Does Pesticide exposure contribute to the growing burden of non - communicable diseases in Tanzania

Abstract

Pesticide exposure is becoming a public health concern in Tanzania. This review highlights the existing information on pesticide exposure, health effects, knowledge, and awareness on pesticide handling and management and in the current pesticide regulations in Tanza- nia. There was a significant increase in pesticides importation of up to 4.5 million liters’ in 2017 and registration of 1,114 pesticides in 2018. Food, water and soil are subjected to unacceptable levels of pesticide residues. Inadequate awareness of the effects of pes- ticides among the population of Tanzania was observed. Even though there are existing regulations governing pesticides, the inadequate management of pesticide in Tanzania was identified to contribute the malpractices in pesticide usage. Persistence of the malpractice in pesticide handling has been observed which argues for immediate intervention. Limited information concerning pesticide poisoning and adverse health effects has been reported but the magnitude of the health effects is not well known. There is scarce data on the association between pesticide and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Tanzania. This review is informative to the policy, practices, and intervention towards the existing situa- tion of pesticide in Tanzania. In addition, it calls for further investigation of the absence of data on pesticide exposure and NCDs