Harmful Effects of Agricultural Chemical Pesticides
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.2240Keywords:
chemical pesticides, pesticides, genetics, dna, cancer, tumor, mutationAbstract
Chemical pesticides have been used by the agricultural industry for decades, resulting in alterations to animal and human genomes. Direct exposure increases the risk of genetic mutations, especially in farmers. These pesticides also contain the chemical compound malathion, which may cause DNA methylation, influencing gene expression. Hyper- and hypomethylation can cause inconsistency in gene expression, leading to diseases like cancer and Parkinson's disease. Moreover, even the slightest exposure of fetuses to pesticides greatly increases their possibilities of tumor development. While chemical pesticides play a crucial role in agricultural crop production, the industry needs to ensure that pesticides are safe for human use.
References
National Research Council (US) Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. (1993). Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US). 1, Background and Approach to the Study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236265/
Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center. (2017, March 23). Pesticides. U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ohio-kentucky-indiana-water-science-center/science/pesticides
Cepeda, S., Forero-Castro, M., Cárdenas-Nieto, D., Martínez-Agüero, M., & Rondón-Lagos, M. (2020). Chromosomal Instability in Farmers Exposed to Pesticides: High Prevalence of Clonal and Non-Clonal Chromosomal Alterations. Risk management and healthcare policy, 13, 97-110. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S230953
Collotta, M., Bertazzi, P. A., & Bollati, V. (2013). Epigenetics and pesticides. Toxicology, 307, 35–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2013.01.017
Karwal, P., Mittal, P., Nager, G., Singh, A., Singh, I. K.. (2022). Chapter 13 - Effects of pesticides on human physiology, genetics, and evolution. Emerging Contaminants in the Environment, 287-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85160-2.00005-6
Navarrete-Meneses, M. d. P., Salas-Labadía, C., Juárez-Velázquez, M. d. R., Moreno-Lorenzana, D., Gómez-Chávez, F., Olaya-Vargas, A., Pérez-Vera P.. (2023). Exposure to Insecticides Modifies Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in Hematopoietic Tissues In Vitro. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(7), 6259. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24076259
Flessel, P., Quintana, P. J., & Hooper, K. (1993). Genetic toxicity of malathion: a review. Environmental and molecular mutagenesis, 22(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/em.2850220104
Giambò, F., Leone, G. M., Gattuso, G., Rizzo, R., Cosentino, A., Cinà, D., Teodoro, M., Costa, C., Tsatsakis, A., Fenga, C., & Falzone, L. (2021). Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations Induced by Pesticide Exposure: Integrated Analysis of Gene Expression, microRNA Expression, and DNA Methylation Datasets. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(16), 8697. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168697
Howard, T. D., Hsu, F. C., Chen, H., Quandt, S. A., Talton, J. W., Summers, P., & Arcury, T. A. (2016). Changes in DNA methylation over the growing season differ between North Carolina farmworkers and non-farmworkers. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 89(7), 1103–1110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-016-1148-0
Nicolella, H. D., de Assis, S.. (2022). Epigenetic Inheritance: Intergenerational Effects of Pesticides and Other Endocrine Disruptors on Cancer Development. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(9), 4671. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094671
Ficociello, B., Sturchio, E., Minoia, C., Casorri, L., Imbriani, P., & Signorini, S. (2010). Epigenetica ed esposizione ambientale a xenobiotici [Epigenetics and environmental exposure to xenobiotics]. Giornale italiano di medicina del lavoro ed ergonomia, 32(1), 13-22.
Reamon-Buettner, S. M., Mutschler, V., & Borlak, J. (2008). The next innovation cycle in toxicogenomics: environmental epigenetics. Mutation research, 659(1-2), 158-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mrrev.2008.01.003
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Olivia Xu
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.