An agent that can produce a permanent alteration of structure or function in an organism exposed during embryonic or fetal life. The capability to cause malformations or defects to an embryo or fetus is called teratogenicity.
Published in Chapter:
Pesticide and Human Health: A Rising Concern of the 21st Century
Sonal Dixit (University of Lucknow, India), Madhu Prakash Srivastava (University of Lucknow, India), and Yogesh Kumar Sharma (University of Lucknow, India)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-6111-8.ch005
Abstract
Pesticides are known to be one of the extremely useful and incredibly beneficial agents for preventing losses of crops as well as diseases in humans. They are used in a large number of conditions as in farms, orchards, gardens, parks, sports lawn, residences, industrial areas, shops, schools, hospitals, airports, railway lines, drains, on animals, and on people for control of diseases such as scabies and head lice. People are exposed to pesticides in their daily lives through multiple routes of exposure such as occupational or food, water, and air. Many pesticides can be used safely and effectively, but care must be taken while using them. Several pesticides are beneficial in agriculture for killing pests. Yet many times their injurious effects offset the positive ones. Uses of pesticides are apprehension for sustainability of environment and global stability. This chapter aims to discuss pesticides, their types, routes of their exposure, human health concerns related to them, methods to stop using them, and a future scenario of the world after eradicating pesticides.