Pesticides are toxic substances deliberately added to our environment. They are used because they are toxic and biocidal - to kill and harm living things. Pesticides are found everywhere in the world, contaminating soil, air, groundwater, surface water, rain, snow, fog, even the Arctic ice pack. Pesticide residues contaminate birds, fish, wildlife, domestic animals, livestock, and human beings, including newborn babies.

More than one billion pounds of pesticides are used annually in the U.S., primarily herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. While agriculture is the major user, home use is rapidly increasing, and pesticides residues are found at very high levels in urban areas.

Pesticides are widely used for control of cockroaches, fleas, termites, and other pests, in homes, apartment buildings, office buildings, schools, hospitals, supermarkets, retail stores, sports arenas, food storage facilities, and aircraft. Products sold directly to the public include aerosols, bombs, foggers, pest strips, baits, pet products, and insect repellents. There is an explosive use of pesticides on lawns, primarily herbicides, but also insecticides and fungicides. Golf courses are intensively chemically managed, as are many parks and recreation areas.

Municipal, county, and state pesticide use is extensive for maintenance of right-of-way on highways, railbeds, and power transmission line, for water and sewage treatment, rodent control, and mosquito control.

Pesticides are used in the manufacture of paints, pastes, glues, cosmetics, food packaging, textiles, fabrics, carpets, exercise mats, and many other consumer products. In 1939 there were 32 pesticide products registered in the U.S.; in 1993 there were 22,000. Pesticide use doubled every ten years between 1945 and 1985.

There is abundant evidence of the risk toxic pesticides pose to human health. The most vulnerable populations are children, the developing fetus, the elderly, the ill and immunocompromised, and those with asthma, allergies, and other medical conditions. Most worrisome from a public health perspective are chronic health effects such as cancer, infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and effects on the brain and nervous system.

Several recent studies show that children are at higher risk of cancer if their parents use pesticides in the home; recent studies also implicate pesticides in breast cancer. Community residents who do not use pesticides themselves are still at risk from exposure to drift from their neighbors' use, from state country or municipal use and agricultural or industrial applications.

Manufacturers' assurances that pesticides are safe if used according to directions, and that current laws and regulations provide adequate predictions have been proven time after time to be incorrect. Current laws do not protect workers or the public from long-term and chronic health effects from low-level exposures. Major spills, severe poisonings in workers, and deaths continue to occur even when all laws and regulations are followed.

Pesticide manufacturers, producers, major users, and regulators have a vested interest in preventing widespread dissemination of the health impacts of toxic pesticide use. The failure to fully disclose the potential long-term effects and consequences of toxic pesticide use in home, lawn, garden, school, and other community uses has profound public health implications.

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