Pesticides in the Urban Environment

One of the most overlooked pesticide exposure pathways is the urban environment. Urban residents become exposed during spraying and fumigation of homes and apartment buildings. Communities also often spray pesticides in parks and on roadways to kill unwanted insects and weeds. Many schools and child care centers utilize chemicals to control their indoor and outdoor pest problems.

In California, urban use of pesticides in and around our homes, schools, workplaces and communities equals or exceeds all in-state agricultural use of these chemicals. Home use of pesticides is the largest source of exposure for most children.1 Over ½ of pesticide-related poisonings cases in California are due to non-agricultural use, including home use insecticides.2

Health Impacts of Pesticides

Chemical pesticides can cause immediate poisonings that result in stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting and even death for tenants. Over the long-term, exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancers, birth defects, reproductive and developmental harm, damage to brain function, and disruption of the body’s hormone system -- health impacts that can occur months or years after exposure.

Some 40 pesticides in use in California are known to cause cancer in animals. Forty-three pesticides registered in California, including the widely used fumigant Methyl Bromide, are listed as known to cause birth defects or impair childhood development.

(Read Pesticides and Human Health, A Resource Guide for Health Care Professionals for more information on pesticide exposure and health effects.)

Children are more Vulnerable to Pesticide Exposure

Infants and young children are known to be more susceptible than adults to the toxic effects of chemical pesticides. Children are more vulnerable to chemical exposures because their organs, nervous systems and immune systems are still developing, and their higher rates of cell division and lower body weight also increase their susceptibility to pesticide exposure and risks Children also have greater contact with environmental contaminants because of personal behaviors such as crawling on floor surfaces and hand-to-mouth habits.An analysis of all reported pesticide poisonings in the United States showed that 57% of all cases involved children under the age of 6 years.3

(Read In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development to learn more about childhood exposures and health effects.)

PSR-LA's Current Pesticide Work

References

1 Moran, K, Pesticide Use in Urban Surface Water, Pesticide Use Trends Annual Report 2006, tdc Environmental, June, 2006.

2California Department of Pesticide Regulation. www.cdpr.ca.gov

3 Klein-Schwartz W, Smith GS. Agricultural and horticultural chemical poisoning: mortality and morbidity in the U.S. Ann Emerg Med 1997;29(2):232-38.

	To get involved, please contact Kathy Attar at 213-689-9170

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