Pesticides & Health
Food and farming systems should cultivate life — not harm
Because our agrifood systems currently rely on massive amounts of pesticides in order to be productive and efficient, farmworkers, communities of color, rural communities and children are exposed to toxic cocktails of pesticides that we know cause irreversible health harms.
Cancer, developmental and neurological issues in children, endocrine disruption, reproductive harm, and Parkinson’s disease among other things are linked to pesticide exposure. In the United States, the regulatory system is such that pesticide corporations can provide their own research as evidence their products do not cause harm when used as directed, but this system allows for flawed research and doesn’t require companies to prove a product is truly safe in the context of compound lifetime exposures.
PAN advocates for the Precautionary Principle, a concept of agroecology that assumes a chemical is unsafe until proven otherwise, putting the onus on pesticide manufacturers to provide objective scientific research that proves their products will not cause harm before they are approved for use.
Latest News
Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every year
A new study published in Frontiers in Public Health shows that over 400 million of the
Supreme Court gives Monsanto/Bayer license to deceive, reverses lower court ruling
Today, the nation’s highest court ruled that agriculture giant Bayer, which owns RoundupTM manufacturer Monsanto, should
In Decisive Ruling, Court Finds Government Failed to Protect More Than 1,500 Endangered Species From Toxic Pesticide Malathion
In a major victory for endangered species, a federal court ruled today that the U.S. Fish
Resources
Pesticides and Children
Pesticides and other toxic chemicals are undermining our children’s health and pediatricians have understood for decades that children are more
Reproductive Health
Scientists report disturbing reproductive health trends around the world, and research shows that pesticides are at least partly to blame.
Pesticide Exposure 101: Protecting Human Health
This brief talks about pesticide exposure and the ways in which exposure is categorized, why some populations are more susceptible
Take Action
Urge Congress to support the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act
EPA used flawed research to approve registration of glyphosate-based herbicides, but Trump’s latest executive order claims that glyphosate production is necessary for
Let’s create a healthy food system, together.