Immunotoxicology of Pesticides

No one will dispute that the development of pesticides has been very beneficial to mankind providing higher crop yields to feed the world population and allowing to control of pests transmitted diseases, that is, eradicating malaria in many areas where it was endemic. Unfortunately, in addition to their beneficial properties, pesticides can have undesirable consequences as well. They differ from any other chemical substance as they are deliberately spread into the environment, and, since are designed to interfere with certain living species, variable levels of toxicity inevitably characterize them. By their nature, pesticides are potentially toxic to other organisms, including humans, and need to be used safely and disposed of properly. These side effects are due to the fact that the majority of pesticides targeting processes that are important for normal cell function they can have detrimental effects on humans and on the ecosystem. Since there are hundreds of pesticides, this article focuses on a few select pesticides to illustrate the immunotoxic potential of these agents.