India, Jan. 12 -- A combinations of insecticides from the nets could also end up in the waterways

Insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITN) have saved millions of lives from malaria since its development in the 1990s and free large-scale distribution since the mid-2000s.

However, across sub-Saharan Africa, ITNs are often used as fishing nets as several studies have suggested. This behaviour could endanger the health of fisheries as well as humans, according to a recent commentary published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The introduction of ITNs in malaria-prone tropical regions has also contributed to the problem of overfishing and has threatened fisheries with collapse.

ITNs are nets with small mesh which allows the capture of v...