Fact Pack

Pesticides Are Prevalent

• The U.S. applies twice the amount of pesticides it did prior to the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962.(1) Silent Spring warned of the dangers of continuing to rely heavily on pesticides, yet we now use them more than ever.
• Homeowners applied 80 million pounds of pesticides in 1999. Industrial, commercial, and governmental applications totaled 126 million pounds; and, agricultural applications, 706 million pounds in the same year.(2)

Industry Members Support Posting Notice of Pesticide Use

• The U.S. General Accounting Office surveyed five large lawn care firms and they all support the Professional Lawn Care Association of America’s position in favor of: 1) providing prior notification of pesticide applications to customers and adjacent property owners, if requested; 2) providing information to customers at the time of treatment, if requested; and 3) posting warning signs at the time of pesticide application.(3)

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Reduces Pesticide Use

• IPM preserves the environment.(4)
• IPM reduces the frequency and potency of pesticide applications and uses safer materials. As a result, IPM minimizes the dangers associated with pesticide applications, including accidents, drift, and toxic effects on non-target organisms and wildlife.(4)
• Ten years of IPM research and education in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, led to:
  • A 43% reduction in pounds of pesticides applied per acre of onions, and a 73% reduction in the associated risks; and
  • A 61% reduction in pounds of pesticides applied per acre of cabbage, and a 77% reduction in the associated risks.(5)

Reducing Pesticide Use Saves Money

• Economists have estimated that the nationwide health impacts from pesticide use total as much as $786 million dollars per year.(6)
• Reduced input costs from pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation result when using IPM techniques.(4)
• Scheduling target-specific pesticide application, instead of indiscriminate spraying, affords the best possible results and insures the most efficient use of pesticide products.(4)
• The destruction of pests’ natural enemies costs about $520 million annually.(7)
• Fish kills resulting from pesticide use cost between $24 and $56 million annually.(7)
• Approximately 67 million birds are killed annually as a result of pesticide use, valued at about $2.1 billion.(7)
• Additionally, it is impossible to measure the damage caused by pesticides to invertebrate and micro-organism populations.(7)

Disclosing Pesticide Use Is Beneficial

• The fact that a pesticide is registered (and, therefore, approved for use) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not mean that it is safe; it simply means that standards have been established to minimize the risks associated with its use.(8)
• Many outdoor-use pesticides are tracked into the home and accumulate at indoor concentrations up to 100 times higher than outdoor levels.(6)

Pesticides Harm Wildlife

• A team of scientists from Northern Arizona University reported that endosulfan at very low levels disrupts reproductive communication between male and female salamanders by altering the development of glands involved in pheromone production.(9)
• The legal application of pesticides has resulted in significant fish and bird kills, including the death of more than one million fish in Louisiana in 1991.(10)
• Between 1980 and 1987, the American alligator population of Lake Apopka, Florida, declined dramatically as the result of endocrine disruption, primarily from DDT. Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) and ethylene dibromide (EDB) are suspected as also playing roles in the decline.(11) Atlantic Salmon are now virtually extinct in most of their original range in New England and eastern Canada. The impact is from nonylphenol, a compound used as an “inert” surfactant in a pesticide, not the component of the pesticide thought to be biologically active.(12)
• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we are facing an “impending pollination crisis,” in which both wild and managed pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates. Pesticides are a major contributor to this crisis.(13)
  • Wild honey bees are extremely rare and the number of commercially-managed domesticated honey bee colonies has declined rapidly, from 5.9 million in the 1940s to 2.7 million in 1995.(13)
  • Heavy pesticide application results in insufficient pollination of many crops. Harvest income could increase by about $400 million per year if pollinators were available in sufficient numbers.(14)

Pesticides Are Not Safe for Humans

• The EPA has identified at least 96 different pesticide active ingredients registered for use that are potential human carcinogens.(15)
• Three hundred thousand farmworkers are poisoned annually by pesticides.(16)
• Men in Missouri have lower sperm counts than men in New York, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. The scientists conducting the study hypothesize it may be related to the intensity of pesticide use in industrial agriculture in Missouri compared to the other, more urban areas.(17)
• Paternal or maternal exposure to certain pesticides may cause birth defects, including anencephaly (incomplete skull development), cleft palate, limb malformations, biliary atresia (missing or underdeveloped bile ducts), heart defects, and eye and face deformities.(18)
• Children exposed to high levels of agricultural pesticides have difficulty performing simple motor tasks.(19)
• Human epidemiological studies have found connections between endocrine disruptors (a group which includes pesticides) and cancers.(20)
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the state of California each categorize pesticides into their own groups based on toxicity.(21)
• Pesticide products also contain inert ingredients – not identified by name on product labels because they are classified, and protected, as trade secrets – that may be hazardous. “Inert” does not mean “inactive.” Some inert ingredients, like benzene and xylene, are more toxic than the listed chemicals.(22)