Poisoning by some insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

To avoid accidental poisoning, pesticides must be handled according to prescribed rules. Furthermore, the exact composition of the pesticide formulation should be known. Cases of acute poisoning usually occur by ingestion and less frequently by the other routes. Symptoms may appear immediately but sometimes they can appear later and/or be more prolonged giving rise to delayed death and/or delayed morbidity. Acute poisoning by raticides and by organophosphate insecticides should deserve all our attention. Poisoning by herbicides containing chlorate salts, oxidative phosphorylation uncouplers or bipyridilium derivatives may be particularly dangerous. The ingestion of Paraquat, in particular, which is a veritable lesional poison, could be beyond all therapeutic resources.