Review of human health impacts from pesticide use, analyzed through a gender perspective

Abstract

This documentary review analyzes publications from the last 10 years (2014-2024) on the health effects of pesticides from a gender perspective, focusing specifically on the differential impacts on women in agricultural settings. A systematic mapping study was conducted following the methodology of Petersen, et al. [1]. Databases consulted included Scielo, PubMed, and Redalyc. Search strings combined keywords such as "pesticides, health AND cancer," "occupational health AND agriculture (gender)," and "pesticides AND women" using Boolean operators. From an initial pool of 2,400 documents, a refinement process applying inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in a final corpus of 300 relevant studies. Of the selected documents, 29% addressed agrochemicals and health or cancer, 57% focused on occupational health and agriculture, and only 14% specifically examined pesticides and women's health. The review identifies multiple adverse health impacts on women, including reproductive disorders, specific cancers (breast, cervical, renal), respiratory diseases, endocrine disruption, and neuropsychological deficits. Women face heightened risks due to dual exposure pathways (direct field labor and indirect domestic contamination) compounded by systemic gender inequalities—limited access to information, inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and insufficient training on safe pesticide handling. Women are significantly underrepresented in pesticide health research (14% of selected corpus), despite evidence confirming greater biological susceptibility and distinct social vulnerabilities compared to men. Gender-sensitive occupational health policies are urgently required. These must include mandatory provision of appropriately fitted PPE for women, targeted educational programs on safe agrochemical handling, improved rural healthcare infrastructure, and the systematic inclusion of sex-disaggregated data in future epidemiological research.