236 NEEDED
Pesticides
are an enormous group of chemicals designed to kill unwanted insects
(insecticides), weeds (herbicides), rodents (rodenticides), fungi (fungicides),
and other so-called pests. The problem is, many of the chemicals used to kill
pests also endanger human health. Commonly applied insecticides, for example,
have been linked to cancers, birth defects, and learning disabilities.
Numerous
studies have shown that these pesticides are killing bees and many other
non-target insects, and research now suggests danger for us, too.
The most
toxic pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, has been linked to developmental
delays, lower IQ, learning deficits, and persistent neurological problems in
children. This class of pesticides kills insects through a neurological pathway
that also exists in humans.
Designed to
kill weeds, herbicides have long been thought to be fairly benign to animals
and people.
Neonicotinoids
are systemic pesticides, meaning they’re in every part of a plant. Generally,
seeds are coated in the pesticide before they’re planted, and, as a plant
develops, the chemicals move into the leaves, roots, pollen, nectar, and even
the food products eventually made from the crop. If insects feed on any part of
the plant — even water droplets released by plant leaves — the pesticide, a
neurotoxin, kills them. Germany, France and Italy have banned a class of potent
pesticides
The most
vulnerable to pesticide are children, that is why should limit the use of these
toxic products. Kids, farmworkers and families in rural areas are getting an
extra dose of this brain harming chemical as it drifts from nearby agricultural
fields: it’s on the product, in the air and in the water. Delaying and derailing regulations leave the
health of millions of people at risk.
A total ban
is what people need and deserve!
Please sign
this petition and urge the EPA Administrator McCarthy to ban them!
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