Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Case fatality as an indicator for the human toxicity of pesticides - a systematic review on the availability and variability of severity indicators of pesticide poisoning

Susanne Moebus, Wolfgang Boedeker
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/126615
Susanne Moebus
1Centre for Urban Epidemiology, University Clinic, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Wolfgang Boedeker
2EPICURUS – Impact Assessment, Essen, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Objective To investigate if case fatality and other indicators of severity of human pesticide poisonings can be used to prioritize pesticides of public health concern. To study the heterogeneity of data across countries, cause of poisonings, and treatment facilities.

Methods We searched literature databases as well as the internet for studies on case-fatality and severity scores of pesticide poisoning. Studies published between 1990 and 2014 providing information on active ingredients in pesticides or chemical groups of active ingredients were included. The variability of case-fatality-ratios was analyzed by computing the coefficient of variation as the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean.

Findings We identified 145 studies of which 67 could be included after assessment. Case-fatality-ratio (CFR) on 68 active ingredients and additionally on 13 groups of active ingredients were reported from 20 countries. Mean CFR for group of pesticides is 12 %, for single pesticides 15 %. Of those 12 active ingredients with a CFR above 20 % only two are WHO-classified as “extremely hazardous” or “highly hazardous”, respectively. Two of seven pesticides considered “unlikely to present hazard in normal use” show CFR above 20 %. The variability of reported case fatality was rather low.

Conclusion Although human pesticide poisoning is a serious public health problem an unexpected small number of publications report on the clinical outcomes. However, CFR of acute human pesticide poisoning are available for several groups of pesticides as well as for active ingredients and show little variability. Therefore the CFR might be utilized to prioritize highly hazardous pesticides especially since there is limited correspondence between the animal-test-based hazard classification and the human CFR of the respective pesticide. Reporting of available poisoning data should be improved, human case-fatality data are a reasonable tool to be included systematically in pesticide registration and regulation.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 12, 2017.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Case fatality as an indicator for the human toxicity of pesticides - a systematic review on the availability and variability of severity indicators of pesticide poisoning
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Case fatality as an indicator for the human toxicity of pesticides - a systematic review on the availability and variability of severity indicators of pesticide poisoning
Susanne Moebus, Wolfgang Boedeker
bioRxiv 126615; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/126615
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Case fatality as an indicator for the human toxicity of pesticides - a systematic review on the availability and variability of severity indicators of pesticide poisoning
Susanne Moebus, Wolfgang Boedeker
bioRxiv 126615; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/126615

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Epidemiology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4395)
  • Biochemistry (9619)
  • Bioengineering (7111)
  • Bioinformatics (24915)
  • Biophysics (12642)
  • Cancer Biology (9979)
  • Cell Biology (14388)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7968)
  • Ecology (12135)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16010)
  • Genetics (10938)
  • Genomics (14764)
  • Immunology (9889)
  • Microbiology (23719)
  • Molecular Biology (9493)
  • Neuroscience (50965)
  • Paleontology (370)
  • Pathology (1544)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2688)
  • Physiology (4031)
  • Plant Biology (8685)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1512)
  • Synthetic Biology (2403)
  • Systems Biology (6446)
  • Zoology (1346)