Pesticides Use and Exposure Extensive Worldwide

Worldwide it is estimated that approximately 1.8 billion people engage in agriculture and mostuse pesticides to protect the food and commercial products that they produce. Others usepesticides occupationally for public health programs, and in commercial applications, whilemany others use pesticides for lawn and garden applications and in and around the home (1,2). Pesticides are defined as “chemical substances used to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigateany pest ranging from insects (i.e., insecticides), rodents (i.e., rodenticides) and weeds(herbicides) to microorganisms (i.e., algicides, fungicides or bactericides)” (1,3).Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the United State (US) each year andapproximately 5.6 billion pounds are used worldwide (1). In many developing countriesprograms to control exposures are limited or non-existent. As a consequence; it has beenestimated that as many as 25 million agricultural workers worldwide experience unintentionalpesticide poisonings each year ( 4). In a large prospective study of pesticide users in the UnitedStates, the Agricultural Health Study, it was estimated that 16% of the cohort had at least onepesticide poisoning or an unusually high pesticide exposure episode in their lifetime (5).Although attempts to reduce pesticide use through organic agricultural practices and the useof other technologies to control pests continue, exposure to pesticides occupationally, throughhome and garden use, through termite control or indirectly through spray drifts and throughresidues in household dust, and in food and water are common (6). The US Department ofAgriculture has estimated that 50 million people in the United States obtain their drinking waterfrom groundwater that is potentially contaminated by pesticides and other agriculturalchemicals (7,8). Children from 3-6 years old received most of their dermal and non-dietaryoral doses from playing with toys and while playing on carpets which contributed the largestportion of their exposure (9-12).