الفهرس 
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Abstract
Insecticides are used to control insects which attack man’s food, crops, livestock and clothes, as well as those which transmi t infectious diseases. However, they present potential hazards to workers who come in contact with them in the processes of manufacture, for mulation, packing, transport and application, or in the course of harvest ing trea ted crops. A major hazard of insecticides in Egypt exists in the application of agricultural insectic ides to cotton plant, the main ~onomic crop,’ where the concentrations of the aerosol of the applied compounds are often sufficient to create an inhalation hazard to those in the immediate vicinity. Besides, skin absorption oftenly represents a main hazard to workers handling them. The applied insecticides mainly include organophospha tes, synthetic pyrethroids, carba mates and organochlor ines. Insecticides applied to cotton plant at present time include mainly the first two classes. Around 100.000 of seasonal workers and 14.000 of permanent of Ministry of Agriculture - the majority of them are youth - a.re employed for the application of insecticides for three months each year. Although many studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of human or animal exposure to the different pes t ic ides, litera ture lacks informations on the combined exposure to insecticides and the role of ecological and personal factors on insecticides’ toxi city. It has been anticipated, for example, that endemic diseases especially Schistosomiasis affect the liver function of infected subjects and consequently, may modify their tolerance to insecticide exposure, as well as liver function tests, e.g. SGPT, SGOT, LDH, etc....... Nutritional status, socioeconomic status and some personal factors may also have additional effects onto those of insecticides on the general health and metabolism, espe cially relative to carbohydrates and lipids. Moreover, cholinesterases have been known for long to be inhibited ~ exposure to organophosphorus insecticides~ however, their behaviour might be modified by combined exposure (physical, chemical and biological). , The present study comprised male employees and wrkers of the Ministry of Agriculture involved in agri cultural pest-control in the Governorates of Behera (n=193), Menufia (n=263) and Assiut (n=200) as well as groups of non-occupa tiona lly exposed subj ects inc lud ing 27 subjects from Behera, 72 subjects from Menufia and 90 subjects from Assiut. Also a sample of 37 subjects anticipated to have no occupational history of exposure ... ~ insecticides was studied in Alexandria to throw more hight on the impact of climatic, personal and social factors on assessed parameters. Workers were interviewed and examined twic€ : before and during pesticides’ appli cation season, where serum samples were analyzed for enzymatic and non-enzyma tic consti tuents. Data presented have indicated the following: 1- Controversal effect of pesticides on cholinesterases: inhibition of their activities occured in Behera, induction occured in Menufia while no effect was found in Assiut, these findings were paralled to those of acid phosphatase activity. 2- Effect on liver function tests included a decrease in the SGPT activity and increase in the levels of SGOT, LDH and alkaline phosphatase activities, by exposure to pesticides, especially during the pesticides appli cation season; while total bilirubin showed a varying effect. .. 3- No significant effect could be observed in both fasting blood sugar and the levels of urea in serum except for a few subg roups. 4- The CPK levels showed a trend of’ increase in -exposed workers: however, their levels decreased during pesti cides’ application seaso~. 5- The lipids metabolism was clearly affected by pesti cides exposure; the levels of total lipids and beta lipoproteins decreased and triglycerides increased in exposed workers while the levels of cholesterol generally decreased by exposure to pesticides; however tended to increase during pesticides appli ca tion sea son. The varying effect of pesticides’ exposure on the parameters assessed in the studied governorates has been attributed to rariation in climatic conditions and ---. in the per sonal and soc io-economic s ta tus of wor ker s the re. This view will be further supported (or disap proved) by the analysis of data in relation to the personal and socio-economic factors collected in the parallel study, and by the development of informations in literature relative to combined exposure similar to those practiced during the course of the study.