Pesticide exposure and its association with type 2 diabetes mellitus among agricultural farmers in theni district of tamil nadu

Abstract

Pollution is the addition of substances or energy to the environment likely to produce harmful effects on human health and ecosystem Bahadar etal 2014 Environmental pollution has been a major health concern throughout the world since very long but the risks are higher in underdeveloped countries In low developed countries environmental pollution contributes about 8 point 9 percent of total disease burden Briggs 2003 Pesticides have received greater attention as they are the most commonly compounds in use today with more than 2 point 3 billion kilograms used worldwide in 2001 Juntarawijit and Juntarawijit 2018 Exposure to certain environmental toxicants may be associated with increased risk of developing diabetes Momtogomery 2008 There is a growing body of evidence for the role of environmental pollutants especially pesticides in the aetiology of diabetes and metabolic syndrome Swaminathan and Thangavel 2015 Organophosphate pesticides are extensively used in agricultural practices for protecting food and commercial crops from various types of insects. In addition OPs are also used in household situations for mitigating menacing pest varieties They are not very stable chemically or biochemically and are degraded in soil sediments and in surface water besides this small amounts can be detected in food and drinking water Although OP degrade faster than the OC they have acute toxicity hence posing risks to people who may be exposed to large amounts Kumar etal 2016 The exposure of agricultural workers to pesticides is a public health problem worldwide The annual incidence of acute intoxication from pesticides is approximately 18 per 100000 full time farm workers Thundiyil et al 2008 A large body of scientific evidence supports the existence of both acute and chronic effects of exposure to organophosphate OP pesticides the most commonly used in chemicals for agricultural pest control in agricultural workers Munoz Quezada etal 2017 OPs are neurotoxic substances widely used worldwide in agriculture and horticulture