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Health-risk assessment of pesticides:
development of epidemiologic approaches
F. White
Caribbean Epidemiology Centre,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Decisions regarding the manufacture and use of pesticides require input
from two developing sciences: toxicology and epidemiology. This paper
reviews the complementary nature of these disciplines and their underlying
assumptions, strengths, and limitations. However, fuily adequate
solutions to the complex problem of preventing harmful exposures also
require critical contributions from the social and behavioural sciences. A
major focus of discussion is an overview,from the epidemiological perspective,
of the other papers in this publication. The importance of the development
of information and the potential of epidemiological research as a
basis for community action are reviewed.
Fundamental ingredients for a healthy society include economic prosperity,
combined with fair and equitable distribution of the benefits and risks of
production. Aspirations, working conditions, living standards, and distribution
of wealth are all related to individual and community health. Pesticide
use today is widely recognized as indispensable to commercial agriculture,
food supply, forestry, and public health in virtually all parts of the world.
Defined as any substance or group substances for preventing or controlling
unwanted species of plants or animals, pesticides thus contribute to this
economic prosperity, so important to the health of a society.
The ideal pesticide should be highly species specific, cost effective, and have
no deleterious effects on the environment. However, all pesticides are inherently
toxic and, therefore, constitute a potential risk to the producer, the user,
the bystander, the consumer, and the environment. This risk may result in
immediate harm or the effects may take longer to be felt or may not occur at
all.
In practice, most pesticides fall far short of the ideal and exhibit a wide range
of toxicity for many species, including humans. The contemporary approach,
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