Human health

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Every year over 200,000 tons of pesticides are released into the European environment. These chemicals harm not only the pest species they are intended to control, but in many cases have the potential to impact upon the well-being of human adults and children.

This overlap is particularly associated with insecticides designed to disrupt biological systems common throughout the animal kingdom, such as the nervous and reproductive systems. Worryingly, the EU’s use of insecticides has more than doubled over the past decade. All of the EU’s top 10 insecticides are described as hazardous by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Evidence relating to the negative health impacts of pesticide exposure is mounting rapidly. New findings reported at the European Respiratory Society annual meeting in September 2007 show that adults in contact with pesticides are at higher risk of developing respiratory problems. An EU study on Parkinson’s disease found that low level exposure may increase the chances of developing the condition – which now affects 1% of EU citizens aged over 60. And scientists in Canada have found evidence linking pesticides with cancer, including leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

While EU food safety regulations set maximum pesticide levels, current risk assessments don’t take into account the long-term impacts of exposure to multiple pesticides residues.

Politicians in Brussels now have an opportunity to put disease prevention into practice. Ask your MEPs to stop the most dangerous pesticides from being on sale in the EU.

Contact your national government and ask them to: end exposure to carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, and endocrine disrupting pesticides authorise the use of less toxic agrochemicals in preference to hazardous pesticides wherever possible

Facts

Pesticide exposure is linked to asthma, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological and developmental problems.