The aim of the current study was to evaluate and compare the toxicities of different types of mosquito repellents i.e. coils, mats and liquid vapors in animal models. Different types of mosquito repellents including liquid vaporizers, coils and mats have been extensively used by the people to get protection from the mosquitoes and diseases associated with them. The active constituents of these repellents include; allethrins, pyrethrins, paraffin and various other derivatives, are well known for their toxicities. Exposure of albino mice to these repellents for 3 h per day over a period of 20 days produced significant toxicological effects on vital body organs including; liver, lungs, kidneys, brain and heart. The order of toxicity of different repellents on nervous and hepatic tissues was found to be: Coil > Liquid > Mat while in renal and cardiac tissues, the coil was again found to be the most toxic one, mat with medium toxicity whereas liquid as least toxic (Coil > Mat > liquid). Lungs tissues are almost equally affected by all the repellants. On the basis of current findings, it has been concluded that exposure to various types of mosquito repellents can be deleterious to health and can cause various health related issues by producing pathological changes in the vital organs.

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The pyrethroid toxicants, fatal at high doses, are found as remnants of crop pesticides and ingredients of commercially available insecticides. The toxic effects of high-content insecticidal pyrethroid formulations are available in 0.05 g, 1.17 g, and 0.04 g pyrethroid-instilled products, namely burning coils, pyrethroid-soaked mats, and liquid formulations of pyrethroids that release pyrethroid vapor/smoke upon heating. They provided 5.46 g/kg, 21.15 g/kg, and 4.24 g/kg of toxicants to the experimental animals over a total of 3 weeks/5 h per os (p.o.) administration, producing necrosis, hyperemia, and fatty changes in the liver; fiber separation in cardiac muscles; atrophy, lymphatic infiltration, blood vessel congestion, and hyperemia in the heart tissues of the experimental animals. The glomerular tuft necrosis, cytoplasmic degeneration of renal tubular cells, necrotic tubules, congestion, and dilatation of blood vessels were observed in the kidney tissue of intoxicated animals. Air-space enlargement, interstitial inflammation, lymphocyte infiltration aggregates, connective tissue infiltration by inflammatory cells, and hyperemia were found in the lung tissues. The pyrethroid toxicants also produced nervous tissue degeneration and decreased neurons in the brain, which were observed through histopathological examinations of the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys, and liver. The protective effects of ascorbic acid (AA/vitamin C) and α-tocopherol (E307/vitamin E) at 100 mg/kg oral doses administered daily for the entire period of the toxicant exposure of three weeks to the experimental mice, aged between 3–4 months and weighing ≈30 g, ameliorated the tissue damage, as observed through the histopathological examinations. The ascorbic acid caused recovery of the liver, kidney, brain, and heart tissue damage, while α-tocopherol was effective at ameliorating the damage in the kidneys and lung tissue compared with the control groups. The high levels of tissue damage recovery suggested a prophylactic effect of the concurrent use of ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol for the subjects under the exposure of pyrethroids.

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