Pesticides and Human Health

family, photo credit: CDC Minority Health

Pesticides have a specific purpose in society. Pesticides are intended to:

kill organisms that cause disease and threaten public health
control insects, fungus, and weeds that damage crops
control pests that damage homes and structures vital to public safety

Because people use pesticides to kill, prevent, repel, or in some way adversely affect some living organism (the pest), pesticides by their nature are toxic to some degree. Even the least-toxic products, and those that are natural or organic, can cause health problems if someone is exposed to enough of it.

People come into contact with pesticides in many ways, including:

When pesticides are used in and around our homes and gardens
When pesticides are used on our pets
When we work with pesticides
When pesticides are used in our communities or in our environment
When pesticides are used on the food we eat

The risk of health problems depends not only on how toxic the ingredients are (Pesticide Ingredients), but also on the amount of exposure to the product. In addition, certain people like children, pregnant women and sick or aging populations may be more sensitive to the effects of pesticides than others.

To reduce the risk of health problems from pesticides there are several things you can do:

Identify the least-toxic way to control your pest; learn about Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Always read the pesticide label first! Select the appropriate product for your site, method and goals.
Read all precautions and warnings on the label prior to use. These are intended to help you prevent harmful exposures.
Take steps to minimize your exposure, even when using low toxicity pesticides.

To learn more, choose from the following topics:

If you have questions about this, or any pesticide-related topic, please call NPIC at 1-800-858-7378 (8:00am - 12:00pm PST), or email us at npic@ace.orst.edu.

Last updated November 6, 2015

Related Topics:

What are pests?

What are pesticides?