Farmers who use pesticides have higher rates of prostate and testicular cancers as well as Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Children in homes that use pesticides are three to nine times more likely to get cancer than children in homes where they aren't used. Golf course superintendents were found in one study to have abnormally high rates of cancers of the brain, intestine and prostate. No one knows for certain why children develop cancers as quickly as they do. Cancers in adults can take decades to develop, but there has been a 39 percent increase in brain cancer in children.
Some studies suggest it is because of exposure to chemicals by the mother when carrying the child.
Some say that breast milk can give a person half of their lifetime exposure to chemicals. Some say it is simply that a child is developing and changing and their behavior brings them into closer contact with chemicals. They are playing on the floor, for instance, or in the dirt. They eat anything that interests them and they don't stay clean. They are breathing air that is closer to the ground, where chemicals tend to settle.