Meningitis and inner ear infections occur at rates 30 times that of American children. Many Inuit babies can't be vaccinated, since they don't produce an antibody response. Tuberculosis has grown dramatically in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union where chemical pollution is widespread. Tuberculosis outbreaks are common among immunosuppressed groups. Cotton workers in Uzbekistan had impaired cell-mediated immunity and suffered higher rates of respiratory, kidney and intestinal infection than residents of other areas using fewer pesticides.
Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of pesticides on their immune systems.
Children from these areas were three times more likely to have infectious diseases of the digestive tract, and two to five times more likely to have infectious diseases of the respiratory tract. Workers in pesticide factories and on farms in the area exhibited elevated rates of infectious diseases of the digestive, urinary, respiratory, and female genital tracts. Indian factory workers chronically exposed to pesticides showed a 66 percent drop in blood lymphocyte levels, but tested normal after three months' vacation. A recent plague that killed dolphins in the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the North Atlantic turned out to be common viruses to which the animals were normally resistant. Blood samples from dolphins off the Florida coast showed the mammals had high levels of pesticide residues, major viral infections and weak immune systems.