A new study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in July, 2006, found high levels of pesticide exposure in children of migrant workers in eastern North Carolina.
In this area, an estimated 21,000 people in the heart of the state's agriculture industry work in vast fields of tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce.
The exposure comes from many sources. It could be a father hugging his children after a day's work in the tobacco field, or pesticide residue on his clothing washed with family laundry. Maybe it was children playing in farming fields outside their homes.
The researchers look to educating workers and pushing for more enforcement of safety laws as the main ways to protect workers and their children from these toxic chemicals.
[Editor's Note: Pesticide exposure has been linked to four serious diseases: Type II Diabetes, MS, Parkinson's, and seizures. People already sensitized to chemicals almost universally are impaired by even slight pesticide exposure.]
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