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A nationwide report has found that pesticide use in or near U.S. schools have sickened more than 2,500 children and school employees over a five-year period. Even though most of the illnesses were mild, the number of people adversely affected by the pesticide exposure has increased.
The pesticide exposure has been stemming from chemical sources used to kill insects and weeds on school grounds, disinfectants and farming pesticides that drift over nearby schools, according to the researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and their colleagues.
One of the largest recent incidents occurred in May when about 600 students and staff members were evacuated from their Edinburg, Texas elementary school after pesticides sprayed on a cotton field drifted into the school’s air conditioning system, according to lead author Dr. Walter Alarcon. About 30 students and nine staffers developed mild symptoms as a result, including nausea and headaches.
The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Covering events from 1998 to 2002, Alarcon said none of the other events left as big as an impact as the Texas incident. Safety groups have been worried for years about the dangers of pesticide exposure, and activists contend commonly used pesticides, including some involved in the study incidents, can increase risks for cancer, birth defects and nerve damage.
The authors said that the overall rate of pesticide illness in schools is small – 7.4 cases per million children and 27.3 cases per million school employees – but they wrote that “the chronic long-term impacts of pesticides have not been comprehensively evaluated; therefore, the potential for chronic health effects from pesticide exposures at schools should not be dismissed.” Study co-author Dr. Geoffrey Calvert said the study provides evidence that there are “better ways to use pesticides”.
After tallying reports from three pesticide surveillance systems, including a national database of calls to poison control centers, the authors found that 2,593 students and school employees developed pesticide-related illnesses in the five years studied. Just three illnesses were considered severe, but most illnesses were suffered among children. Every year, the number of children affected by the pesticide exposure increased.
Despite the increases, the number of children affected by the pesticide exposure is still considered small, which is deceiving, according to Claire Barnett of the Healthy Schools Network advocacy group. Barnett said the total number of children actually affected by pesticide exposure is probably much greater when considering there are about 54 million U.S. schoolchildren and no comprehensive national tracking system in place.
The authors said the study indicates the need to reduce pesticide use through pest management programs that typically require schools to use pesticides as a last resort and to implement advance written notification when the chemicals are used. Pesticide spraying in schools or in nearby fields should only occur when students and staffers are not present, according to recommended guidelines, and so far, laws in 17 states recommend or require schools to have such programs.
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