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Pesticide residue is a stubborn problem affecting the quality and safety of agricultural products in China, and has not yet been fundamentally resolved. The purpose of this paper is to study farmers' perception of pesticide residues, as well as the main factors affecting their perception from the viewpoint of farmers. Additionally, this research attempts to explore the basic characteristics of pesticide residues arising in the process of producing agricultural products under the prevailing policy background, so as to provide decision‐making references for the Chinese government to deepen the security management system of agricultural products.

The structural equation model (SEM) is an analytical tool for the observation and treatment of latent variables that are difficult to observe directly, and for the consideration of inevitable errors. This paper investigates the main factors affecting farmers' perception of pesticide residues in the investigated regions based on the SEM and samples of 241 farmers in six counties (cities and regions) of three districts in the Jiangsu Province of China.

According to the research, regional difference, farmers' gender, age, years of education, pesticide training and their own demand for safe agricultural products had different influences on their perception of pesticide residues. Additionally, it was difficult to measure the influence of family characteristics on farmers' perception of pesticide residues. Although the present paper only shows a preliminary study, its conclusion provides a reference value for the Chinese government to deepen the reform of the quality and safety regulatory system of agricultural products.

There are many similar studies in overseas countries, but the application of SEM in the study of the main factors affecting farmers' perception of pesticide residues has not been completely reported previously in domestic literatures. The research assumption of this paper has practically verified that corresponding research conclusions of foreign scholars in this field have universality in China.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of technical training and the peer effects of technical training with farmers' pesticide use behaviors.

This study uses survey data from 300 peanut growers in Zoucheng County, Shandong, China, in 2016 and employs spatial econometric models to examine the relationships of technical training and the peer effects of technical training with farmers' pesticide use behaviors.

This paper reveals that important peer effects can be channeled through technical training and that these peer effects are sufficiently significant to encourage neighboring farmers to reduce the amount of pesticide use, to transform the structure of pesticide use, and to increase the usage amount of low-toxicity, low-residue pesticide use per hectare. The estimated parameters for the peer effects from technical training are significantly larger than those from technical training alone, which suggests that the technical training of neighboring farmers plays a greater role than technical training for farmers individually.

The research finds that technical training within smaller, localized, groups can induce previously unobservable spillover effects, and this provides a scientific, theoretical and empirical justification for agricultural technology extension that can lead to a rapid, effective transformation of applying new agricultural technologies in an environmentally sensitive and economically sustainable manner.

The purposes of this study were to analyze fruits, vegetables, water and soil for organochlorine pesticide (OCP) residues and to assess the food exposure of these pesticides in Qatar.

Pesticides were quantified in dates, leafy vegetables, fruiting vegetables, water and soil samples using a gas chromatography-electron capture detector and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. These pesticides were α-benzene hexachloride (BHC), ß-BHC, heptachlor, aldrin, g-chlordane, endosulfan I, α-chlordane, dieldrin, endrin and methoxychlor. Additionally, food exposure risk assessment was performed by estimating daily intakes of OCP.

Most analyzed samples contained at least one OCP residue. Endosulfan was the only pesticide that was not detected. The concentrations of OCP in samples were below the maximum residue level (MRL) except endosulfan. Among all the samples analyzed, ˜18% of those exceeded the MRL with respect to the concentrations of methoxychlor and heptachlor. Only intake of methoxychlor (0.018 mg/day) exceeded the MRL (0.01 mg/day). Dates and fruiting vegetables were likely to pose a higher risk than leafy vegetables because they contained heptachlor, endrin and methoxychlor. Leafy vegetables might pose a greater risk than dates and fruiting vegetables because of the presence of β-BHC and dieldrin.

Eight out of ten OCPs that were measured were found to be below the MRL. These pesticides should be eliminated from the food supply based on the Qatar National Implementation Plan of the Stockholm Convention in 2010. Based on the intake risk assessment, overall, the intake of OCP may not pose a major risk to human health as the concentrations of OCP were below MRL, except methoxychlor. Water and soil are the potential sources of contamination of OCP in foods that were tested in Qatar. To limit the health risks associated with OCPs, there is a need for close monitoring of food and agricultural practices and the types of pesticides imported into Qatar.

The study assessed the levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and their potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks in four regularly consumed fruit vegetables.

The OCPs’ residues were quantified using a gas chromatograph coupled with an electron capture detector (GC-ECD) and the dietary exposure of children, and adult consumers to the detected OCPs was evaluated using carcinogenic and systemic health risk estimations.

