Preface

 Throughout human history, pest control has been continually associated with man-made activities and it has undoubtedly played a role in protecting crops. For two thousand years, several kinds of pesticides have been used, not only by farmers but also by others, to control pests, weeds, and diseases. It is well known that the ancient Egyptians employed compounds containing alkaloids, including, among others, hemlock, aconite, and opium, to control pests, which were adopted as great favorites of the Greeks and Romans for use as poisons employed in medicine, rituals, and even war. During the industrial revolution, significant advances in the manufacture of synthetic chemicals were developed. Some chemicals employed during World Wars I and II accelerated the development of the modern chemical industry. Synthetic chemicals and technologies originally employed for warfare were then modified and improved for several civilian uses. In 1939, the Swiss chemist Paul Müller designed the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, which was manufactured to eliminate unwanted insects. However, it is also known that the insecticide was definitively banned in 1972 due to its severe toxicity. German researchers in 1943 developed organophosphate compounds, such as parathion, with insecticide properties, which are still in use today despite their high and persistent toxicity. Presently, international and national government agencies and administrations regulate the manufacture and use of pesticides, which are developed to persist in the environment for shorter periods and be less toxic for nontarget organisms to reduce environmental risk as a consequence of their use as pest control.

Widespread pesticide use continues to be indispensable for maintaining sustainable agriculture, the control of pest-borne diseases, and the health of human populations and ecological systems, among other uses. Consequently, pesticides are repeatedly introduced throughout the environment and they make a great contribution to the pollution of the environment since the global distribution is the manner they are employed.

Although a vast literature is available on pesticides, this book contains relevant information on diverse pesticides encountered in both anthropogenic and natural environments and provides valuable information on the toxicity of several agrochemicals that can negatively influence the health of humans and ecosystems.

The book begins with a chapter presenting an approach of several biomarkers employed for determining pesticide pollution. Different aspects have been deeply analyzed throughout the chapter, including the influence of diverse pesticides on the spore germination process and the differentiation of their gametophyte on ferns; the impact of some pesticides on fish breathing at physiological, histopathological, and tissue levels; as well as the toxicological pattern at hematological, biochemical, and structural parameters in amphibians. The second chapter is focused on the *omics* analytical methodologies as efficient current tools for evaluating the final biological response exerted by several environmental pollutants, e.g. chemical mixtures. The third chapter provides information on how several processes, namely leaching, diffusion, volatilization, erosion and run-off, assimilation by

microorganisms, as well as plant uptake, can displace different types of pesticides throughout the soil profile to increase groundwater pollution. The fourth chapter is an interesting review showing how massive pesticides—synthetic pesticides, biopesticides, and nanopesticides—are employed continually to protect crops, highlighting the harmful side effects inflicted on human populations. The fifth chapter provides information on the uses and misuses of agricultural pesticides in Africa. Lastly, the final chapter presents a review of the historical events related to pesticide employment in Africa. The chapter focuses on human activities that require the use of chemical agents for pest control to protect crops and animals, including humans, in African countries.

The editors of *Pesticides - Use and Misuse and Their Impact in the Environment* are enormously grateful to all the authors for contributing to this book. They have made an extensive effort to arrange the information included in every chapter. The contributions made by specialists in this field of research are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that the information presented in this book will continue to meet the expectations and needs of all those interested in the different aspects of pesticides.

The publication of this book is of great importance to those scientists, pharmacologists, physicians, and veterinarians, as well as engineers, teachers, graduate students, and administrators of environmental programs, who make and employ different investigations to understand both basic and applied aspects of the use and misuse of pesticides.

> **Sonia Soloneski PhD and Marcelo L. Larramendy PhD**  School of Natural Sciences and Museum, National University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
