Biomedical Research

As widely used agricultural chemicals, pesticides are main source of air, water and soil pollution. They are also significant risk factors on human life not only effects on health as a result of misuse or accident, but also via leave a lasting harmful chemicals into the environment. The aim of this study is to investigate relationship between pesticides and human health. OECD environment statistics and WHO health statistics are used for the analysis. Pesticides variables are defined as insecticide, fungicide, herbicide and other pesticides sales, tonnes of active ingredients. Quality of life variables are defined as lung cancer (DALYs/1000 capita) per year, asthma (DALYs/1000 capita) per year, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-COPD (DALYs/1000 capita) per year, respiratory infection (DALYs/1000 capita) per year, cardiovascular disease (DALYs/1000 capita) per year, under age 5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. Canonical correlation analysis is used to explain the correlation between two data sets. As a result, it has been found positive associations between agricultural pesticide use and health risk. Insecticide has the most negative effect on the health. The present study finds no significant relationship between fungicide/herbicide sales and health factor. There is a strong significant positive link between pesticide sales and under age 5 mortality rate. Pesticide has also an impact on respiratory infection and cardiovascular disease. Production, use, storage, packaging and disposal of packaging after use processes of pesticides should be controlled. The use of pesticides should be minimized by the policies such as biological management of the pest and good agricultural practices.

Author(s): E. Selcen Darçin, Murat Darçin
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