Is pesticide exposure affecting
your children?
Pesticide exposure effects
Pesticides that are used in the U.S. are becoming more common in societies today, however there is a great concern of pesticide exposure among school-aged children that poses adverse effects. These pesticides are associated through dietary exposure as well as environmental exposure.
What’s the issue
Research has shown that children (from all age groups) that are exposed to pesticides have different susceptibilities and sensitivities than adults do. Because of this, children a variety of health issues resulting from such exposure.
Symptoms that result from pesticide exposure among school-aged children
Some health issues that children may suffer are:
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Poor growth impact on neurodevelopment
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Asthma
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Nausea
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Learning disabilities
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Reproductive issues
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Autism
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Cancer
Who does this effect?
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The child(ren) themselves
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Parents/loved ones
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Teachers/Schools
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Communities
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Health care systems
Where does this affect children?
Children spend 25% of their waking hours at school.
Throughout the day, children are participating in school lunch programs and are
engaging in indoor and outdoor activities. In most cases, the menu is not
very nutritious, further exposing children to dietary pesticides. Some of the
most common foods served through the national lunch program that may contain hormone induced chemicals, just to name a
few, are:
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Hamburgers
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Chicken nuggets
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French Fries
Inside school buildings:
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Air quality
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Mold/Mildew
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Lead paint
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Radon
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Poor building maintenance
On the playground:
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Arsenic
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wood
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Soil and grass that are treated with
insecticides
Some small ways to
help protect our children from experiencing the issue:
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Teaching your child how to effectively wash
their hands after outdoor exposure and ask that teachers and school staff
comply with your request
Children are vulnerable and cannot
speak up for themselves. They rely on their parents, teachers, doctors and
their community to ensure their safety. Let’s not fail our children. So help
put the pest aside by contacting your community political representatives and vote yes to our children’s health!
References:
Natural Health 32.5 go.galegroup.comhttp://www.understanding-learning-disabilities.com/pesticides-in-schools.html
http://epa.gov/ncer/childrenscenters/pesticides.html
Chnice,
ReplyDeleteI was reading something the other day that was talking about chicken nuggets and all the bad stuff that is in them and how most of it is not actually chicken. It is gross and disturbing that we are serving our kids food with so many bad ingredients and unnecessary hormones. One of the biggest issues that should be changed within schools should be the lunch programs. Too often schools go for the least expensive foods which are the least nutritious as well. I've always had the mind set of spend a little more now to have better nutrition and you won't have to spend more later on doctor bills.
It's really hard for me to understand how anyone can think its ok to be feeding kids such unhealthy and bad food. This post made me think about our speaker that we had in 4000 the other day was talking about how we need to start changing now so that that kids today will have a better future. That won't happen if issues like these don't get resolved. School lunch programs need to have a serious turn around if we want to help children have a brighter, healthier future.
ReplyDeleteHey Chnice!
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for environmental causes that are related to learning disabilities. I had a feeling before this class that the pesticide and chemical hazard use was related to birth defects and learning disabilities, but I didn't have reliable information to back it up. Since you've done your homework on this I will definitely take your word for this and talk about this to others with confidence.
The learning disabilities part of your post touched home with me, because I was diagnosed with ADD and Dislexia in the first grade. I can tell you from experience that school has been a nightmare in a lot of my life and it's still a barrier that I have to work hard to overcome. From my personal experience with living with this, I can verify that it's a must do for us to reduce our environmental hazards for children.