Pesticide A Threat to Human Health (original) (raw)
Related papers
Pesticides: A Contribution to Public Health
American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health, 1964
PESTICIDES, particularly the new synthetic insecticides, have recently come under attack-an attack so comprehensive that it has even involved the field of public health.
Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies, 2019
Pesticides are known to be one of the extremely useful and incredibly beneficial agents for preventing losses of crops as well as diseases in humans. They are used in a large number of conditions as in farms, orchards, gardens, parks, sports lawn, residences, industrial areas, shops, schools, hospitals, airports, railway lines, drains, on animals, and on people for control of diseases such as scabies and head lice. People are exposed to pesticides in their daily lives through multiple routes of exposure such as occupational or food, water, and air. Many pesticides can be used safely and effectively, but care must be taken while using them. Several pesticides are beneficial in agriculture for killing pests. Yet many times their injurious effects offset the positive ones. Uses of pesticides are apprehension for sustainability of environment and global stability. This chapter aims to discuss pesticides, their types, routes of their exposure, human health concerns related to them, metho...
Chapter 1 Pesticides , Environmental Pollution , and Health
2018
In recent years, people have been exposed to several types of substances with broad spectrum due to the rapidly evolving technology. One of these chemical substance groups are pesticides. Pesticides have been an essential part of agriculture to protect crops and livestock from pest infestations and yield reduction for many decades. Despite their usefulness, pesticides could pose potential risks to food safety, the environment, and all living things. Concern about the environmental impact of repeated pesticide use has prompted research into the environmental fate of these agents, which can emigrate from treated fields to air, other land, and water bodies. The importance of agricultural pesticides for developing countries is undeniable. However, the issue of human health and environmental risks has emerged as a key problem for these countries in accordance to a number of studies. In the last five decades, pesticide usages increased the quantity and improved the quality of food. Howeve...
Pesticides, Environmental Pollution, and Health
Environmental Health Risk - Hazardous Factors to Living Species, 2016
In recent years, people have been exposed to several types of substances with broad spectrum due to the rapidly evolving technology. One of these chemical substance groups are pesticides. Pesticides have been an essential part of agriculture to protect crops and livestock from pest infestations and yield reduction for many decades. Despite their usefulness, pesticides could pose potential risks to food safety, the environment, and all living things. Concern about the environmental impact of repeated pesticide use has prompted research into the environmental fate of these agents, which can emigrate from treated fields to air, other land, and water bodies. The importance of agricultural pesticides for developing countries is undeniable. However, the issue of human health and environmental risks has emerged as a key problem for these countries in accordance to a number of studies. In the last five decades, pesticide usages increased the quantity and improved the quality of food. However, with the increasing amounts of their usage, concern about their adverse effects on nontarget organisms, including human beings, has also grown. The purpose of this publication is to explain the nature of pesticides and their history, classification, risks, and effects on health and the environment.
Exposure to pesticides and the associated human health effects
Science of The Total Environment, 2017
• Pesticides are designed to function with reasonable certainty and minimal risk to human health. • Pesticide exposure is however turned out to be linked with various diseases including cancer. • In light of the significance of pesticide pollution, the general aspects of pesticides are assessed. • The current state of knowledge regarding pesticide use and its detrimental impacts is described.
Pesticide Contamination and Human Health
Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies, 2019
Pesticides play a vital role in modern farming in order to meet the needs of growing population. However, due to their toxic effects, pesticides cause a serious threat to public health. Pesticides when used excessively and carelessly cause social conflict, as most of the workers are intoxicated by these chemicals. These chemicals not only affect farmers and applicators but also adversely affect surrounding communities, flora and fauna. During the present decade, there is an increased awareness among the people regarding pesticide poisoning. The present chapter highlighted the adverse effect of pesticides on environment and on human health. This review helps to seek the attention of researchers, government, and non-government organizations on health issues that have been associated with the exposure of harmful chemical pesticides and encourage research on finding the new concept in modern agriculture involving a reduction in the use of chemical pesticides.
