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F&S Science Feb 2023To examine the association between consumption of fruits and vegetables and pesticide residue intake from consumption of fruits and vegetables and risk of ultrasound- or...
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between consumption of fruits and vegetables and pesticide residue intake from consumption of fruits and vegetables and risk of ultrasound- or hysterectomy-confirmed fibroids. Only a few studies have evaluated the association of fruit and vegetable intake with uterine fibroids, with inconsistent results. No studies have examined pesticide exposure through fruits and vegetables with fibroid risk.
DESIGN
Prospective cohort study. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
SETTING
Not applicable.
PATIENT(S)
A total of 81,782 premenopausal participants from the Nurses' Health Study II cohort were followed from 1991 to 2009 for fruit and vegetable analysis, and 49,927 participants were followed from 1999 to 2009 for pesticide residue burden analysis. Their diet was assessed every 4 years with a food frequency questionnaire. Fruits and vegetables were classified into high- or low-pesticide residues using a validated method based on surveillance data from the US Department of Agriculture.
INTERVENTION(S)
Not applicable.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Cases of ultrasound- or hysterectomy-confirmed fibroids were identified from self-reports to validated questionnaires.
RESULT(S)
From 1991 to 2009, 9,706 incident cases of ultrasound- or hysterectomy-confirmed fibroids were reported, and 4,195 incident cases were identified from 1999 to 2009. No association was observed between total fruit and vegetable consumption and uterine fibroid risk. Participants with the highest intake of total fruits (≥4/day) were 10% less likely to develop uterine fibroids compared with participants who consumed <1/day (95% CI = 0.80-1.01). No associations were observed with any other fruit or vegetable groups. An inverse association was observed between intake of high-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables and fibroid risk (HR for 5 vs. 1 quintile = 0.87; 95% CI = 0.77-0.99), while no association with low-pesticide-residue fruits and vegetables was observed (HR for 5 vs. 1 quintile = 1.08; 95% CI = 0.95-1.23).
CONCLUSION(S)
Our findings suggest that pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables are not associated with a higher risk of uterine fibroids. Furthermore, our results suggest that intake of fruits may be associated with a lower risk of fibroids. Future research in this area should focus on dietary exposures across the life course as well as assessment of class-specific pesticides.
Topics: Female; Humans; Vegetables; Fruit; Pesticide Residues; Prospective Studies; Pesticides; Leiomyoma
PubMed: 36549440
DOI: 10.1016/j.xfss.2022.12.001 -
Environmental Science and Pollution... Jun 2022Pesticides have been used to kill pests such as insects, fungi, rodents, and unwanted plants. Since these compounds are potentially toxic to the target organisms, they... (Review)
Review
Pesticides have been used to kill pests such as insects, fungi, rodents, and unwanted plants. Since these compounds are potentially toxic to the target organisms, they could also be harmful to human health and the environment. Several chronic adverse effects have been identified even after months or years of exposure. A few pesticide degradation processes have been studied including adsorption, homogeneous and heterogeneous (photo)catalytic oxidation, and biological methods. Although these methods have been playing a significant part in the pesticide's degradation, there are still gaps in many aspects. Here, we review the catalytic degradation of these pollutants by (metallo)porphyrins. To evaluate the P450 cytochrome's biomimetic behavior of these catalysts, various synthesized porphyrins have been used since 1999 and their activities were summarized in this manuscript. The porphyrins appear to act as good catalysts for the degradation of pesticides; in fact, they also have been shown as a useful tool for the elucidation of their degradation products. Achieving pesticide mineralization without intermediate products is still challenging, although the ability of this kind of catalysts to conduct the formation of some lower toxic products comparing their precursors has been verified.
