Toxicological implications of pesticides: their toxic effects on seeds of food plants.

Pesticides are widely used for the protection of economic crops from a variety of noxious pests. The repeated and indiscriminate uses and the extreme stability of certain pesticides have led to their accumulation in plants, animals, soils and sediments, thus effecting widespread contamination of the environment. Soil contaminants are especially serious because they can inhibit or impair the seed germination of our food and feed crops. Seeds can come in close contact with pesticides through processes such as prematurity application, fumigation, seed dressings, and seed treatments. Several reports have indicated the toxic effects of pesticides on seed germination. Possible mechanisms of the toxic action on pesticides during the germination of seeds have been discussed with emphasis on biochemical, histological, and cytological alterations. Bioassay procedures employing seed germination as a smiple, feasible, economical, time-saving indicator of toxicity have been described briefly. Attention is then drawn to the possible potential health hazards arising from the presence of pesticidal chemicals in food plants since the toxicological implications of long term exposure to pesticides are often more far-reaching.