The Impact of Pesticides - Academy Publish

occupational environmental health research through the look at the completecomplement of genes its expression and regulation, proteins and metabolites(Vlaanderen et al., 2010). These authors explored in a well design review thecurrently fields (genotyping, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics andmetabolomics) pointing for new insights in the near future. George and Shukla(2011) provided also a complete review of the research activities in the area oftoxicoproteomics focusing on the effects of carcinogenic pesticides, namelycarbamates. Although these authors considered proteomic technologies as relevanttools in this domain, other issues were also important to elucidate the sequentialsteps of pesticide-induced carcinogenesis (e.g. the analysis of metabolic activationof chemicals, genome analysis, mRNA measurements, and classical biochemicalanalysis). In their point of view a better dialogue among those areas and atransdiciplinary approach is needed to better understand the impact of thesechemicals on oncology research.The measurement of current perception threshold (CPT) using NeurometerCPT/Eagle, on the index finger and the great toe can be used as a biomarker tomonitor the effects of carbamate exposure among exposed workers (Lubis et al.,2008). By using three neuroselective frequencies range (2000, 250, and 5 Hz) theCPT values were prominent among farmers on both the medial and peroneal nerves.Sams and co-workers (2010) proposed the quantification of 5,6-dimethyl-2-(methylamino)pyrimidin-4-ol (MDHP) in urine, as a sensitive and specificbiomarker of exposure to pirimicarb. Using liquid chromatography with massspectrometry detection (LC–MS), these authors quantified this secondary metabolitein urine of exposed volunteers.The osmotic fragility of erythrocytes as a potential biomarker of oxidativemembrane damage in carbamate pesticide-induced damage to erythrocytes wasrecently described (Sharma et al., 2010).As reported previously, several carbamates may reduce male fertility inducingalterations on testicular morphology. For this reason, the selection ofhistopathological markers is highly dependent upon the toxicant mechanism ofaction, dose, and duration of exposure (Moffit et al., 2007). These authors discussedthe example of carbendanzim, a well known Sertoli cell toxicant, which was used tounderline the role of cytoskeleton alterations as markers of testicular injury. Theseauthors pointed also to multiple histopathological endpoints (e.g. seminiferoustubule diameter, sloughing and vacuolization of seminiferous epithelium, spermatidhead retention, and germ cell apoptosis) for a better understanding of the the loss oftesticular function.HUMAN EXPOSURE TO CARBAMATE RESIDUESThe presence of pesticide residues is a concern for consumers because carbamatesare known to have potential harmful effects to other non-targeted organisms thanpests and diseases (Gilden et al., 2010). People have environmental exposures topesticides mainly through diet. Human intake due to pesticide residues in foodcommodities is usually much higher than those related to water consumption and airAcademyPublish.org - The Impact of Pesticides27