One: Whom to study

Children are unwittingly exposed to pesticides

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In the late 1990s, Dr Elizabeth Guillette, anthropologist published what was to become extremely influential research on the effect of pesticides on children. The study compensated for many of the known variables that influence children's growth and development by selecting two groups of 4-5-year-old Yaqui children who reside in the Yaqui Valley of north-western Mexico. These children share similar genetic backgrounds, diets, water mineral contents, cultural patterns, and social behaviors. The major difference was that those children from the foothills were part of a community had stayed with traditional practices, which were low on pesticides. The second group were from families that had moved down to the valley and adopted modern farming techniques, including the use of pesticides. Her startling findings clearly linked pesticide exposure to diminished abilities in children, lack of energy, learning disabilities and coordination problems. Greenpeace India decided that a large-scale study would be undertaken to assess possible chronic effects of pesticides on children from different locations in India. It was agreed that it was important to assess the impact of pesticides on children because their contact with pesticides cannot be attributed to their being sprayers themselves. Also the Safe Use position cannot be taken because children are unwittingly exposed to pesticides.