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Studying the effects of pesticides
on humans
M. Maroni
International Centre for Pesticide Safety, Busto Garolfo, Milan, Italy
Assessment of the health risks of pesticides to humans and regulation of
their use are based on experiments on laboratory animals. Concern over
the applicability of such studies prompted discussion at the 9th International
Workshop of the International Commission on Occupational
Health (ICOH). Highlights of the discussion and recommendations made
at the workshop are presented in this paper, along with a review of
difficulties associated with studies on people exposed to pesticides.
The use of human-exposure and health data for improving assessment of the
toxicological risk of pesticides and setting regulations to govern their use was
a topic of discussion at the 9th International Workshop of the International
Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH 1990). There was concern that the
regulation of pesticides is based mainly on data generated from animaltoxicology
studies and only to a limited extent on information about effects
on human health.
The aim of the workshop was to discuss studies on human exposure to
pesticides and the resulting health effects, identify advantages and limitations
on the use of such data by regulatory bodies compared with animal data, and
to formulate recommendations for ICOH. Participants were 28 experts from 9
countries representing international organizations, governmental agencies,
academia, and industry.
Presentations included: four on the generation of human-exposure data in
field studies, using dermal-deposit measurements and biological monitoring;
four on health effects in field workers applying pesticides, using biological and
clinical tests; an epidemiologic study of a large farming population in Canada,
investigating possible associations between the use of pesticides and health
effects; three on the development of protocols for conducting epidemiological
studies; the limitations of data on animal carcinogenicity for predicting carcinogenic
risk in humans; and the activities of the International Centre for
Pesticide Safety (ICPS).
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