Organophosphate exposure, symptoms, and blood biomarker

Dear Sir, I read the recent publication on the symptoms of organophosphate exposure with a great interest.[1] Rastogi et al. concluded that “Among all the neurologic self-reported symptoms, headache, watering in eyes, and burning sensation in eye/face were the most important clinical manifestations attributed to organophosphate (OP) pesticide exposure.”[1] I agree that various symptoms can be seen in the studied subjects. However, there are some comments on this work. First, the validity and reliability of the tools for collection of the data in this work should be discussed. Since the symptoms are subjective, the difference among individual can be expected. Second, this paper does not directly reflect the clinical presentation relating to the exposure. Indeed, the biomarker monitoring is required for classification of the groups of the subjects depending on the exposure level. There is no doubt that the positive blood biomarker for organophosphate exposure can be detected among the subjects living in agricultural communities; however, this does not mean all subjects have unacceptable blood level.[2-3]