during the rainy season when land is cultivated. Environmental factors including pesticide use and respiratory symptoms were collected in adults and children during face-to-face interviews. Multivariate analysis between exposures and symptoms was performed in children and in adults separately. Results. Te study included 471 adults and 229 children. Overall, none of the households reported the use of pesticides for agricultural purposes. However, 87.2% reported the use of insecticides at home. Multivariate analysis showed that people living in agricultural areas compared to those in pastoral areas had an increased risk of respiratory symptoms in adults (wheezing, dyspnea, sudden shortness of breath, and cough without fever) and in children (cough without fever). Te use of insecticides showed no efect on respiratory symptoms afer adjustment. Conclusion. Tis frst epidemiological study on the environment and respiratory health conducted in Niger demonstrates a signifcant relationship between respiratory manifestations and the agricultural characteristics of the living area. However only the efect of insecticides in the home on respiratory health was observed. 1. Introduction In recent decades, environmental factors such as occupa- tional exposures have become a concern for respiratory health in the developing countries. Agriculture, the main industry in these countries, now has recourse to intensive use of pesticides in order to increase global food production. Pesticides could be herbicides, fungicides, acaricides, roden- ticides, and molluscicides [1]. In the meantime, the growing use of these chemicals has raised questions about the risks for population health [2]. It is well known that people working or living on farms or in their vicinity can be exposed to serious environmental health risks [3–6]. Te World Health Organization (WHO) considers that environmental factors are a root cause of an estimated one-quarter of the global burden of disease, rising to more than one-third in very poor regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa [7–9]. Te populations of these countries are more vulnerable because of the lack of regulations, the absence of health-monitoring systems, and inadequate information on the precautions required with regard to environmental factors [3, 6, 9]. Among the 626 million people living in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa, Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2016, Article ID 9848520, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9848520