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Compiled by RATE (Real Alternatives to Toxins in the Environment)
Chemicals have replaced
bacteria and
viruses as the main
threat to health. The
diseases we’re beginning to see as the major causes of death in the latter part of this century and into the 21st century are
diseases of chemical origin. Dick Irwin, toxicologist at Texas A&M Universities
WHAT ARE
PESTICIDES?
Pesticides are poisons designed to kill a variety of plants and animals such as insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), and mold or fungus (fungicides). Pesticides include active ingredients (chemical compounds designed to kill the target organisms) and inert ingredients which may be carcinogens or toxic substances. They also include rodenticides and wood preservatives.
HOW DO
PESTICIDES REACH US?
Pesticides can be absorbed through the skin, swallowed or inhaled (most toxic). During application pesticides drift and settle on ponds, laundry, toys, pools and furniture. People and pets track pesticide residue into the house. Only 5% of
pesticides reach target weeds. The rest runs off into water or dissipates in the air. Drift from landscaping ranges from 12 feet to 14.5 miles. More serious effects appear to be produced by direct inhalation of pesticide sprays than by absorption or ingestion of toxins.
ARE REGISTERED
PESTICIDES SAFE?
NO.
Many of the safety tests used to test these products are fundamentally inadequate: they test for the acute (not chronic) effects of single (not multiple) chemicals on healthy (not sick, chemically sensitive or immuno-suppressed etc.) adult (not fetal or young) animal (not human) subjects exposed over short (not long) periods of time. Some of the companies testing pesticides have been charged and convicted of falsifying residue and environmental studies that were used to support pesticide registration in the US and Canada . Some pesticides become even more toxic as they break down. (In the US it is a violation of federal law to state that the use of pesticides is safe.)
Pesticides initiate and propagate multiple
chemical sensitivities. About 16 million US citizens are sensitive to pesticides (i.e. they have compromised immune functioning
as a result of pesticide exposure).
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