Review article
Effect of pesticides on eye and vision
R. Pleština
; Institut za medicinska istraživanja i medicinu rada, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Marcela Piuković-Pleština
; Očna klinika Medicinskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zavrebu
Abstract
The aim of this article is to review the present knowledge on the effect of pesticides on eye and vision in exposed humans and experimental animals. The number of papers dealing with this topic is limited and the published material is not easily available. While the knowledge about the acute specific biological effects of different pesticides is wide, possible delayed effects caused by prolonged exposure have received surprisingly little attention. Recently, a number of Japanese authors have published retrospective studies on the effect of pesticides on eye and vision in exposed humans. A few reports have appeared from other countries too. Some of the obvious visual impairments found in selected populations indicated the existence of a special nosologic entity, which has become known as Saku Disease. The information from 21 papers is tabulated in the chapter dealing with the observations on exposed humans. The number of examined subjects, their occupations, type and duration of exposure are plotted against ophthalmological findings. Actual exposure was only seldom assessed. The most striking finding was the constriction of peripheral visual fields. However in most cases the methodology and conditions of the examination were insuficiently described. Some clinical observations on the effects of anticholinesterase miotics used in therapy of the glaucoma are also described. The experiments carried out in dogs, rats and rabbits were generally designed to enable the discovery of the possible effect of a given compound, but only seldom for studying the mechanism through which the eye impairment is generated. The morphological findings or electrophysiological changes were rather nonspecific. Limited efforts to explain these findings have not been very successful. Morphological changes and functional eye impairment in humans exposed to pesticides and in experimental animals treated with these chemicals, although very indicative, are still not fully confirmative of the unequivocal effect of pesticides on eye and vision in exposed humans.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
165735
URI
Publication date:
15.3.1977.
Visits: 820 *