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Health implications of agrochemicals on food, as mosquito repellents

Have you eaten vegetables lately that taste bitter? Or bought grains like beans, cooked and eaten them only to have running stomach or feel sick?…

Have you eaten vegetables lately that taste bitter? Or bought grains like beans, cooked and eaten them only to have running stomach or feel sick? Agrochemical products are commonly used by farmers to keep pests and weeds from crops, and also as fertilizers. They include pesticides and herbicides, among others.
However, the indiscriminate and excessive use of these agrochemicals , some of which are banned have negative effects on the health and environment.
With the ineffectiveness of many insecticides in killing mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects around the home, many families have resorted to using agrochemicals which are usually used by farmers on the field for agricultural purposes as insect repellents in the home.
People spray or sprinkle them inside their houses when going to bed and sleep while inhaling them.
“Agro-chemical products   are usually substances used for controlling pests and also preventing unwanted species of plants or animals from causing harm to foodstuff or crops ,”  says Dr. Uchenna  Onwufor,  a consultant gynaecologist and the executive director of GYNAE Care Research and Cancer Foundation, “ and sometimes as preservatives especially when transporting goods from the factories to the markets. Most of them are pesticides used in agriculture and for vector control.”
He said while they are supposed to have good effects because they are being used to prevent  a problem for instance they could also be harmful.
 “There are particular strains of organisms that destroy crops like cashew and rubber plantations and the agrochemical products are used to kill those pests and allow the crops to grow. While they are doing their useful jobs, they are potential contaminants to man and many of them either have short term or long term effects depending on how concentrated they are and the particular agents used to make them,” he said.
According to him some of these chemicals have been found in the breast milk of women like residues of  heavy metals and this shows how limiting them in the environment is very helpful.
He said some of them can contaminate food saying  crops absorb them and have some residues inside them thus contaminating  humans when they eat them while  contaminate food during storage.
 Onwufor said they also contaminate water when sprayed on water surfaces, particularly by people who use the chemicals to kill fish. The fishes are then sold to the end users in the market. Because the chemicals caused the death of the fish,  there is a high quantity of  that chemical in the fish and will be harmful when people eat them.
He said: “We can also inhale some of them especially those that are sprayed. Helicopters are used to spray some of the agrochemical products while they can be effective in killing the pests, they could cause problems to people when they inhale them. Some can be absorbed through the skin and direct contacts.
What are the illnesses these agro-chemicals causes?
The expert said some of them can cause silent damage to the body.  They can come as acute attack like an asthmatic attack when people inhale the chemicals. It can be an immediate effect like having a bad respiratory disorder following inhalation of these agents.
He said they can also cause cancer like cancer of the lungs, and miscarriage or recurrent miscarriages in women. A woman gets pregnant and loses the baby as a result of the buildup of these chemicals in her system. They also cause congenital effects in unborn babies.
“Some people can suffer neuro-behavioural disorders where the nerves have been damaged by some of these chemicals. There are some of them that can also reduce the sperm count in a man,” he said.
He said that people who stay in contaminated environments are more at risk but generally nobody is totally immune from the effect of the chemicals.
“For instance even though you are not in an environment where chemicals was used to kill fish if you as the end user buys and eats it , if you escape the inhalation effect , you eat the fish with the high loads of those chemicals. So the effects can be acute or severe long term poisoning effect,” he added.
He said deaths could also occur in cases of mass poisoning.
Using agrochemicals as insect repellents in the home
Dr Onwufor said most times in well aerated environments or where there is free flow of ventilation, the risk is usually low. However, he said these agents are supposed to be used in the open  but many people are now using them in enclosed environment and inhaling the fumes .
“I have had patients who come to the hospital after inhaling some of the fumes. Most time the house is an enclosed environment, it is very difficult to see a house where air flows from one room and comes out of the other. So we have a lot of these chemicals concentrating in that house and causing a lot of respiratory problems leading to increase in asthmatic cases and allergic reactions,” said Onwufor.
According to the expert, the chemicals could contaminate food in the home. People can also develop skin lesions as a result of contact with the skin and children may have access to them, drink them and be poisoned as they are very toxic and have long term effects.
Asked if people can spray or sprinkle the agrochemical products in the home, go out and return after some time to avoid inhalation, he said ideally it is not advisable to use them because the manufacturers did not make them for use in the house.
He said government needs to make legislation to check the chemicals farmers and fishermen use because “we are in trouble if fishermen use chemicals to kill fishes.” 
He added that government also needs to look at preservatives used for food storage as some western countries have laws banning the importation of certain foodstuff into their countries, because they found a large concentration of metals in the food stuffs that is not good for health, adding “here anything comes in because of inadequate legislation, and nobody is carrying out studies to find out the effect of these foods on the body.”
The health expert said some foreign countries are working on agents that are less harmful to the body and doing seed dressing as a way of reducing exposure to these agents.
He advised that there is need to educate farmers on the dangers of these agrochemicals and how to use them properly saying  it is not just to throw them away after use because they can contaminate waterways,  animals and humans through skin contact. And just like the health expert said we should know that while agrochemicals have good uses they have potential effects on our health.
“Reduce pollution in the environment through safe use of these chemicals and formulating better chemicals with less effect on the environment,” he said.
 

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