In the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), over 100 million people fall ill every year from foodborne diseases, of whom an estimated 37 000 die annually (disproportionally children). A number of studies have identified a clear relationship between occupational exposure to pesticides and a number of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). For example, respiratory symptoms were reported in 65.9% of farmers exposed to pesticides in Pakistan; lymphoproliferative disorders following exposure to pesticides in Egypt; and hepatocellular carcinoma in Yemen with 73.7% of farmers having a history of chemical contact with insecticides or fertilizers. However, a challenging task regarding the burden of foodborne disease is the attribution to chemicals in food as a source for NCDs, since this requires long-term epidemiological and exposure monitoring data.
Copyright © World Health Organization (WHO) 2020. Open Access. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).