Topics: Catalysis; Environmental Pollutants; Oxidation-Reduction; Pesticides; Porphyrins
PubMed: 35357647
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-19737-3 -
Journal of Agricultural and Food... Sep 2022Trifluoromethylpyridine (TFMP) is a biologically active fragment formed by connecting trifluoromethyl and pyridine ring. As a result of its unique physical and chemical... (Review)
Review
Trifluoromethylpyridine (TFMP) is a biologically active fragment formed by connecting trifluoromethyl and pyridine ring. As a result of its unique physical and chemical properties and outstanding biological activity, a variety of pesticide compounds with the TFMP fragment have been discovered and marketed and have played important roles in crop protection research. It is therefore a timely and valuable task to summarize the rationality on how to create new molecules containing TFMP fragments based on the structure-activity relationships, design mentality, and potential mechanism. This review gives a brief summary on the pesticides containing TFMP fragments in the past 5 years and introduces the latest progress of our group in this field. The aim is to provide readers with a convenient route to touch this topic and hopefully serve some educational purpose for graduate students as well.
Topics: Crop Protection; Humans; Pesticides; Pyridines; Structure-Activity Relationship
PubMed: 35403429
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c08383 -
Journal of Agricultural and Food... Feb 2023This paper reviews the impact of beer-making stages (malting, mashing, boiling, and fermentation) on the behavior of pesticide residues. The large use of pesticides on... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews the impact of beer-making stages (malting, mashing, boiling, and fermentation) on the behavior of pesticide residues. The large use of pesticides on barley and hop could cause the occurrence of their residues in beer. The foremost factors influencing the stability of residues (pH, temperature, and water content) and the physical-chemical properties of pesticides (octanol-water partition coefficient, vapor pressure, and water solubility) are essential to know their final fate. Most pesticides show a decrease in the unhopped wort because they are adsorbed onto the spent grains after mashing. In addition, their concentrations decrease during boiling and fermentation. Generally, maltsters should dedicate particular attention to the residues of hydrophobic pesticides because they can remain on the malt. Contrarily, brewers should control residues of hydrophilic pesticides because they can be carried over into young beer, disturbing the quality and organoleptic properties (flavor, aroma, taste, or color) of the beer.
Topics: Pesticide Residues; Beer; Pesticides; Sensation; Water; Hordeum; Fermentation
PubMed: 36651341
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07830 -
Scientific Reports May 2022When managed bee colonies are brought to farms for crop pollination, they can be exposed to pesticide residues. Quantifying the risk posed by these exposures can...
When managed bee colonies are brought to farms for crop pollination, they can be exposed to pesticide residues. Quantifying the risk posed by these exposures can indicate which pesticides are of the greatest concern and helps focus efforts to reduce the most harmful exposures. To estimate the risk from pesticides to bees while they are pollinating blueberry fields, we sampled blueberry flowers, foraging bees, pollen collected by returning honey bee and bumble bee foragers at colonies, and wax from honey bee hives in blooming blueberry farms in southwest Michigan. We screened the samples for 261 active ingredients using a modified QuEChERS method. The most abundant pesticides were those applied by blueberry growers during blueberry bloom (e.g., fenbuconazole and methoxyfenozide). However, we also detected highly toxic pesticides not used in this crop during bloom (or other times of the season) including the insecticides chlorpyrifos, clothianidin, avermectin, thiamethoxam, and imidacloprid. Using LD values for contact and oral exposure to honey bees and bumble bees, we calculated the Risk Quotient (RQ) for each individual pesticide and the average sample RQ for each farm. RQ values were considered in relation to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acute contact level of concern (LOC, 0.4), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) acute contact LOC (0.2) and the EFSA chronic oral LOC (0.03). Pollen samples were most likely to exceed LOC values, with the percent of samples above EFSA's chronic oral LOC being 0% for flowers, 3.4% for whole honey bees, 0% for whole bumble bees, 72.4% for honey bee pollen in 2018, 45.4% of honey bee pollen in 2019, 46.7% of bumble bee pollen in 2019, and 3.5% of honey bee wax samples. Average pollen sample RQ values were above the EFSA chronic LOC in 92.9% of farms in 2018 and 42.9% of farms in 2019 for honey bee collected pollen, and 46.7% of farms for bumble bee collected pollen in 2019. Landscape analyses indicated that sample RQ was positively correlated with the abundance of apple and cherry orchards located within the flight range of the bees, though this varied between bee species and landscape scale. There was no correlation with abundance of blueberry production. Our results highlight the need to mitigate pesticide risk to bees across agricultural landscapes, in addition to focusing on the impact of applications on the farms where they are applied.