All groups of pesticides are toxic substances added deliberately to the micro and macro environment for their toxicity and biocidal effects to kill and harm living things. They do get added as their fall out to the environment. This unintentional act has had all the damaging effects not only on the microenvironment where they are used but also the macro and the global environment since their use has become immensely widespread, and they and their degraded or biotransformed products can be carried by air and water to far off distances. They can now be found anywhere on earth, contaminating soil, air, groundwater, surface water, rain, snow, and fog. Even the Arctic ice pack and the deep beds of the ocean are not spared from their presence. They and their residues, which are often more toxic than the parent compounds, have found their pathway into the food chain and have poisoned the birds, fish, wildlife, domestic animals, livestock, and human beings, including newborn babies. The impact of toxicity of pesticides is heavy as well as pervasive owing mainly to a wide range of their application for crop protection and home use as may be estimated from the share of their different classes in the market viz. herbicides 51%, insecticides 25%, fungicides 20% and others 4%. Herbicides have a larger market in the industrialized countries for home use for maintaining the lawns and for managing golf courses, parks and recreation areas. The use of insecticides and fungicides is extensive in crop protection but their home use has grown substantially during the last two decades. Homeowners and urban dwellers are thus at great risk of exposure to the toxic trail of chemical pesticides. The indiscriminate use of these chemicals on a massive scale such as that mentioned above has had profound impact on the living environment. According to a report by UNICEF, UNEP and WHO, the impact of the use of highly toxic chemicals takes the toll of about 5,500 children each day around the world from diseases caused by polluted air, water, food and environmental contaminants, which include the pesticides. Since the 1970s, the incidence of cancers, learning disabilities, autism, diabetes, early puberty, and abnormal penile development has skyrocketed among the children who comprise the most vulnerable group of citizens(ENS, May 10, 2002). It has been pointed out earlier that synthetic chemical pesticides had not been adequately tested for their chronic toxicity and not evaluated at all for their developmental toxicity. The study of developmental toxicology did not make such enviable progress as development of chemicals and that created a complete lack of understanding on how life processes may be affected by potentially toxic chemicals such as the pesticides. Although hazards of chemical poisoning had taken toll of hundreds of lives in the past yet it was not until the mid-1960s that chronic toxicity of the pesticides became a matter of concern. In the mean time evidences continued to pile up on the linkage of many of the hitherto unknown disorders with exposure to chemical pesticides that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and hormone disrupting. Damages done to the health of individuals by chemical pesticides have a wide range starting from acute toxicity with a single dose or exposure, to sub-chronic toxicity resulting from a few exposures and finally to chronic toxicity due to long term persistent exposures for each possible toxic end point. The toxic end points include cancer, damage to organs like the liver, kidney or heart, developmental disorders, damage to the immune system, central nervous system, reproductive system, and to the genes. Organisms, including test animals and man, react differently at different stages of development, particularly while in the womb, where scores of endpoints can be established, depending on the toxicity trail of the chemical pesticides and their end points. Such endpoints were either unknown for reasons of lack of understanding on developmental toxicology or were ignored when the pesticides and other toxic chemicals were introduced into the living systems.
The Effects of Pesticides on Humans and the Environment
This article highlights the use of chemical agents in agriculture, which undoubtedly causes a series of environmental impacts when used improperly and puts health and human life at risk. In a methodological, qualitative, bibliographic and exploratory way, with research in magazines and books specialized in the subject, it shows the bottlenecks of pesticides, in addition to highlighting possible problems that the ecosystem faces in the face of the indiscriminate use of these products. The article also seeks to show the serious consequences that the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals can bring to the environment, when used without information and knowledge, showing in the conclusion the importance of having environmental awareness. The present study brings a review of scientific reports of impacts of pesticides on the environment and human health. Human beings are subject to direct and daily exposure to these chemical compounds in the areas of production, treatment and storage of products, and indirectly, but with no less serious consequences for being exposed to residues found in the environment and in products consumed, so in a clear and objective way environmental preservation and education are fundamental. I.
Chemical pesticides as pollutants - Chapter 2
On pp. 25-37 of the book "Pollution Processes in Agri-Environment" (eds. I. Lang, M. Jolankai, T. Komives), Akaprint, Budapest, 2004. pp. 277. , 2004
The agri-environment is affected by a variety of pesticides. Some of these compounds enter the soil and surface waters through direct introduction but by far the most serious problems of pesticides found in the environment are created through indirect means. This paper summarises the current state of knowledge on the sources of pesticide pollutants and their impact on the environment and human health, and discusses challenges to the successful management of pesticide pollutants. The management of the numerous risks posed by pesticide pollutants to the environment and animal and human health includes the identification and control of sources of pesticide pollution, studying the fate, transport and behaviour of pesticides in the environment; and the treatment options for pesticide-contaminated sites.