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This research project aims to investigate the nature of the effects of combined exposure to pesticides on the major detoxification pathway.
<p>These three classes of pesticides - organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids - comprise the major agricultural insecticides in current use.
<p>Chemically, they share a common structural feature; they all contain an ester linkage. Hydrolysis of this bond is considered to be an important detoxification pathway for each of these classes of pesticide.
<p>Recent evidence has suggested that pyrethroid hydrolysis can be inhibited by low, dietary relevant, concentrations of organophosphate. Whether similar interactions may occur for carbamates is unknown.
<p>This work will employ human tissues and in vitro techniques to investigate whether dietary exposure to mixtures of organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids might be expected to alter the metabolic profile that would be expected from exposure to single compounds.
This research project aims to investigate the nature of the effects of combined exposure to pesticides on the major detoxification pathway.
<p>In its report on Risk Assessment of Mixtures of Pesticides and Similar Substances, the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) recommended a need for investigation and characterisation of the nature of combined actions of chemical mixtures.
<p>This project focuses on possible combined actions of organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids on the rate of metabolic detoxification via hydrolysis.
<p>Find more about this project and other FSA food safety-related projects at the <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/" target="_blank">Food Standards Agency Research webpage</a>.