PESTICIDE-INJURY SUPPORT

 While acute pesticide injury is usually treated in toxicology units, the long term after effects of both acute and chronic pesticide injury can be very complex, varied and far reaching. Many people continue to suffer symptoms long after the primary exposure, and due to damage to detoxification enzymes and to DNA, can be left with severely reduced capacity to metabolise low levels of pesticides. Living with hypersensitivities to pesticides in a world where such chemicals are increasingly ubiquitous can make life very difficult for sufferers, especially since the lifelong and often intergenerational impacts of pesticide exposure are poorly incorporated into the teaching within medical schools of traditional toxicology.  Acute pesticide injury can leave people with hypersensitivities to much lower levels of pesticides and other synthetic chemicals than the population at large, meaning that urban pesticide use  is not only a public health matter but a disability rights issue also: the ubiquity of pesticides in urban spaces can present major barriers in terms of accessibility to housing and other basic amenities for people who are disproportionately affected by low-level pesticide residues.

 

Some of these major gaps are being addressed more recently in new research directions encompassed by Exposome and Ecological Public Health discourse  (see above), but  direct clinical care remains scant and inadequate. The following charities and organisations offer important sources of information and support. 

 

• Aerotoxic Association. Provides support and information on neurological injury caused by organophosphate pesticides in aeroplane fuel. 

• Sarah Mackenzie Ross (UCL). Researches and treats neuropsychological impacts of pesticides exposure.  

• Sheepdip Sufferers Support group.  Group campaigning for better diagnosis and treatment for all those affected by organophosphates used in agriculture.

• The European Cancer and Environment Research Institute 
   

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