Aldrin, endrin, endrin aldehyde, a-endosulfan, β-endosulfan, endosulfan sulphate, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide and dieldrin were detected in the four fruit vegetables. The predominant OCP residue in carrot, cucumber, tomatoes and watermelon was endosulfan sulphate with mean concentrations of 2.532 mg kg⁻¹, 1.729 mg kg⁻¹, 2.363 mg kg⁻¹ and 1.154 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. The residues levels in some of the fruit vegetables were higher than their respective maximum residue levels (MRLs) of 0.01–0.05 mg kg⁻¹ set by the European Commission with concentrations above MRLs ranging between 25.5% and 100%. The systemic health risk estimations showed that the hazard index (HI) values for carrot (3.20), cucumber (9.25), tomatoes (50.21) and watermelon (16.76) were >1 for children consumers and the respective HI values of 2.87, 15.57 and 5.20 for adult consumers of cucumber, tomatoes and watermelon were >1 which implies potential systemic health risks. Four carcinogens (aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide) had cancer risk index values greater than the acceptable risk of 1 in 1 million for both adult and children consumers.

The paper shows that despite the ban on the use of OCPs in Nigeria, they are still being used for agricultural production especially on some locally produced and regularly consumed fruit vegetables as reported in the present study. The non-existence of surveillance programmes on pesticide usage and the lack of proper monitoring of pesticide residues in food products including fruit and vegetables must have contributed to the levels of the detected OCP in the samples analysed. The current daily intake of OCP via contaminated vegetables may pose potential health risks to both the children and adult consumers of the fruit vegetables.

This study contributes to the understanding of the health effects of pesticides exposure and of how pesticides have been and should be regulated.

This study presents literature reviews for the period 2000–2013 on (i) the health effects of pesticides and on (ii) preference valuation of health risks related to pesticides, as well as a discussion of the role of benefit-cost analysis applied to pesticide regulatory measures.

This study indicates that the health literature has focused on individuals with direct exposure to pesticides, i.e. farmers, while the literature on preference valuation has focused on those with indirect exposure, i.e. consumers. The discussion highlights the need to clarify the rationale for regulating pesticides, the role of risk perceptions in benefit-cost analysis, and the importance of inter-disciplinary research in this area.

This study relates findings of different disciplines (health, economics, public policy) regarding pesticides, and identifies gaps for future research.

Breast milk is considered the optimum food for infants during infancy. Pesticide residues may get transferred to infants through breast feeding and pose various serious health hazards. This paper aims to enumerate various pesticides that are present in breast milk and pose potential health risk to breast‐fed infants.

An attempt is been made to highlight various sources of pesticide exposure, their mechanism of transfer to breast milk and the possible health hazards to breast‐fed infants. Techniques to reduce the incidence of pesticides in foods are also outlined.

The exposure of lactating mothers to pesticides from various sources and their detection in breast milk poses various health risks to breast‐fed infants. Infants and younger children are more prone to pesticide poisoning than adults due to quantitative differences in absorption, metabolism, detoxification and excretion.

Adopting precautionary measures and minimising the application of persistent organic pollutants, breast milk could be prevented from pesticide exposure and thus could be recommended safe for infant feeding.

The paper shows that the protection of mothers from pesticide exposure would reduce the incidence of pesticides in breast milk, thus conferring health safety to breast‐fed infants.

Reviewing the Food Standards Report on Misdescriptions contained in this issue—the terms, names, phrases widespread in the field of agriculture and food—one cannot fail to notice the impressive role that words generally play in everyday use of language, especially in those areas where widespread common usage imports regional differences. The modern tendency is to give to words new meanings and nowhere is this so apparent as in the food industry; the Food Standards Committee considered a number of these. The FSC see the pictorial device as making a deeper impression than mere words in relation to consumer preference, which is undoubtedly true. Even Memory can be compartmentalized and especially with the increasing years, the memory tends to become photographic, retaining visual impressions more strongly than the written word. Auditory impressions depend largely on their accompaniments; if words are spoken with the showing of a picture or sung to a catchy tune, these will be more strongly retained than mere words on a printed label. At best, pictorial devices give rise to transient impressions, depending on the needs and interests of the viewer. Many look but do not see, and as for spoken words, these may “go in one ear and out of the other!”.

Wheat plants were grown in field plots of 3×3m area. After growth period of two months, the growing plants were sprayed with dimethoate and pirimicarb at the recommended dose. Spraying was repeated after a further 45 days. Plant samples were taken at intervals of zero, three, six, nine, 12 and 15 days after each application. A gradual and continuous degradation of the applied pesticides had taken place in the treated wheat shoots up to the end of the experiment. However, dimethoate showed more residues and persistence rather than pirimicarb. The break down and metabolism of the applied pesticides was correlated with some biochemical changes in the sprayed plants. Sampling dates of three and six days after application were the most critical periods to affect plant metabolism. A decline was noticed in chlorophyll, sugars and carbohydrates, total proteins and RNA content of wheat shoots as a function of the applied pesticides. Free amino acids were accumulated in the sprayed plants, meanwhile the DNA content did not show observable changes as a consequence of the applied pesticides treatment.

“It is generally accepted that the food industry must be scientifically based to cope with the problems, particularly of public health, which arise as new processes of growing, manufacturing, packaging and preserving food depart even further from traditional ways.”

The third general report of the Working Party on Pesticide Residues showed that pesticide residue levels in food in the UK are generally low and that estimated average dietary intakes are well within acceptable daily intakes, the safety levels set by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation.