Abstract
Pesticides are widely used in agriculture mainly to increase crop yields to cater huge supply of food products for increasing world population as well as to protect crops from pests and control insect-borne diseases. Increased use of pesticides results in contamination of the environment and the excess accumulation of pesticide residues in food products, which has always been a matter of serious concern. Pesticide residues in food and crops aredirectly related to the irrational application of pesticides to the growing crops. Accumulated pesticide residues in food products have been associated with a broad variety of human health hazards, ranging from short-term effects to longterm toxic effects. The preventive measures for pesticide residues in the developing countries are limited due to a shortage of funds and lack of defined government regulations. The impact of pesticide residues can be minimized by taking certain measures such as the rational use of pesticides, promoting organic farming, exploit natural and bio pesticides, and proper implementation and amendment of pesticide-related laws. The present article has been planned to review various aspects of pesticide residues including their accumulation in food products, impact on human health, and the preventive measures to counter their toxic effects.
Highlights
The term pesticide covers a broad variety of compounds including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, plant growth regulators and others[1]
The study in Poland revealed that out of 380 samples of the cereal grains, 34% were found to contain pesticide residues[16]. According to their investigation out of the analyzed cereals, the smallest amount of plant protection products residues was in mixed cereal grains and Avena grains whereasHordeum and Triticum grains contained the highest content of pesticide residues
Many victims could recover from acute cholinergic symptoms of sarin poisoning within a couple of weeks, but mental sequelae lasted for years[50]. These chronic neuropsychiatric consequences are serious public health problems caused by accidental and suicidal organophosphate poisonings and chemical terrorist attacks, which result in the losses of many years of productive life and incur large healthcare costs[38]
Summary
Many victims could recover from acute cholinergic symptoms of sarin poisoning within a couple of weeks, but mental sequelae lasted for years[50] These chronic neuropsychiatric consequences are serious public health problems caused by accidental and suicidal organophosphate poisonings and chemical terrorist attacks, which result in the losses of many years of productive life and incur large healthcare costs[38]. The high-exposure subway workers had a significantly slower performance of the finger tapping tests of both the dominant and non-dominant hands than control group[38] In another clinical study, most of the victims of the Tokyo subway sarin attack were found to have long-lasting somatic complaints (such as gastrointestinal problems, constipation, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, colitis, migraines, headaches, backaches, and skin disorders) at 5 - 6 years after poisoning. The pesticide-related laws should be implemented strictly and amended so as to reduce the cases of pesticide residues in food grains[77]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
