Analysis of the toxic mechanisms of different pesticides

Abstract

Although pesticides have been widely used in the agricultural field, their toxicity can cause various environmental and human health problems during the use of pesticides. This research will select several commonly used pesticides for analysis including pyrethroids, organophosphates (OPs) and DDT, and discuss their toxicity mechanisms and their relationship with human health. This research discusses the association between toxicity of pyrethroids and temperature. The toxicity of pyrethroids is a combined result of the mean temperature and daily temperature fluctuation, and most pyrethroids are very toxic to insects and fish, but non-poisonous for human in short term. While having prolonged exposure to pyrethroids also can have negative effect on human’s health. The plausible mechanisms of OPs toxicity are analyzed, which are less commonly acknowledged than cholinergic poisoning. This research will discuss DDT, including DDT synthesis method, chemical structure, structure activity, toxicity mechanism, emphasising the concept of “trihedralization” and the structure-activity relationship of DDT, which is not only dependent on the specific chemical groups in it, but on the whole molecule in combination. The relationship between DDE, a metabolite of DDT in maternal serum, and preterm labour and fetal growth restriction is described.