Pesticides are used extensively throughout the world in agriculture and in pest control as well as for community health purposes.
Organophosphate (OP)
pesticide self-
poisoning is an important clinical problem in rural regions of the developing world that kills an estimated 200,000 people every year. Unintentional
poisoning kills far fewer people but is an apparent problem in places where highly toxic OP pesticides are available.
Neurologic dysfunction is the best documented health effect of
pesticide exposure. High-level exposure has both acute and long-term
neurologic signs and symptoms, and adverse effects have been reported in most type of pesticides, including
organophosphate (OP),
carbamate, organochlorine, and
pyrethroid insecticides,
herbicides, fungicides, and fumigants. Acute OP
pesticide exposure can involve in wide range of both central and peripheral
neurologic symptoms. Increased
neurologic symptom prevalence may provide early evidence of
neurologic dysfunctions, before clinically measurable signs are evident.In this study, we analyzed the cross-sectional data on
neurologic signs and symptoms from 225 rural children, both males (n = 132) and females (n = 93) who were occupationally and paraoccupationally exposed to methyl OPs (
dichlorvos,
fenthion,
malathion,
methyl parathion) and ethyl OPs (
chlorpyrifos,
diazinon,
ethyl parathion) as they belonged to agricultural families handling, mixing, and spraying the OP pesticides. The children completed a specially designed questionnaire (Q16) on
neurologic symptoms associated with
pesticide exposure with their parental help. A suitable reference group consisting of rural children (n = 50) never involved in
pesticide handling (neither outdoor nor indoor) belonging to similar socioeconomic strata included in the study to compare the prevalence of various
neurologic symptoms between the two groups.Among all the neurologic self-reported symptoms,
headache, watering in eyes, and burning sensation in eye/face were the most important clinical manifestations attributed to OP
pesticide exposure. These symptoms could probably be the consequence of chronic effects of most pesticides on the central nervous system. The
muscarinic symptoms reported the maximum prevalence of salivation (18.22%), whereas lacrimation was observed in 17.33% cases, followed by
diarrhea in 9.33% cases. The nicotinic clinical manifestations of acute OP
poisoning revealed excessive sweating in 13.78% cases and
tremors in 9.3% cases followed by
mydriasis in 8.4% exposed children. The characteristic
cholinergic symptoms, such as
insomnia,
headache,
muscle cramps, weakness, and
anorexia were also reported by both male and female exposed children. The high frequency of
neurologic symptoms observed in the study may be due to parasympathetic hyperactivity due to the accumulated ACh resulting from AChE inhibition.