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Frontline Communities

Farm Communities at Risk Certain communities face especially high risks from pesticide exposure — either because they are more susceptible to chemical harms or because they live their lives on the frontlines.

Every day, farmers, farmworkers and their families, rural communities, and children bear disproportionate risks from pesticide exposure. Factories where pesticides are produced and disposal sites where they are buried endanger workers and nearby communities. In the U.S. and around the world, these communities are working together to press for safer solutions.

Related Publications

Kids today are sicker than they were a generation ago, and a growing body of scientific evidence points to pesticides as a reason why. From childhood cancers to learning disabilities and asthma, a wide range of childhood diseases and disorders are on the rise. Download A Generation in Jeopardy, PAN's report reviewing dozens of recent scientific studies on the impacts of pesticides on children's health. Download as a PDF »

This reports presents the results of monitoring for airborne pesticides conducted between June 2006 and August 2009 in central Minnesota. Overall, the results of the study indicate that for several months each summer, central Minnesota residents in potato-growing areas are regularly exposed to low to moderate lovels of the commonly used fungicide chlorothalonil in air. View as PDF »

Analysis of pesticide drift reveals that several widely used pesticides are regularly found far from where they are applied, at levels that significantly exceed exposure levels deemed “safe” by regulatory agencies. Virtually everywhere pesticides are used, they drift away from their intended target and can persist for days and even months after application. These “second-hand pesticides,” like secondhand cigarette smoke, can cause serious adverse health effects and are...

In the spring of 2006, farm worker community members tested the air at two different locations in the Yakima Valley with the assistance of the Farm Worker Pesticide Project (FWPP) and Pesticide Action Network (PAN). We tested for dangerous levels of chlorpyrifos, the key ingredient in the insecticide Lorsban, which is widely used in apple, cherry and pear orchards. View as PDF »

Fields of Poison, a joint report by United Farm Workers, PAN and the California Legal Rural Assistance Foundation, reveals that weak enforcement of pesticide-related worker health and safety laws remains a serious problem in California. The report analyzes the state's pesticide poisoning data and finds that pesticide safety laws fail to protect many of the state’s 700,000 farmworkers from poisonings even when the laws are apparently followed. View as PDF »