What are pesticide hazards?
Pesticide hazards include acute, immediate toxicity to humans and other non-target organisms; chronic or long-term toxicity such as cancer; and potential to contaminate air, or ground and surface water. Information on many of these potential hazards for specific pesticides can be found on pesticide labels, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and resources such as www.pesticideinfo.org. Recent studies documenting the need for continued reductions in hazardous pesticide use and practices include the Heinz Center evaluation of our nations ecosystems in 2002, reporting that seventy-five percent of streams tested had more than five pesticide contaminants. A 2006 US Geological Survey review of 51 studies over ten years reported that 96% of fish, 100% of surface water, and 33% of major aquifers sampled from 1992 to 2001 contained one or more pesticides. Nearly 10% of stream sites and 1.2% of ground water sites in agricultural areas, and 6.7% of stream and 4.8% of ground water site in urban are
