Pesticides
Pesticides
What are Pesticides?
Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill, repel, or control unwanted pests, such as insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), fungus (fungicides), and other organisms harmful to cultivated plants, to humans and animals. Over 17,000 pesticides are sold (PAN, 2022).
Some pesticides are used to control pests carrying diseases, such as mosquitos, rodents, and cockroaches.
We are exposed to pesticides through contaminated air, water, and food. Pesticides cause acute and chronic diseases. Protecting children from pesticide exposure is imperative to ensure their healthy future.”
—Rafael Buralli, PhD
Environmental Scientist Brazil
Where are Pesticides found?
Only a small number of the pesticides actually reach their target; most of it leaches in the environment, contaminating the air, water, soil, and our food. Persistent pesticides, like DDT, can still be detected in humans 50 years after they were banned. Scientists have found pesticides in humans, including their:
• Blood, urine and hair
• Breast milk
• Cord blood of newborns
• Placenta
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Health impact of Pesticides on children and pregnant women
Pesticides are everywhere. Babies can be exposed to pesticides in their mothers’ womb since they cross the placenta. Children can be exposed when they play in parks or in and around their homes, or when they eat and drink non-organic foods. Children can be exposed to pesticides from their parent’s workplace or if they live near agricultural fields.
Pesticides are designed to kill pests. Unfortunately though, pesticides are poisons that also can disrupt human health, particularly children’s health. Children are often more vulnerable to pesticides because they are growing rapidly; fast growing cells take up more pesticides than slow-growing cells. As well, children often have higher body burdens of pesticides; pound for pound, children eat, drink and breathe more than adults. Pesticides can cause birth defects, cognitive deficits, and increase the risk for behavioral problems, such attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. Pesticides can also increase the risk of developing leukemia, brain tumors, and asthma.
Lower-income countries, which often have weaker pesticide regulations, still use highly toxic pesticide chemicals that are forbidden in more affluent countries. Indeed, 99% of acute pesticide poisonings – over 200,000 deaths each year – occur in lower-income countries (UN, 2017).
Ways to reduce and avoid Pesticides
Governments are ultimately responsible for reducing pesticide use and availability, but families can also take steps to reduce their exposure:
- Support policies that promote sustainable and organic agriculture
- Whenever possible, choose organic and locally grown food, especially fruits and vegetables
- Eat seasonal fruits that often use fewer pesticides
- Wash fruits and vegetables before eating
- Avoid using pesticides at home and in your garden by choosing natural repellents
- Never store pesticides in places that can be reached by children
- Ask your children’s school if they are using pesticides, and if so, to stop using pesticides
- Wet-clean your home regularly; dust may contain pesticides, especially in rural areas
- Take off your shoes when you enter your home
- If you are exposed to pesticides at work, don’t bring your clothes and work instruments home
Recent Studies on Pesticides
Pesticides are used all around us, in homes and gardens, schools, parks and agricultural fields. All too often, these chemicals are allowed onto the market before their impacts are fully understood — and harms to our health and the environment are discovered years later. The science is increasingly clear that even low levels of exposure can harm human health, and children are particularly vulnerable.
Our national rules governing pesticide use are surprisingly weak. Yet as public concern continues to grow, alternative approaches to managing pests are increasingly available and gaining ground in homes, schools and agricultural fields across the country.
Author: Pesticide Action network
Pregnancy, infancy, and childhood are sensitive windows for environmental exposures. Yet the health effects of exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) remain largely uninvestigated or unknown. Although plastic chemicals are a well-established research topic, the impacts of plastic particles are unexplored, especially with regard to early life exposures.
Author: Sripada, et al, 2022
A pesticide is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. Pesticides include herbicides for destroying weeds and other unwanted vegetation, insecticides for controlling a wide variety of insects, fungicides used to prevent the growth of molds and mildew, disinfectants for preventing the spread of bacteria, and compounds used to control mice and rats. Because of the widespread use of agricultural chemicals in food production, people are exposed to low levels of pesticide residues through their diets. Scientists do not yet have a clear understanding of the health effects of these pesticide residues. The Agricultural Health Study, an ongoing study of pesticide exposures in farm families, also posts results online. Other evidence suggests that children are particularly susceptible to adverse effects from exposure to pesticides, including neurodevelopmental effects. People may also be exposed to pesticides used in a variety of settings including homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces.
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