Little is known about how bystanders perceive risks from pesticide use in areas with frequent aerial spraying of pesticides. This research aims to better understand how bystanders (school workers) from three counties of the Limón province in Costa Rica, who did not have a contractual relationship with agricultural production, perceive risks of pesticides in the areas where they work and live. A face-to-face survey was carried out among 475 school workers, of whom 455 completed all 33 questions on pesticide risk perception. An exploratory factor analysis characterized underlying perceptions of pesticide exposure. Nine factors explained 40% of total variance and concerned severity and magnitude of perceived risk, manageability, benefits and support of pesticide use, amongst others. We subsequently analyzed what variables explained the five factors with satisfactory internal consistency, using separate multivariable linear regression models. Older school workers, (male) elementary teachers, and women school workers (particularly from schools situated near agricultural fields with aerial spraying of pesticides), felt greater severity and/or magnitude of risk from pesticide use. This study shows that bystanders are concerned about health risks from pesticide use. Their risk perceptions are not only shaped by gender and age like previously reported in the literature, but also by job title and geographical context. Understanding of what hazards people care about and how they deal with them is essential for successful risk management, bystanders should therefore be considered as a relevant actor in debates around pesticide issues and for informing the development of regulations and risk reduction strategies.

在频繁空中喷洒农药的地区，旁观者如何看待农药使用带来的风险，我们知之甚少。本研究旨在更好地了解与农业生产没有合同关系的哥斯达黎加利蒙省三个县的旁观者（学校工作人员）如何看待他们工作和生活地区的农药风险。对 475 名学校工作人员进行了面对面调查，其中 455 人完成了关于农药风险感知的所有 33 个问题。探索性因素分析表征了对农药暴露的潜在看法。九个因素解释了总方差的 40%，以及相关的严重程度和感知风险的程度、可管理性、农药使用的益处和支持等。我们随后使用单独的多变量线性回归模型分析了哪些变量可以解释具有令人满意的内部一致性的五个因素。年龄较大的学校工作人员、（男性）小学教师和女学校工作人员（特别是位于农田附近、空中喷洒杀虫剂的学校）对使用杀虫剂的风险的严重程度和/或程度感到更大。这项研究表明，旁观者担心农药使用带来的健康风险。他们的风险认知不仅像以前文献中报道的那样受性别和年龄的影响，还受职位和地理背景的影响。了解人们关心什么危害以及他们如何处理这些危害对于成功的风险管理至关重要，