ReviewExposure to pesticides and the associated human health effects
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Pesticides are one of the few toxic substances released deliberately into the environment to kill living organisms (e.g., weeds (herbicides), insects (insecticides), fungus (fungicides), and rodents (rodenticides)). Although the term pesticide is often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides, it is also applicable to herbicides, fungicides, and various other substances used to control pests' (Matthews, 2006).
Agriculture is the largest consumer (around 85% of world production) of pesticides to chemically control various pests. Moreover, pesticides are also used in public health activities to control vector-borne diseases (e.g., malaria and dengue) and unwanted plants (e.g., grass and weeds) in ornamental landscaping, parks, and gardens. They are also useful in suppressing or avoiding the proliferation of insects, pests, bacteria, fungi, and algae in electrical equipment, refrigerators, paint, carpets, paper, cardboard, and food packaging materials (Gilden et al., 2010). However, unintended exposure to pesticides can be extremely hazardous to humans and other living organisms as they are designed to be poisonous (Sarwar, 2015). They may also be harmful to people who are exposed to pesticides through occupational (or home) use, eating foods or liquids containing pesticide residue, or inhalation (or contact) of pesticide-contaminated air (Pimentel et al., 2013). Even very low levels of exposure may have adverse health effects at early development (Damalas and Eleftherohorinos, 2011). The physical makeup, behavior, and physiology of children make them more susceptible to pesticides than adults (Mascarelli, 2013).
Pesticide exposure is linked with various diseases including cancer, hormone disruption, asthma, allergies, and hypersensitivity (Van Maele-Fabry et al., 2010). A line of evidence also exists for the negative impacts of pesticide exposure leading to birth defects, reduced birth weight, fetal death, etc. (Baldi et al., 2010, Meenakshi et al., 2012, Wickerham et al., 2012). On the basis of scientific evidence, the real, predicted, and perceived risks that pesticides pose to human health (occupational and consumer exposure) and the environment are fully justified. In light of the environmental significance of pesticide pollution and its impact, this review has been organized to describe the general aspects of pesticides with respect to classification, the status of pollution, the transfer route, and the impacts on human health. The objective of this review is to conduct a systematic review of published studies (since 1999 to 2016) with respect to the use of pesticides and their detrimental impacts on human health and ecological systems.
Section snippets
Methodology
A comprehensive literature search was conducted to accurately describe the impact of pesticide exposure and its health outcome. To this end, the following data sources were utilized: Medline, EMBASE, Science direct, PubMed, psycINFO, and papers cited in those database. In light of the extensiveness of the existing literature on this topic as well as the availability of many reviews, we focused on studies published mainly from 2010 to the present. No restrictions on study type were applied while
Types of pesticides
Pesticides can be classified by various criteria such as chemical classes, functional groups, mode of action, and toxicity (Garcia et al., 2012). Table 1 provides classification of pesticides based on different criteria. The active ingredients of most pesticides are either organic (contain carbon) or inorganic (copper sulfate, ferrous sulfate, copper, lime, sulfur, etc.) (Gunnell et al., 2007). The chemicals in organic pesticides tend to be more complex and less soluble in water than those of
Impact of pesticide use on the environment
As pesticides are designed to be toxic to particular groups of organisms, they can have considerable adverse environmental effects on other living creatures as well as diverse media including air, soil, or water (Aktar et al., 2009). The status of pesticide pollution in various environmental media (such as air, water, and soil) is summarized in Table 3.
Some pesticides (e.g., aldrin, chlordane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, and hexachlorobenzene) contain
Routes of pesticide exposure to human
Exposure to pesticides can occur directly from occupational, agricultural, and household use, while they can also be transferred indirectly through diet. Moreover, the general population may be exposed to pesticides due to their application on golf courses, around major roads, etc. The main routes of human exposure to pesticides are through the food chain, air, water, soil, flora, and fauna (Anderson and Meade, 2014). Pesticides are distributed throughout the human body through the bloodstream
Impacts of pesticide use on human health
Studies suggest that pesticides may be related to various diseases including cancers, leukemia, and asthma. The risk of health hazards due to pesticide exposure depends not only on how toxic the ingredients are but also on the level of exposure. In addition, certain people such as children, pregnant women, or aging populations may be more sensitive to the effects of pesticides than others. Fig. 3 displays the general types of health impact caused by pesticide exposure.
Conclusion
Although pesticides are developed to prevent, remove, or control harmful pests, concerns of the hazards of pesticides towards the environment and human health have been raised by many studies. There are indeed many inherent problems in conducting large-scale experiments to directly assess the causation of the human health problems associated with the use of pesticides. However, the statistical associations between exposure to certain pesticides and the incidence of some diseases are compelling
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge support from a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) (No. 2006-0093848) and from the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project title: Study on model development to control odor from hog barn, project No. PJ010521), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.
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