Insecticide Reproductive Toxicity Profile: Organophosphate, Carbamate and Pyrethroids

Abstract

Exposure to pesticides is very common world-wide, and is broadly known the acute toxic effects to humans of pesticides following a high dose exposure; however, knowledge about chronic low-dose adverse effects to specific pesticides is more limited. Reproductive functions can be affected, with birth defects, impaired fecund ability, infertility and altered growth. This paper will focus on the deleterious effects that may appear in the offspring, during early and later stages of life, after prenatal exposure to insecticides, not only on women with direct exposure but also on subjects with indirect exposure such as consumers or residents of rural communities. Prenatal exposure to pesticides could alter normal fetal development and could threaten future welfare. The main changes observed in prenatal exposure to organophosphates are alterations in the central nervous system, in the metabolic and hormonal system as endocrine disruptor and over the birth outcomes. Carbamates may cause developmental delay when the applications of carbamates during pregnancy were nearby the home. Pyrethroids are among the most frequently used pesticides and account for more than one-third of the insecticides currently marketed in the world. For this reason the prenatal exposition used to be for long periods causing clinical, biochemical and neurological changes.