Introduction Pesticides are very useful in the field of gardening for the fight against pests, which exposes gardeners to the risks associated with their use. The aim of our work was to study the incurred risks by the gardeners in Ouagadougou, to bring them to adhere to the prevention strategies implemented for their health and safety.

Methods It was a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 101 gardeners coming from three districts. They were involved in a no probabilistic way by a systematic recruitment.

Results Most of gardeners were illiterate (66.3%). Their ages ranged between 21 and 69 years old, with a median of 38 years. 78.2% of gardeners have been trained once on pesticides. Most of the vegetable growers used mainly pyrethroids (86%) as pesticide. More than 90% of gardeners apply products by spraying and they keep the stocks in the fields. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not worn. The empty containers were either buried in the ground or thrown into the fields. The respiratory tract irritation, respiratory difficulties, eyes irritation, and headache were the dominant symptoms after pesticide application. The drinking water came from wells not well covered in majority.

Conclusion With the strong urbanisation and the increase of the demand, the gardeners were taken to big use of pesticides most of the time without follow-up nor control, with all the possible risks for their health, those of the populations as well as for the environment.