Topics: Animals; Bees; Blueberry Plants; Farms; Pesticides; Pollen; Pollination; United States
PubMed: 35504929
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11156-1 -
Pest Management Science Jan 2024Biopesticides (commonly called Biocontrol or more recently bioprotection) have been experiencing double digit growth and now comprise about 10% of the global pesticide... (Review)
Review
Biopesticides (commonly called Biocontrol or more recently bioprotection) have been experiencing double digit growth and now comprise about 10% of the global pesticide market driven by increased return on investment, restrictions on chemical pesticides, and pesticide resistance and residue management. However, despite the large need for new herbicides due to widespread and increasing resistance to herbicides with almost most of the chemical modes of action, bioherbicides are an insignificant percentage of the total. The technical difficulty in finding bioherbicides that can compete with the spectrum and price of chemical herbicides has left agriculture with a paucity of new bioherbicides. Billions of dollars of investment capital are being invested in new, innovative startups, but only a small number focus on bioherbicide discovery and development, due to a perception of higher risk than plant biotech, biostimulants, bionutrients and other categories of biopesticides. However, the exciting new technologies that these startups are developing such as RNAi, sterile pollen, and systemic metabolites have potential to impact the market in 10 years or less. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.
Topics: Biological Control Agents; Pesticides; Herbicides; Agriculture
PubMed: 36765405
DOI: 10.1002/ps.7403 -
Frontiers in Endocrinology 2022There are many organochlorine pollutants in the environment, which can be directly or indirectly exposed to by mothers, and as estrogen endocrine disruptors can cause... (Review)
Review
There are many organochlorine pollutants in the environment, which can be directly or indirectly exposed to by mothers, and as estrogen endocrine disruptors can cause damage to the lactation capacity of the mammary gland. In addition, because breast milk contains a lot of nutrients, it is the most important food source for new-born babies. If mothers are exposed to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), the lipophilic organochlorine contaminants can accumulate in breast milk fat and be passed to the infant through breast milk. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate organochlorine contaminants in human milk to estimate the health risks of these contaminants to breastfed infants. In addition, toxic substances in the mother can also be passed to the fetus through the placenta, which is also something we need to pay attention to. This article introduces several types of OCPs, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), methoxychlor (MXC), hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), endosulfan, chlordane, heptachlorand and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mainly expounds their effects on women's lactation ability and infant health, and provides reference for maternal and infant health. In addition, some measures and methods for the control of organochlorine pollutants are also described here.
Topics: Environmental Pollutants; Female; Humans; Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; Infant; Milk, Human; Pesticide Residues; Pesticides; Pregnancy
PubMed: 35757428
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.890307 -
The Science of the Total Environment Jul 2022Traditional forms of agriculture have created and preserved heterogeneous landscapes characterized by semi-natural meadows and pastures, which have high conversation...
