Pesticides. Health enthusiasts swear they’re dangerous, while doctors have assured us that they’re not a problem. My family, in addition to many others, has jumped on the “health-kick” bandwagon that has grown increasingly prevalent in the past decade. Pesticides are chemical compounds that are engineered specifically to attract, diminish, or even kill a specific “pest”. Pesticides are designed specifically to their task, like killing specific insects, killing weeds, eliminating microbes and other microorganisms, and killing germs. Though pesticides are used on produce, unbeknownst to many people, pesticides sneakily make their way into our everyday lives in insect sprays, household cleaners, garden products, and even swimming pool chemicals. Being skeptical of the supposed benefit of living organically, and whether it outweighs the (large) costs, I was led to research the genotoxocity of pesticides. I aimed to come up with some consensus on the highly debated topic.
Pesticides are a necessary part of our lives. Though they’ve been used for a long time, they have not been researched extensively until more recently. It was not until Silent Spring (1962) that people even acknowledged the risk pesticides imposed on human health. For every one dollar the US spends on pesticides, there is a four dollar return on the produce that would otherwise be eaten, damaged, or not grown as efficiently. Pesticide and agriculture companies were not going to point out a problem. What is significant about pesticides is that they presented with an immediate effect, pesticide poisoning. Pesticide poisoning varies on exposure, but can include mild symptoms like irritated eyes and skin, to more severe symptoms like gastrointestinal inflammation and seizures. Ironically, as we have become more technologically advanced, we have been able to make more “efficient” chemicals — we have seen much greater effects. Though our chemicals are advanced in ridding pests, they are still dangerous, especially when they are not tightly controlled. Many of the studies on pesticides have been done in developing countries, where pesticide control is much more lax.
There are various levels of exposure, on an occupational level or an individual level (low-level exposure). Pesticide poisoning is what likely led to researching the effects of pesticides, which led to researching the long term affects. One longitudinal study conducted on 29 male agriculture workers accounted for the variation of exposure over the year by taking blood from the individuals in the spring-summer (high exposure) and the autumn-winter (lower exposure). It was found that in the time period of high exposure, the workers showed significant increase in chromosomal aberrations (CA) frequency, while the winter level exposed did not. This experiment was significant because it showed a possible correlation between CA frequency and intensity of exposure, in addition to the fact that CA are short lived.
A corollary study in Brazil was done with different conclusions. In studying CA, they found no significant increase between 20 agricultural workers and the control group. However, they found the GSTM1 gene, a gene which encodes for the GSTM1 enzyme that detoxifies compounds including carcinogens and other environmental toxins, to be 33% null. Because of the insignificant number of CA, they found a hard time concluding the correlation between CA frequency and the GSTM1 gene; however, they found that genetic variations between individuals’ chemical metabolizing enzymes will cause alterations to the cells in different ways and could lead to the development of several types of tumors. A different Brazilian study found a significant increase in CA of the affected, in addition to polymorphisms in at least one of the metabolizer genes. These polymorphisms, not uncommon, can lead to increased susceptibility of different kind of cancers.
There have been many studies associating different types of cancer with pesticides. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, lung cancer, and prostate cancer being some of the most common. The correlations vary on causes. One study does not suggest a reason for a specific cancer but suggests that the pesticides suppress the immune system and inhibit the production of T cells, which makes one more susceptible to cancer, especially if the same pesticide mutated their DNA. It is understood that those more genetically predisposed are at highest risk for the mutagenic pesticide to affect them.
These studies showed the definitive fact that pesticides are genotoxic. The effects of their genotoxocity are still debated and being researched, however everyone would agree that they are harmful. Perhaps what has delayed the study of these chemicals is their inherent usefulness. Doing without pesticides costs money and lowers productivity and efficiency. For example, “green” cleaning products are just not as effective as the harsher disinfectants. In conclusion, using herbicides, insecticide, and germicides sparingly proves to be more important than spending excessive amounts of money at Whole Foods.