and parks, in food, and in water. Nationwide, 85 percent of households had at least
one pesticide, and 47 percent of households with children under the age of five were
found to store at least one pesticide within the reach of children. Parents can elimi-
nate the use of pesticides in and around their homes and workplaces and pressure
school boards to reduce pesticide use in schools. If possible, parents can buy organi-
cally grown and in-season foods. Congress passed legislation in 1996 designed to
improve regulation of pesticides, particularly in food, so that children are adequately
protected. The implementation of this law will be a critical test of the EPA’s intention
to safeguard the next generation. Additional reforms needed include reducing the use
of pesticides, better testing of pesticides’ ability to affect infants and young children,
and more data on children’s exposure to pesticides.^23
Controversy has arisen regarding the apparent increase in the incidence of child-
hood cancer in the United States. Some investigators, particularly at the EPA, have
raised concerns that this increase may reflect new or increasing environmental expo-
sures. The alternative view is that there has been little overt change in incidence, and
that apparent increases in, for example, brain tumors, reflect changes in medical prac-
tice and diagnostic methods rather than a true increase in occurrence. Part of the dif-
ficulty in understanding childhood cancer trends lies in the relative rarity of most
cancer types and the lack of a national system of cancer registration that would enable
researchers to track incidence on a nationwide scale.^24
Children may be more susceptible than adults to environmental health risks
because of their physiology and behavior. They eat and drink more and breathe more
air in proportion to their body weight than adults. They also play close to the ground
and put objects in their mouths. Their bodies are still developing, and they may be
less able than adults to metabolize and excrete pollutants.
In 1996, poison control centers nationwide were notified about approximately
80,000 children (aged from birth through nineteen) who were exposed to common
household pesticides, an estimated one-quarter of whom developed symptoms of pes-
ticide poisoning. From 1992 to 1998, an estimated 24,000 emergency room visits
resulted annually from pesticide exposure; 61 percent of the cases involved children
younger than age five.^25New Discoveries About PesticidesAlthough pesticides do offer certain benefits for farmers and others, new scientific
research is revealing some important health-related issues associated with their usage.
Recently, for example, some scientists have become convinced that there is a relation-
ship between pesticides that mimic the estrogen hormone and the disruption of the
endocrine systems in humans and wildlife. This potentially could contribute to seri-
ous health problems, including breast and other types of cancer in humans, and
reproductive disorders.^26 Currently, in registering pesticides, the EPA does not require
tests for estrogen involvement; if a pesticide is found to be estrogenic, the EPA has
no method of removing it from the market.^274 | Pesticides