The unique diet of infants and children, which is high in fruit and vegetable, increases their exposure to pesticides. Safe levels for pesticides and food additives, which are calculated for the lifetime exposure of an adult may be grossly erroneous for a child. When an infant eats a whole banana it's comparable to an adult eating seven bananas. Because children have many more routes and sources of exposures, they are at risk not only for multiple exposures, but for exposures to toxicants which may react to each other. Minority and disadvantaged children are at even greater risk from environmental illnesses because of substandard housing, poor nutrition, and the concentration from polluting industries and hazardous dumping sites located in their neighborhoods.
Children are uniquely vulnerable and therefore uniquely affected, by environmental hazards.
D.C. March 18-19, 1994. The Network is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to preventing child exposures to environmental hazards.