Facts and Figures Children, Pesticides, and Schools A Beyond
Pesticides Factsheet Children are Especially Vulnerable to
Toxics The National Academy of Sciences finds that children are
more susceptible to chemicals.[i] Children take in more
pesticides relative to body weight than adults and have
developing organ systems that are more vulnerable and less able
to detoxify toxic chemicals.[ii] Pesticides can increase
susceptibility to certain cancers by breaking down the immune
system's surveillance against cancer cells. Infants and
children, the aged and the chronically ill are at greatest risk
from chemically induced immune-suppression.[iii] Exposure to
herbicides (weed killers) before the age of one is linked to a
more than four-fold increase in childhood asthma.[iii]a Children
and Cancer The probability of an effect such as cancer, which
requires a period of time to develop after exposure, is enhanced
if exposure occurs early in life.[iv] According to EPA’s
Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, children