UNDERESTIMATED RISK ON HUMAN HEALTH BY PESTICIDE USE

Abstract

Pesticides are in common use as biocides or plant protection products in almost all areas where people live and work. They are designed by their action to kill pests, to protect products from damage or to raise crops for food and feed. They have by their nature a toxic property and are regulated by a well designed legal regulation that fills the purpose to counterbalance the desired toxic action on pests with the level of protection of human health and environment from toxic damage by pesticides. The process of approval of active compounds and of formulated products applies technical rules to address hazardous end points and to set the conditions of tolerable use.

The concept is only as strong as the data on real use of plant protection products are collected in a mode that enables control in a reasonable regional dimension. These data are widely missed. It is unclear whether the allowed conditions of use are obeyed in reality and whether the high frequency of use of products in combination or in series (cocktail effect) still meet the goal to prevent damage. Biodiversity is already strongly impaired and thus ecosystem services are being lost.

Toxicological experties is needed to transform hazard based concepts to a risk based modus that focus on sensitive endpoints and takes into account long term effects that are now visible after decades of pesticide use

Keywords

• UNDERESTIMATED RISK ON HUMAN HEALTH BY PESTICIDE USE

Kaynakça

1. H. FOTH, J. WIESE, H. DESEL, N. BASARAN
2. Martin Luther University, Halle Saale, Germany Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin, Germany Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey