The Impact of Pesticides - Academy Publish

individuals within 1 day (Jokanovic, 2009). Deaths occurred only in severe caseswhere treatment was delayed and/or insufficient atropine was administered.Furthermore, oximes have been tested in experimental studies and have been shownto be beneficial, alone and/or with atropine, in countering the toxicity of thecarbamates isolan, thimetilan, pyramat, dimetilan, aldicarb, neostigmine,physostigmine, pyridostigmine and others (Dawson, 1995). Only carbaryl toxicityreacted inversely and was increased by oxime (Dawson, 1995; Jokanovic, 2009).Rosman et al. (2009) developed a simple decision-making algorithm for the medicalfirst responders in a mass casualties event (such as the use of carbamatescompounds by terrorists as a weapon), suspected to be caused by a cholinergicsubstance (organophosphate or carbamate). According to the proposed algorithm,treatment should consist of atropine and oxime regardless of the exact toxiccompound involved. They speculated that in a mass casualties event, the benefits ofusing oximes outweigh the low level of potential risks (Rosman et al., 2009).Health problems from pesticides in the absence of acute poisoning are also clinicallyimportant. Several carbamates are rated as probable or possible carcinogens inhumans, according to the classification of USEPA (2004) and the IARC (IARC,1991). Epidemiologic studies of pesticide exposure and cancer incidence wasrecently reviewed by Weichenthal and colleagues (2010). This survey illustrates thatcarbamates may induce different types of cancer at occupational levels. Forexample, applicators with the highest LDs of exposure to aldicarb demonstratedhigh incidence of colon cancer, when compared to nonexposed workers. However,melanoma was associated to carbaryl exposed applicators.The evidence available today shows that both men and women can experienceadverse reproductive effects from carbamate pesticides. When women aresufficiently exposed to certain pesticides, several types of adverse reproductiveoutcomes may occur, and developmental problems in their children may result.According to Frazier (2007), the main adverse reproductive effects associated tofemale exposures are neurodevelopmental or childhood behavioral problems(carbaryl), and possible childhood leukemia (propoxur). However, no significanteffect on gestation, fertility and parturition indices, and average birth weight wasdemonstrated on experimental studies with rats exposed to propoxur (Ngoula et al.,2007). Regarding, male exposures associated with adverse reproductive effects, theyare related with carbaryl, carbosulfan and carbofuran and consist in spermaneuploidy and abnormal morphology in manufacturing workers (carbaryl); DNAfragmentation in men treated for infertility (carbaryl); chromosome aberrations andabnormal head morphology in mice spermatozoa (carbosulfan, carbofuran) (Giri etal., 2002; Meeker et al., 2004; Xia et al., 2005).LEGISLATIONIn recent decades, significant analytical developments have been achieved inpesticide residue analysis and, in many cases, focus has been put towards samplepreparation and analytical detection (Soler et al., 2004). This has allowed maximumresidue limits (MRLs) to become more and more stringent in food commodities andAcademyPublish.org - The Impact of Pesticides24