This document presents a summary of the work of a multidisciplinary group of experts brought together by Inserm within the scope of the collective expert report procedure (Appendix) at the request of five Directorates General of the French government. The review, originally published in French, explores the effects of pesticides on human health and is based on the academic literature available during the first quarter of 2020. Over 5,300 articles constituted the document base for this expert report. It begins with a sociological analysis of the mounting concerns over pesticides and a presentation of knowledge on the exposure of the French population to pesticides. It then addresses some twenty pathologies, including neuropsychological and motor development disorders in children, cognitive and anxiety-depression disorders in adults, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancers in children and adults. A section is devoted to the specific active substances chlordecone and glyphosate, and to the family of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor fungicides. The presumption of a link between pesticide exposure and the development of disease is assessed based on the results of the epidemiologic studies evaluated and is qualified as strong, moderate or weak. These findings are placed into context with those of toxicological studies to evaluate the biologic plausibility of the observed links.
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