Open Letter: Pesticides Sabotage the Health, Behavior, and Academic Performance of Children

Pesticides are biologically active, toxic chemicals, designed to kill. Many of our most commonly used pesticides were developed as an outgrowth of nerve gas poison research, during World War II. No one - not your pest control applicator, not the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - can guarantee your safety when you or your loved ones are exposed to these products. Not surprisingly then, there are approximately 10,000 cases of pesticide poisoning in the United States annually. And the World Health Organization conservatively estimates that more than 25 million people are poisoned by pesticides, worldwide, each year, resulting in at least 20,000 deaths.

Pesticides are capable of disrupting the normal functioning of every major organ system in the body, but the nervous system is the most likely target. The nervous system consists of the brain, the spinal cord and a vast array of nerves and sensory organs. It controls most essential bodily functions like thought, movement, vision, hearing, speech, heart function, respiration, mood, etc. And even minor changes in the structure or function of this critical system may have profound, long-term consequences.

Young children are much more vulnerable to the lethal effects of pesticides, than adults. In testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Pesticides in 1992, Herbert Needleman, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and our leading national expert on lead toxicity in children said:

"There is no question that pesticides impair children's brain functions as insidiously as lead...When the brain is developing, it lays down connecting pathways. Introducing poisons, such as those contained in pesticides, can fundamentally and irrevocably throw this critical neurological development process off course."

Pesticides (even at very low levels) are capable of accumulating in the fatty tissue of the body and of causing persistent overstimulation of the central nervous system and alterations in brain activity. Children exposed to pesticides will have more ear infections, colds, bouts of pneumonia, asthma and flu and are likely to become chemically hypersensitive. These children will often have difficulty concentrating and will exhibit short-term memory loss, attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, mental confusion, forgetfulness, cognitive impairments, difficulty interpreting the spoken or written word, headache, depression, social withdrawal, blurred vision, seizures, skin irritations, behavioral and emotional problems, anxiety, dizziness, lack of coordination, muscle cramps, muscle tremors, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, urinary frequency and incontinence, sleep disturbances, chronic fatigue, numbness of the hands and feet, aggressive and violent behavior, and respiratory disorders. Some pesticide-poisoned youngsters will develop chronic, life-long health problems that manifest in reproductive problems (sterility, infertility, birth defects) and degenerative diseases (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS). Several recent studies have reported on a relationship between childhood pesticide exposure and an increased incidence of brain cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, leukemia and immune system suppression. Research has shown that when patients' blood pesticide levels were reduced by an amount as tiny as one tenth of a part per billion, they had I.Q. improvements of between five and fifteen points.

One of the pesticides, most commonly used in schools, Dursban (chlorpyrifos), has a half-life greater than 30 days. In this way, a classroom carpet can become a continuing reservoir of pesticide exposure, long after the application appears to have dried. The pesticide vapors build up into an invisible, odorless, toxic chemical soup, that is capable of causing a cascade of toxic reactions, for years to come. The California Department of Health Services made an estimate of the amount of chlorpyrifos to which a child would be exposed, one day after an indoor application. The estimate was based on the amount that the child would breathe, added to the amount the child would absorb through the skin. The estimate was over 1700 times the acceptable daily intake established by the World Health Organization. The aerial drift of one droplet of pesticide, on a calm day, was reported at 24 miles. On a windy day, it has been traced halfway around the globe.

Given this barrage of sobering statistics, why would intelligent and caring people, intentionally and regularly saturate their schools, homes, workplaces and lawns with these toxic chemicals? It makes no sense to use poisons that impair a child's ability to think and develop normally, in the very places that are mandated to provide a safe learning and growing environment. We've been bingeing on pesticides for too long. It's time to get off the toxic treadmill.

Get the facts! Educate yourself about pesticides! And don't underestimate their toxicity! Our children's bodies are ecological mirrors and barometers of their environment. They deserve ZERO EXPOSURE to pesticides!!

Mi taku oyasin,*

Irene Wilkenfeld

*A Lakota Indian phrase meaning we are all inter-related to each other and to everything on the planet.