272 Pesticides are Poison
If you use pesticides at home:
• Read the label and follow the directions.
• Do not use pesticides in closed areas. Open windows and doors.
• Use pesticides only for the pests they are meant to kill.
• Keep pesticides away from children.
• Never spray pesticides on a mattress or sleep
on a sprayed mattress.
• Do not spray near dishes or eating utensils.
• Never put pesticides in unmarked containers.
• Get rid of unwanted pesticides safely.
Pesticides Harm the Environment
Pesticides not only poison people and pests. They also harm other parts of the
environment.
Pesticides poison animals when they eat, drink, and breathe them, just as
pesticides poison people. The pesticides collect in their bodies and when larger
animals eat smaller ones, the stored amount of poison gets larger too.
One day on the cotton
farm I sprayed some
termites with endosulfan.
Later a frog ate the
dying termites.
An owl swooped down on
the frog and then sat in a
tree to enjoy its meal. Ten
minutes later, the owl fell
down and died.
Pesticides poison the soil when they kill the insects, worms, fungi, and bacteria
which create nutrients that keep soil alive and fertile.
Pesticides poison water when they run off into streams. They kill fish and harm
animals and people that drink the water.
Pesticides poison air when they drift in the wind. Pesticides can travel many
miles from where they were used.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012