Since the advent of chemical warfare during World War II, organophosphorous compounds have become widely available as pest-control agents. Because of their relatively low cost and ability to be applied on a wide range of target insects and crops, OPs have become the most widely used class of insecticides in the United States. However, the neurotoxic effects of exposure to organophosphates are not limited to targeted pests. Pesticide Action Network and our partners, both locally and internationally, are working to document the hazards of exposure to OPs, empower workers and communities to take their risk of exposure into their own hands, and envision together new alternatives to over-reliance on these highly acutely toxic poisons.
While the hazards of exposure to OPs are widely recognized - for example, all residential uses of the OP chlorpyrifos were banned in 2001 - farmworkers, their families, and the agricultural communities in which they live remain at unacceptably high risk of exposure to chlorpyrifos and many other OP peseticides. Many OP pesticides can easily move through the air and drift onto nearby workers or bystanders, a problem that Pesticide Action Network is determined to document. In a 2004-2007 study conducted by the small California rural community of Lindsay, 12 participants documented the presence of chlorpyrifos in their bodies. Seven of the eight participating women were above the EPA established “acceptable” limit for pregnant and nursing women. Coupled with these bio-monitoring results were air monitoring results - proof that chlorpyrifos was present in the community’s air, and often above levels deemed “acceptable” by the EPA (See our section on Airborne Pesticide Drift for more information about projects using PANNA's Drift Catcher). As a result, a group of Lindsay residents has become directly involved in county- and state-based efforts to make pesticide policies more health-protective.
In addition to our community-based research, Pesticide Action Network is also committed to ensuring adequate protections for farmworkers on the state and federal level. Our work to improve the federal Worker Protection Standard, document pesticide exposure among workers, and replace inadequate pesticide regulations with more health-protective regulations, seeks to ensure that farmworkers, who face the most severe exposures to agricultural pesticides, receive at least the same level of protection enjoyed by other workers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
We also seek a new vision: one in which family farmers and farmworkers alike can thrive while producing healthy crops without the use of hazardous pesticides, including organophosphates. We are engaged with communities, initiating multi-stakeholder conversations through which to identify and push for locally-based solutions. At the national level we work with a broad range of environmental health and labor organizations to identify national and state-level policies to advance the safety, health, and future sustainability of our agricultural communities. Visit the learnMORE and campaignINFO sections for more information about our OP work.