Sittig's Handbook of Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals

Each year, over 350 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are manufactured worldwide. In the United States over 120 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually by industry, government and homeowners. In 200 1, worldwide expenditures on pesticides totaled more than $32 billion, with herbicides accounting for 40% of the total, followed by insecticides, fungicides and other types of pesticides. One third ofthe world’s overall expenditures for pesticides come from the U.S.‘’’ The toxic chemicals problem in the United States, and indeed in all the world, is frightening and abundant news stories abound. In the night of December 2, 1984, in Bophal, India, 7,000 people died from a leak of methyl isocyanate gas, causing the world’s worst industrial accident. In the U.S. alone, nearly five million chemical poisonings occur annually, resulting in thousands of deaths. A good preponderance of those are from pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture. Local news outlets frequently report incidents that do not reach national attention. Near Bakersfield, California, 22 farm workers were poisoned when a crop dusting plane applied a mixture of chlorpyrifos, fenpropathrin, and profenofos to a neighboring cotton field. In addition, as many as 225 farm workers in nearby grape fields were exposed and later released.“’ The widespread use of pesticides and other chemicals on our food supply and other crops is a constant, potential threat to the health and economic livelihood of millions of farm workers. These workers face the highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group in a workplace. Moreover, in many cases, collateral exposure in their homes and drinking water occurs. In June, 1999, the coalition Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) published Fields of Poison: California Farinworkers and Pesticides which presented data on the use and ramifications of the use of pesticides based on a report by the California Department of Pesticide Regulations (DPR). For five years beginning in 1991, DPR reported nearly 4,000 cases of pesticide poisoning in farmworkers. It can be assumed that not all cases are reported and that pesticides can have a long-term affect on workers and their families from run-off into their water supply, from ambient air, and from living in or near fields that have been treated with pesticides.