Chemicals: Our Children's Toxic Environment

The scientific advancements of industry and agriculture have brought about the manufacture of over 75,000 synthetic chemicals, with a marked increase in the use of highly toxic pesticides in recent years. No matter where we live, our children are repeatedly exposed to these toxins. Most parents are not aware of the serious health risks our children face from pesticides and other industrial chemicals. The impact on short and long-term health is just beginning to be uncovered.

Children come in contact with pesticides every day through the food they eat, the water they drink and the air they breathe. In addition, most children are exposed to pesticides in their homes and schools, as well as on playgrounds, lawns, athletic fields, and public parks. These substances enter their small bodies through the skin, lungs, mouth and eyes. If the body cannot eliminate the toxins, they tend to be stored in body fat and accumulate over time.

Infants and small children are especially vulnerable because they absorb substances faster and have more difficulty eliminating them. Their kidneys are immature and cannot excrete foreign compounds as fast as adults.¹ Very little is known about the combined effects of repeated low-level exposures to many different chemicals. But the preliminary evidence and information that is known alerts us that we have a critical, universal problem that is slowly diminishing the health and well-being of our children.

Health Effects of Pesticides

Pesticides are designed to be toxic. Their purpose is to kill insects, weeds, fungus, rodents and other so-called pests. Sadly, they also kill other living things in the vicinity where they are applied. An estimated 67 million birds are killed yearly by pesticides in the U.S.² The majority of pesticides have not been fully tested for their ability to cause harm to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) admits that reliable toxicity data exists for only about 43 percent of chemicals in use today, and less than seven percent of chemicals used in high volume are thoroughly studied.

Our Children at Risk: The 5 Worst Environmental Threats to Their Health, published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), identifies the special vulnerability of children to environmental hazards and highlights the evidence pointing to a link between pollution and childhood illnesses. This 1997 report makes recommendations, at both the policy and personal levels, for the protection of the next generation. The chapter on pesticides is a fully documented, in-depth report that discusses the health effects to children from pesticide exposures. The report presents the epidemiological and laboratory studies that contribute to a growing body of evidence linking pesticide exposure to adverse health effects including cancer, birth defects, reproductive harm, neurological and developmental toxicity, immuno toxicity, and disruption of the endocrine system.

The evidence of cancer and other serious health effects from exposure to pesticides is compelling. Well-conducted, peer-reviewed animal studies have shown certain pesticides to cause cancer. Epidemiological studies indicate an association between pesticide exposure and the development of certain cancers in children including leukemia, sarcomas, lymphomas, Wilms' tumors (malignant tumors of the kidney) and brain tumors.⁴

In animal tests, most major classes of pesticides have been shown to adversely affect the developing nervous system, impairing both mental and motor development. These tests show that pesticides can cause subtle impairment in behavior when exposure occurs immediately before or after birth. Learning ability, activity level, memory, emotion, sight and hearing can all be affected.⁵ Reproductive or developmental disorders such as infertility, spontaneous abortions, and birth defects have been associated with pesticide exposure.⁶ A substantial body of evidence suggests that exposure to certain pesticides may compromise the immune system of infants and children, increasing their risk of infectious disease.⁷

A collaboration between public health professionals, environmental organizers, and policy advocates resulted in a 124 page report entitled Generations at Risk: How Environmental Toxicants May Affect Reproductive Health in California. This report looks at the science involved in determining toxicity of chemicals and states that "toxicological information is often incomplete. Animal testing usually looks at health effects using one chemical at a time. This strategy fails to provide information about interactive effects, which may occur with exposure to more than one chemical. Moreover, animal tests often fail to examine for subtle, delayed, or difficult-to-diagnose conditions. Epidemiological (human) studies are often limited by inaccurate exposure assessments and incomplete information about health outcomes. Further complicating matters, the federal government is reducing its support for research and information analysis. Corporate funding is filling the void, providing an opportunity for bias in study design and data interpretation."⁸