Home Pesticide Hazards
Home Pesticides Use Can be Hazardous to Young Children!
The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University has completed a study that raises concerns over the residual effects of pesticide use in the home. Organophosphate pesticides, often used to combat flea, roach and other insect infestation in a home, have long been believed to dilute or dissipate rapidly when applied in a home.
The 1998 study has found a much greater risk from routine use of such chemicals, especially in relationship to children's foam and plastic toys, which have an affinity for attracting residues that evaporate off floors, carpeting, drapes and other home surfaces, weeks and even months after chemical application. Since young children spend a lot of time putting things in their mouths, contaminated toys are likely to give them much higher doses of poison than an adult would get in the same environment. The organophosphate compounds were originally developed for use as a nerve gas for combat and work by paralyzing muscles.
No one is certain of the long-term effects of low-level exposure to these compounds but health practitioners have reported increasing incidences where people exposed to these chemicals have complained of headaches, dizziness, respiratory distress, abdominal cramps, vomiting, blurred vision and muscular weakness. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now urges parents to look for alternatives to these pesticides or at least seek toys of metal and wood for children as they absorb a much lesser concentration of residual chemicals.
From National Wildlife Magazine, 1999