Pesticides Don't Stay Where You Put Them

• Rainwater washes pesticides into groundwater, streams, lakes, wetlands, and oceans.
• Pesticides absorbed by plants, insects and microbes move up the food chain to accumulate in birds, fish, other wildlife, and people.
• Herbicides applied to lawns are tracked in to the house where they remain for months in carpets, toys and house dust.  Everyone in the house (especially children and pets) continues to be exposed.

Pesticides Harm Children and Future Generations

• Studies have shown that fetuses and young children are particularly sensitive to the effects of pesticides.
• Exposure of parents (including fathers) to pesticides is associated with birth defects, cancer and infertility in the next generation.

Scientists Are Still Discovering New Hazards of Pesticides

• In recent years, many pesticides have been found to act like hormones in the bodies of people and animals.  We are now realizing that pesticides may be hazardous at concentrations that were previously thought to be safe.

*From Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Organic Land Care brochure