Use of Pesticides in Agricultural Products and Its Impact on Human Health: A Review

Abstract

n the present review paper, reviews of recent research findings on health effects of pesticides on agricultural products has been highlighted. The review reveals that although the concentration of the health literature has been on individuals who are in direct contact with pesticides, e.g. farmers, and the literature on preference elicitation has focused on those with indirect exposure like the consumers. On reviewing it was found that majority of farmers used crop rotation and control by hand methods, also they were aware about the pesticide use. In contrast, a few of the farmers used cultural and biological methods. Although they are interested to use seeds which are pest resistance, they cannot use those because of non-availability of seeds. Few of the studies, reported excessive sweating (36.5%), burning/stinging/itching of eyes (35.7%), dry/sore throat (25.5%), and excessive salivation (14.1%), all were more prevalent among sprayers. Men experienced excessive sweating and eye and throat problems as associated with pesticide exposure. One of the study disclosed that increased risk was observed for some specific classes of pesticides. The study concludes that there are many inherent problems in conducting large-scale experiments to directly assess the causation of the human health problems associated with the use of pesticides.