Abstract
In recent years, the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults and children has dramatically increased. The conventional model regarding the onset of obesity is based on an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. However, other possible environmental factors involved, such as the exposure to chemicals like pesticides, cannot be discarded. These compounds could act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) that may interfere with hormone activity related to several mechanisms involved in body weight control. The main objective of this study was to systematically review the data provided in the scientific literature for a possible association between prenatal and postnatal exposure to pesticides and obesity in offspring. A total of 25 human and 9 animal studies were analyzed. The prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal exposure to organophosphate, organochlorine, pyrethroid, neonicotinoid, and carbamate, as well as a combined pesticide exposure was reviewed. This systematic review reveals that the effects of pesticide exposure on body weight are mostly inconclusive, finding conflicting results in both humans and experimental animals. The outcomes reviewed are dependent on many factors, including dosage and route of administration, species, sex, and treatment duration. More research is needed to effectively evaluate the impact of the combined effects of different pesticides on human health.
Highlights
When we examined the effect of prenatal exposure of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) at birth, we found that increased levels of OCPs (p,p0 -DDE/p,p0 -DDD and p,p0 -DDT, HCB) have a positive association with an increase in neonatal birth weight in girls
This systematic review reveals that there is still scarce evidence to support a clear relationship between exposure to pesticides and obesity in humans and experimental animals
It seems clear that effects of OCP on body weight and metabolic functions depending upon type and dose of the chemical, the timing of exposure, and the metabolic route
Summary
Obesity has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a chronic disease of epidemic global proportions (WHO, 2014). 13% of the world’s current population is obese Obesity appears to be a multifactorial disease with biological, psychosocial, and behavioral factors that include genetic, socioeconomic, and cultural influences [1,2,3]. Traditional approaches to obesity have considered that
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