Many People Carry Toxic Pesticides Above "Safe" Levels

Many US residents carry toxic pesticides in their bodies above government assessed "acceptable" levels, according to a report released today in May by Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN) and Washington Toxics Coalition. Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability, presents a first-time analysis of information on pesticides in the bodies of more than 2,000 people, collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"None of us choose to have hazardous pesticides in our bodies," said Kristin Schafer, PAN Program Coordinator and lead author of the report. "Yet CDC found pesticides in 100 percent of the people who had both blood and urine tested. The average person in this group carried a toxic cocktail of 13 of the 23 pesticides we analyzed."

Many of the pesticides found in the test subjects have been linked to serious short- and long-term health effects including infertility, birth defects and childhood and adult cancers.

Chemical Trespass found that children, women and Mexican Americans shouldered the heaviest "pesticide body burden." The CDC data show that the average 6 to11 year-old sampled is exposed to the OP pesticide chlorpyrifos at four times the level US Environmental Protection Agency considers "acceptable" for a long-term exposure.

The report also found that women have significantly higher levels of three of the six organochlorine (OC) pesticides evaluated. These pesticides known to have harmful effects when they cross the placenta during pregnancy, including reduced birth weight and disruption of brain development, which can lead to learning disabilities.

The Washington State Department of Ecology has a program to eliminate persistent toxic chemicals, but the 2004 legislature bowed to industry pressure and passed a budget proviso to exempt pesticides from the program.

The report calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to ban pesticides known to be hazardous and pervasive in the environment and our bodies. The report also called for EPA to require that manufacturers demonstrate that a pesticide does not harm human health before it can be used.

The Toxic Free Legacy Coalition, which includes Washington PSR and the Washington Toxics Coalition, is using the study results to urge the Department of Ecology to include pesticides in its program to eliminate persistent toxic chemicals.