In an effort to get an almost global market, pesticide manufacturers have made their products available not only to farmers but to households, where they are often used indiscriminately and without proper observation of the stamped directions.
To make matters worse, some crops have been engineered to be resistant to pesticides, with the inevitable consequence that many farmers feel free to use ever higher doses of the chemicals to control the pests in the field.
But evidence is growing that the escalating environmental pollution of these persistent chemicals and the constant exposure derived from both environmental and household use is showing up in sometime the most unusual places with some serious consequences.
One of the growing problems with exposure to such chemicals is with women's reproductive systems.
Endometriosis, which until recently had a general incidence of around 10% in women's reproductive years, seems to have become more prevalent thanks to the exposure to pesticides.
Although endometriosis is not cancerous per se, one of its consequences is infertility. Its symptoms are no laughing matter either Most of the women who have the condition, suffer though debilitating pain.
What is worse, is that some of the pesticides that are to blame for the problem have been banned decades ago, and yet, they still linger in the environment, such as DDT. In fact, in those women tested whose endometriosis could be attributed in part to the chemical exposure, between 30 and 70% showed exposure to DDT.
What this shows, is how chemicals remain in the environment and cause cellular damage to the human body even decades later. This poses significant questions on how the current use of newer generation pesticides which are now almost ubiquitous in the environment will affect humans in the decades to come.
The study, in particular, showed that organochloride pesticides influence both the hormone production in females and their reproductive abilities.
Partial Source : MNT/ 11.06.13
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