Traditional forms of agriculture have created and preserved heterogeneous landscapes characterized by semi-natural meadows and pastures, which have high conversation value for biodiversity. Landscapes in Central and Eastern European countries with traditional agriculture are a stronghold for pollinators, butterflies and amphibians, which have declined in other parts of Europe. Despite different landscape structures, agriculture-associated pesticide exposure in streams can be similarly high as in Western Europe. This raises the question whether the heterogeneous landscape can buffer a temporary water quality decline by agriculture. We investigated the influence of landscape heterogeneity and water quality, in particular pesticide exposure, on macroinvertebrate communities in 19 small streams in Central Romania. We sampled the macroinvertebrate community, assessed the ecosystem function of leaf litter decomposition and analyzed the parasite prevalence in Baetis sp. and Gammarus balcanicus. No association between pesticide toxicity towards macroinvertebrates and several macroinvertebrate metrics was found. However, the level of pesticide toxicity was generally high, constituting a rather short gradient, and the pesticide indicator SPEAR implied pesticide-driven community change in all sites. Landscape heterogeneity and forested upstream sections were among the most important drivers for the macroinvertebrate metrics, indicating increased dispersal and recolonization success. Agricultural land use in the catchment was negatively associated with vulnerable macroinvertebrate taxa such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera. G. balcanicus dominated the shredder taxa and its abundance was positively associated with the pesticide indicator SPEAR. Parasite prevalence in G. balcanicus increased with extensive land use (pastures and forests), whereas it decreased with arable land. Our results suggest that heterogeneous landscapes with structures of low-intensive land use may buffer the effects of agricultural land use and facilitate dispersal and recolonization processes of pesticide-affected macroinvertebrate communities.
Topics: Agriculture; Animals; Butterflies; Ecosystem; Environmental Monitoring; Invertebrates; Pesticides; Plant Leaves; Rivers
PubMed: 35302011
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154549 -
The diabetogenic effects of pesticides: Evidence based on epidemiological and toxicological studies.Environmental Pollution (Barking, Essex... Aug 2023While the use of pesticides has improved grain productivity and controlled vector-borne diseases, the widespread use of pesticides has resulted in ubiquitous... (Review)
Review
While the use of pesticides has improved grain productivity and controlled vector-borne diseases, the widespread use of pesticides has resulted in ubiquitous environmental residues that pose health risks to humans. A number of studies have linked pesticide exposure to diabetes and glucose dyshomeostasis. This article reviews the occurrence of pesticides in the environment and human exposure, the associations between pesticide exposures and diabetes based on epidemiological investigations, as well as the diabetogenic effects of pesticides based on the data from in vivo and in vitro studies. The potential mechanisms by which pesticides disrupt glucose homeostasis include induction of lipotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, acetylcholine accumulation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis. The gaps between laboratory toxicology research and epidemiological studies lead to an urgent research need on the diabetogenic effects of herbicides and current-use insecticides, low-dose pesticide exposure research, the diabetogenic effects of pesticides in children, and assessment of toxicity and risks of combined exposure to multiple pesticides with other chemicals.
Topics: Child; Humans; Pesticides; Insecticides; Herbicides; Diabetes Mellitus
PubMed: 37268216
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121927 -
Pest Management Science Feb 2021Pesticide drift is a serious environmental and safety concern that affects all of US agriculture. A number of mitigation techniques to reduce pesticide drift have been...
BACKGROUND
Pesticide drift is a serious environmental and safety concern that affects all of US agriculture. A number of mitigation techniques to reduce pesticide drift have been recommended by industry, academic and government agencies. These techniques are very costly or reduce the efficacy of the pest control product and have not been implemented by US agriculture.
RESULTS
When using a novel spray technique (Air-in), pesticide drift was significantly reduced by between 53% and 99% at 7.6 m from the orchard drip line when compared to the grower standard. This technique not only reduced pesticide drift, but also maintained or improved the amount of pesticide residue deposited (by 0.7-2.6-fold) and the percentage pesticide coverage (by 1.0-1.4-fold) with different air-blast speed sprayers on almond, walnut and pistachio.
CONCLUSION
The Air-in technique shows great promise in reducing pesticide drift while maintaining or improving pesticide coverage with minimal cost to the grower.
Topics: Agriculture; Humans; Pesticide Residues; Pesticides; Population Health; Prunus dulcis
PubMed: 32949089
DOI: 10.1002/ps.6094