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FYI
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According to a study by the Center for Disease Control issued in March 2001, there
are wide arrays of toxic chemicals found in the bodies of American citizens that cumulatively could have potential adverse health effects.
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Source: www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report
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New scientific research is uncovering some important negative
health-related issues associated with pesticide use. For example,pesticides were identified by a National Cancer Institute study as a likely cause of
elevated rates of certain cancers among farmers.* Farmers are at higher risk than the general population for certain cancers: non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, skin melanomas, multiple myeloma, leukemia, and cancers of the lip, stomach, prostate, and brain. Exposures to 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T,
mecoprop, acilfluorfen, and other pesticides have been linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Exposure to insecticides has been associated with leukemia, multiple myeloma, and brain cancer.*
The full health risks associated with pesticides are unknown. Most pesticides have never been systematically reviewed
for their full range of potential long-term health effects on humans, such as potential genetic damage or damage to nervous, endocrine, or immune systems.* Data are particularly lacking for pesticides used in nonagricultural settings.*
Scientists do agree that infants and children are more susceptible to the effects of pesticides than adults because of
their developing physiology and increased proportional exposure. Infants consume two-and-a-half times more calories
per body weight than do adults, breathe twice the amount of air per body weight, and have twice the skin surface area
per body weight. Children drink many more liquids per body weight than do adults, including 21 times more apple juice.
The National Academy of Sciences reported that "exposure to neurotoxic compounds at levels believed to be safe for
adults could result in permanent loss of brain function if it occurred during the prenatal and early childhood period of brain development." * The National Cancer Institute has documented that some childhood cancers have been
increasing at a rate of nearly one percent per year for the past several decades.* Some of that increase may be
attributable to urban pesticide use.* In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency released its scientific study on
cancer risks to children which concluded that children ages two to 15 have a cancer risk 3 times that of adults when
exposed to mutagens. Mutagens cause cancer by damaging DNA. Mutagens are found in some pesticides.
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FYI
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The effects of pesticides on wildlife are not well documented. Prior to 1985, the
EPA did not review pesticides on the basis of potential adverse effects on wildlife. Since then, the EPA has canceled some pesticides like DDT and chlordane, based
partially on their effects on the environment. In Texas and other states across the country, pesticide residues have also resulted in fishing bans in many bays,
lakes and rivers.
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One recent study concluded that every day "more than one million
children age five and under (one out of 20)" in the United States may exceed what the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has determined to be a safe daily dose of organo-phosphate
insecticides.* The report analyzed more than 80,000 food samples tested for such pesticides by the federal government, using residue
levels found after washing, cooking, peeling, and preparing the food for normal consumption. The report also concluded that the use of organo-phosphate insecticides in the home compounded the
risk to infants and toddlers.* Many organo-phosphates are toxic to the brain and nervous system, which are especially vulnerable
during infancy and early childhood.
Scientists are also debating the relationship between pesticides—organophosphate pesticides-- that mimic the estrogen
hormone and the disruption of the endocrine system in humans and wildlife. The complex human endocrine system
consists of a series of glands, organs, and tissue that secrete and respond to hormones. Hormones play very important
roles in reproduction, child development, and the control of other bodily functions. Thus, anything disrupting the endocrine system may have "far-reaching" effects.* Pesticides with endocrine-disruption effects or effects on the
reproductive system are among the most commonly used and include the herbicides alachlor and atrazine, the
fungicides mancozeb and benomyl, and the insecticides carbaryl, dicofol, endosulfan, methomyl, methoxychlor, parathion, and the synthetic pyrethroids.*
Uncertainties about the potential endocrine-disrupting effects of many chemicals, including some pesticides, have been
sufficiently serious for Congress to require the EPA to develop guidelines for screening chemicals for their endocrine-disrupting potential.
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