There is no question whether pesticides are harmful to people’s health. Pesticides are designed to manage (kill) pests such as plants, insects, rodents, fungi, and soil-borne pathogens. Because pesticides are meant to kill living things, they harm people and the environment—not just pests.

This brief provides some basic information about how pesticides get into our bodies. It also includes recommendations on ways that you can reduce your and your community’s exposure to pesticides. PAN’s work focuses on agricultural pesticides, however, residential pesticide use in and around the home is another route of exposure when pesticides are used on your garden, lawn, or indoors. For more on residential pesticide use, you can visit this resource on pesticides and children or this resource on gardens.

Pesticide Exposure 101: Protecting Human Health

A note on pesticide use data: Many people ask PAN about how much and what types of pesticides are used where they live. This question is hard to answer, unless you’re in a state that regularly publishes pesticide reporting data. In California, the mapped data are available on PAN’s People & Pesticides Explorer, but in other states, hunting down pesticide use data is a little more complicated. There are historical data sources from the USGS or by looking at crops & pesticide sales data from USDA. Pesticide sales data may also be available through your state’s department of agriculture.