Pesticides can cause health issues in adults and kids, including cancer, reproductive and nervous system problems. These health problems can develop in anyone after being exposed to a pesticide. The exposure can happen over short and long periods of time. People can be exposed to pesticides from food, indoor pesticide use, and many different kinds of pesticide use out of doors.

• People who work with pesticides (including pesticides used on lawns and in gardens) have an increased risk of fertility problems, such as an increase in spontaneous abortion and miscarriage.
• Women who are exposed to common garden pesticides during early pregnancy have an increased risk of a baby with birth defects (such as cleft lip and palate, spina bifida, limb anomalies).
• Exposure in the womb to very low levels of some pesticide ingredients may cause reproductive system abnormalities and may increase the risk of getting certain types of cancers.

• Workers exposed over a long period to pesticides have shown problems with information.
• Pesticides exposure is thought to be linked to an increased risk of Parkinson's Disease.

• Studies have found that people who work with pesticides have a higher risk for many different types of cancers, including leukemia, kidney, brain, testicular, prostate and cervical cancers, and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL).

• In the womb and into early infancy is linked to increased risks of some cancers (particularly leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and neuroblastoma) and birth defects.

More information on the health effects of pesticide
May 2002					Pesticides and Health Effects - Backgrounder (PDF)
April 2002					Lawn and Garden Pesticides: A Review of Human Exposure & Health Effects Research (PDF)
April 2002					Playing it Safe: Healthy Choices about Lawn Care Pesticides

Last updated April 2009