Human and ecological burden of pesticide contamination: Toxicological impacts, detection technologies and...

Pesticides play an important role in modern agriculture by protecting the crops from pest infestation and preventing yield loss, thereby supporting global food security. However, their indiscriminate usage has raised serious concerns regarding environmental contamination, ecological imbalance and risks to human health. Global pesticide consumption has increased substantially over the last three decades, rising to nearly 3.7 million tonnes in 2023, according to Food and Agriculture Organization. This substantial increase represents the growing dependence on pesticides for chemical pest management in modern agricultural systems. As a consequence, large quantities of these pesticides are released into the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems where they bioaccumulate and lead to ecological disturbance, resulting in adverse toxicological effects on humans and wildlife. Despite significant research on pesticide toxicity, environmental fate, detection methods and remediation strategies, a significant gap exists as to how these components collectively contribute to pesticide risk assessment. This review utilises current knowledge of pesticide environmental fate, persistence, toxicological mechanisms, detection and biomonitoring approaches to provide mechanistic insights into induced toxicity and provide future directions for effective pesticide risk management. By integrating environmental persistence, biomonitoring, risk assessment and remediation within a unified framework, this review aims to provide a comprehensive perspective for advancing sustainable pesticide management and guiding future research, regulatory decision-making and environmental protection strategies.