Toxicity and actual regulation of organophosphate pesticides

Abstract

Organophosphate pesticides (OPs) are widely used as agricultural or domestic insecticides and are necessary for maintaining a good-quality, stable supply of harvested farm products. OPs can, however, exert significant adverse effects on human health. Thus, it may be necessary to regulate usage of OPs and other chemical pesticides. In this review, to better understand the effects of pesticides including OPs on humans, we focus on their toxicity and actual regulation.

Keywords::

• Acetylcholine esterase
• neurotoxicity
• malathion
• aerial spraying
• poisoning

Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Hiroyuki Tsukagoshi and Dr. Takafumi Yamaguchi for skillful assistance in searching the literature.

Declaration of interest: No funding nor support has been received in carrying out this study.