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The Dangers of Prolonged Pesticide Fumes

By their very nature, pesticides of all sorts have the potential to be dangerous as they're meant to kill or otherwise mitigate certain types of pests. Pesticides are in nearly every home and include antibacterial kitchen sprays, insecticides, weed-and-feed and more common products. Although they're generally considered safe when you use them according to the label, prolonged exposure to fumes can lead to a variety of symptoms.

  1. Causes of Exposure

    • The potential for exposure exists anytime a pesticide is applied. However, exposure to pesticide fumes often occurs when mixing or using pesticides in poorly ventilated areas, when breathing in the fumes, dust or mist during application, or when someone enters the area before the fumes clear. Other possible causes for exposure include faulty spraying equipment or leaks in the equipment or container. People more apt to suffer prolonged exposure include those who mix or transport pesticides, those who consistently apply pesticides or those who work in greenhouses or other areas where pesticide use is commonplace.

    Acute Symptoms

    • Inhalation effects often show up quickly after exposure and are often much more severe when exposure is for prolonged periods or to greater amounts of the pesticide. Acute effects -- or those that typically occur within 24 hours -- sometimes include your entire respiratory system being burned. This makes it difficult and painful to breathe. You may experience wheezing, coughing or asthma symptoms. In other cases, the fumes don't burn your respiratory system but rather quickly enter your bloodstream and are then carried throughout your body. Symptoms mimic other types of contact poisoning including gastrointestinal problems, muscle spasms, dizziness and more. Fumes may irritate your eyes, as well, causing burning or itching.

    Delayed Effects

    • Most effects of pesticide poisoning occur within 12 hours of exposure; however, delayed effects aren't unheard of or uncommon. In many cases, delayed effects are the result of repeated, prolonged exposures to either a single pesticide, a certain family of pesticides or a specific combination of pesticides. Delayed effects include chronic, developmental or reproductive, and systemic effects. Chronic toxicity symptoms include the production of tumors, cancer or changes in the chromosomes or genes.

    Problems with Diagnosis

    • Because the delayed effects of prolonged pesticide exposure sometimes don't show up for at least one day after exposure, it's often difficult to pinpoint if pesticide exposure was the cause of any symptoms. In some cases, symptoms may not show up for a few years. However, many effects of exposure can only occur if certain circumstances are at play, meaning that prolonged exposure increase the probability that all factors are present.

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