A key concern among our members is the impact of pesticides on children. Because of this, we are here today to endorse the School Environment Protection Act . At the center of this crisis are our children.
Children are especially vulnerable to pesticides.
Children take in more pesticides relative to body weight than adults and are less able to detoxify toxic chemicals. 1 Low levels of pesticide exposure can adversely affect a child s neurological, respiratory, immune and endocrine system. Studies of pesticides used in schools show adverse human health and environmental effects and uncertainties associated with effects on children and untested health outcomes. This is the reality we live with, one that cannot and should not be ignored by policy and decision makers. Of those 30, only 16 states provide some level of protection from pesticides in school buildings.