The region of Berkane in Oriental Morocco is well known for his high agricultural activity; indeed this implies the use of pesticides. But pesticides have harmful effects; they can cause injury to human health as well as to the environment. The range of these adverse health effects includes acute and persistent injury to the nervous system, lung damage, injury to the reproductive organs, and dy...

DO PESTICIDES CAUSE ASTHMA? Pesticides are chemical or biological agents used to kill or incapacitate unwanted organisms both indoors and outdoors. In and around the home, these agents are commonly and increasingly used to control rats, ants, cockroaches, flies, moths, mites, weeds, and molds. Pesticides are usually grouped into families not only depending on the organism they target (e.g., fun...

BACKGROUND agricultural pesticide poisoning is a major public health problem in the developing world, killing at least 250,000-370,000 people each year. Targeted pesticide restrictions in Sri Lanka over the last 20 years have reduced pesticide deaths by 50% without decreasing agricultural output. However, regulatory decisions have thus far not been based on the human toxicity of formulated agri...

OBJECTIVE To explore pesticide regulation in Trinidad and Tobago, and to ascertain pesticide utilization and retailers' selling practices on Trinidad, which is the larger of twin islands that constitute the republic of Trinidad and Tobago. METHODS Between February and June 2005, agrochemical retailers in Trinidad were surveyed about the most frequently sold pesticides and their knowledge and ...

Introduction: Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphorus pesticide that is commonly used in agriculture. This toxin is harmful to a wide range of organisms, including living organisms, useful arthropods, fish, birds, humans, animals, and plants. There are many physical, chemical, and biological methods for the removal of organophosphorus pesticides from ecosystems, among which biodegradation is prefer...

In Italy several studies have examined the association between cancer and occupation in agricultural settings, focusing on exposure to pesticides. Most of the cohort studies evaluated cancer mortality in licensed pesticide users. Many case-control studies considered hematolymphopoietic malignancies, and the most recent studies observed increased risks for use of specific chemical classes of pes...

The primary use of methyl isocyanate (MIC, CAS no. 624-83-9) is as a chemical intermediate in the production of carbamate pesticides. MIC is also used to produce polyurethane foam and plastics (ATSDR, 2002). Isocyanic acid (ICA, Cas no. 75-138) does not have commercial uses because of its instability. The potential for occupational exposure to ICA largely arises when it is generated as a therma...

Biological tests are necessary for studying the toxicity and biochemical effects of pesticides to individual species in the animal and plant kingdoms as well as for indirect determination of biologically important physical and chemical properties of pesticides. Some of the more important requisites for meaningful application of biological tests are careful method standardization; use of sensiti...

Polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCISs) for the monitoring of polar pesticides in groundwater were tested on two sites in order to evaluate their applicability by comparison with the spot-sampling approach. This preliminary study shows that, as in surface water, POCIS is a useful tool, especially for the screening of substances at low concentration levels that are not detected by l...

Advances in the applications of thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) for the separation, detection, and qualitative and quantitative determination of pesticides, other agrochemicals, and related compounds are reviewed for the period 1998-2000. Analyses are covered for a variety of samples, such as food, biological, and environmental, and for res...