But considering that over 700 pesticides are licensed for use in California alone, we are in fact all continually exposed to a diverse mixture of hazardous pesticides. For years we have known that pesticides can kill or permanently harm people who work in direct contact with them. Long-term chronic effects on humans include a whole series of cancers, liver and kidney disfunction, sterility, neurological disorders and birth defects. Since Silent Spring we have also known that pesticides that take a long time to break down in the environment accumulate in organisms as they move up the food chain. But in algae that concentration is increased up to 250 times.
Fish eat the shrimp, and birds and other top predators eat the fish.
These top predators have concentrations 25 million times that found in the surrounding water. This system is directly linked to our neurological and immunological systems, further increasing the risks and potential impacts of pesticide exposure. This evidence indicates that while low level exposure may not cause acute toxicity in adults, it can cause chronic reproductive, immunological, and neurological disorders. More alarming, low-level exposure to unborn children can affect a wide range of developmental processes from reproductive system formation to brain function. The endocrine system is the central, internal regulator of body chemistry, coordinating the 50 trillion cells in our body into a controlled and integrated organism.