Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
The vital importance of agriculture is well-recognised, as is the usefulness of pesticides in increasing agricultural yields and reducing spoilage rates. The usefulness of pesticides in mitigating disease-carrying pests (eg, mosquitos) is also well known. However, there are also risks associated with pesticide use. In addition to causing acute poisoning,1 they are also associated with increased cancer risks,2 among other diseases. A paper by Lebov and colleagues3 provides evidence for another potential risk associated with pesticides, that is, end-stage renal disease (ESRD). To our knowledge, this is the first report using the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) to assess the association between pesticide exposure and ESRD.
Currently, there is little literature available on the nephrotoxic effects of pesticides. The little research that does exist comes from animal studies and case reports of pesticide-poisoned individuals. Fortunately, our understanding of the role of occupational exposures, including pesticides, on ESRD development in humans is growing. An important tool supporting the growth of this understanding is the USRDS.4 Since the US government provides healthcare coverage, under Medicare, for all patients with ESRD and because these ESRD claims data are comprehensively captured by USRDS, USRDS represents a nearly complete national disease registry in the USA. Furthermore, because there is no other medical condition so covered by the US government, there is no other disease or injury in the USA that has such a nearly complete national registry. From the first use of USRDS to identify occupational …