Pesticides are Affecting our F
Pesticides are Affecting our FINTRODUCTION
Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill, control, or repel insects, plant diseases, weeds, rodents, and germs. (Most pesticides are used in agriculture production, to killing pests found on hundreds of different crops including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and cereal grains.) All these foods form a good majority of North America�s diet, and the majority of these foods consumed contain pesticide residues. Pesticides are also used to get rid of unwanted pests in homes, schools, and parks. All of these chemicals are especially harmful to children because they can routinely come in contact with various pesticides through their distinctive diet and play activities. Water and apple juice are proven to contain various harmful chemicals. In the surroundings children experience, the food they eat, and the liquids they drink are all contaminated by pesticides. According to the Natural Resources Defence Council, �pesticide exposure to adverse health effects including cancer, birth defects, reproductive harm, neurological and development toxicity, immunotoxicity, and disruption of the endocrine system.� Children are more likely to be affected by pesticides than adults because, they are strange eaters, they breath at a higher rate, and tend to spend more time on the ground were chemicals may settle and then enter a child�s body through breathing, orally, by touching something with a residue and then putting their fingers in their mouth, and through a child�s skin. Pesticides will drastically damage the future health of our children if people don�t act now.
CHILDREN�S HEALTH IS AT RISK THROUGH THE FOOD THEY EAT
Every year, tens of millions of pounds of carcinogenic, neurotoxic, immunotoxic, and otherwise hazardous pesticides are thrown onto foods that infants and children eat greater quantities than the average adult. These pesticides have been shown to cause reproductive defects in test animals, which cause poorly understood immune system responses, and others may effect the endocrine system. Pesticides have been widely used for years without any consideration of our environment and health. Today, we are using more pesticides than ever, so that we can have the perfect fruit or vegetable.
Pesticides are everywhere in the food children eat and the levels of toxicity are alarming. According to the Environmental Working Group, �every day, 1 million American children age 5 and under consume unsafe levels of a class of pesticides that can harm the developing brain and nervous system� Given this information the use of pesticides on food should be band, these children will continue to consume unsafe levels of toxins until new laws are made which won�t put children�s health at risk. According to the Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, over the past few years, pesticide use on fruits and vegetables has drastically risen, �per acre pesticide application rates increased by 125 percent over the past 25 years� The foods that cause the most children age 5 and under...
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