Robert Repetto and Sanjay S. Baliga Although some pesticides have been restricted or banned because they pose risks of cancer, birth defects, or neurological damage, little attention has so far been given to what may be their greatest health risk: impairment of human and animal immune systems. According to this new report, there is considerable evidence that widely used pesticides may suppress immune responses to bacteria, viruses, parasites, and tumors, making people significantly more vulnerable to disease. Pesticides and the Immune System brings together for the first time an extensive body of experimental and epidemiological research from around the world documenting widely used pesticides' effects on the immune system and the attendant health risks. In so doing it documents that pesticide-related health risks are much more serious than generally known, especially in developing countries where exposure is widespread and infectious diseases take a heavy toll. The authors show that steps now underway to resolve this issue are far from adequate. If pesticides are undermining people's ability to withstand infectious and parasitic diseases--still the world's main causes of death--then pesticide policy must be profoundly altered. 1996 / 100 pages |
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