Evaluation of Gonadal Alterations in a Population Environmentally Exposed to a Mixture of Endocrine Active Pesticides.

Mar Requena-Mullor,Raquel Alarcon-Rodriguez,Ruqiong Wei,David Lozano-Paniagua,Angeles Navarro-Mena,Olga López-Guarnido

doi:10.3390/ijerph18052355

Abstract

Although there are studies that show that some pesticides produce gonadal dysfunction and gonadal cancer in different animals, there are not many studiesregardinghumans. This study determined the prevalence and risk in humans of developing ovarian or testicular dysfunction or cancer in areas with distinct exposure to pesticides, which have endocrine disrupting properties. A population-based case-control study was carried out on humans living in ten health districts of Andalusia (Southern Spain) classified as areas of high or low environmental exposure to pesticides according to agronomic criteria. The study population included 5332 cases and 13,606 controls. Data were collected from computerized hospital records between 2000 and 2018.The risk of gonadal dysfunction or cancer was significantly higher in areas with higher use of pesticides in relation to those with lower use.

Highlights

The temporospatial pattern of the gonadal diseases studied shows a parallel trend for ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, and testicular dysfunction, but not for ovarian dysfunction, whose prevalence showed variations throughout the period for the areas of high and the areas of low pesticide use
The multivariate analysis performed in this study revealed that women who lived in areas of high environmental exposure to pesticideshad 1.38 times greater odds of suffering from ovarian dysfunction than those who lived in areas of low exposure
This study found an association between environmental pesticide exposure and an increased risk of gonadal diseases

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Pesticides are unique, intrinsically toxic chemicals designed to be widely spread into the environment to kill off pests [1]. Pesticides produce adverse effects and are contaminants in the areas where they are used. This contamination may affect surface water and groundwater, soil, agricultural products, and plant debris; residential proximity to pesticide-treated farmland is an important pesticide exposure pathway that has an effect on human health [2]

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