08
Jul
Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Disproportionately Affected by Pesticides
(Beyond Pesticides, July 8, 2025) A commentary published in Science of The Total Environment showcases the occupational and environmental exposure pathways of fossil-fuel-based pesticide and fertilizer products that children across the globe face, particularly in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries.
The authors underscore “the urgent need for multi-level systemic change, resilient health systems, and active stakeholder engagement,†which includes “support for safer and more sustainable agricultural practices.†This includes specific asks for governments “to offer technical assistance to producers and encourage organic and agroecological practices to ensure both environmental justice and food security.â€
Organic food systems, and criteria for land management systems more broadly, are critical to addressing the triple crises of biodiversity loss, public health collapse, and climate emergency.
Organic law, as defined in the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1991, is designed as a participatory process with accountability and transparency integral to the statutory language. The law creates the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), comprised of farmers, consumers, and conservation organizations, a scientific expert, an organic certifier, and a retailer with the statutory authority to adopt binding recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. Simultaneously, the public is invited to submit comments to NOSB every six months.
Review of the Commentary
This commentary revolves around the story of Zeca, a child living in rural Brazil with worsening asthma as a result of occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. According to the article: “Despite this consistent scientific evidence, children’s pesticide exposure in LMIC [Low- and Middle-Income Countries] rural areas remains largely neglected in occupational health and maternal-child health agendas. It continues to be underrecognized, understudied, and underfunded—both in research and clinical practice. This invisibility delays essential policy responses, and undermines risk assessments, effective interventions, healthcare, and surveillance. In short, it remains the “elephant in the room — a global public health crisis we are collectively ignoring.â€
The authors explore the concept of Chemical Colonialism, or “the continued export of pesticides banned in high-income countries to LMICs, where regulation, surveillance, and enforcement are often absent or insufficient ().†The authors continue: “Paradoxically, many of these poorer countries subsidize their own contamination. In 2017 alone, Brazil provided nearly 10 billion reais (approximately USD 3 billion dollars) in tax incentives for pesticide industries, based on the premise that pesticides are vital for national development and agricultural modernization ( ). Thus, the profits of wealthier nations are built on the toxic burden placed upon the children of poorer countries.†Beyond Pesticides has reported extensively on this dynamic previously in the Daily News here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The issue of child labor exemplifies disproportionate adverse effects on a vulnerable population group, as noted in this commentary. “Globally, millions of children — some as young as 5y[ears old] — are engaged in unsafe labor. About 160 million children aged 5-17y[ears old] were engaged in child labor in 2020, with nearly half working under hazardous conditions, mainly in agriculture,†according to the authors. They continue: “Among the youngest group (ages 5–11), approximately 75 % work in agricultural settings, where pesticide exposure is a routine risk (). This is the harsh reality faced by Zeca in his childhood.â€
“[Environmental injustices] are evidence of our bioethical failure, and part of a broader global pattern in which the most affected populations in LMICs — children, women, Indigenous people, and smallholder farmers — are those with the least institutional protection or voice,†according to the authors. The authors cite policymakers’ concerns over food security or public health pertaining to the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, as barriers to passing more robust reforms.
Given this historical impasse, the authors propose a series of policy recommendations focused on mitigation measures that fall short of transformative change, including calls for better labeling, better access to pesticide data to inform risk assessment, and taxing pesticides more stringently to inform surveillance and prevention. At the same time, the authors recognize the value of organic and agroecological farming, given that these systems move beyond the status quo of extractivism and chemical dependency. Another set of important recommendations proposed by the authors includes the representation of rural communities in decision-making processes, as well as consideration of pesticide harms in “clinical assessments,†Advocates point to the need to consider cumulative risks and synergistic effects before registering new pesticide active ingredients or whole formulations of products, including adjuvants, inert ingredients, and/or synergists.
This commentary was co-written by an international cohort of academics from a range of institutions in Global South and Global North nations, including University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of Queensland Child Health Research Centre (Australia), Universiti Teknologi Mara Department of Environmental Health (Malaysia), National University of Costa Rica, Universidad de Chile, Institutio Nacional de Salud Publica (Mexico), as well as UC Berkley Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Michigan School of Public Health (United States).
Previous Research and Developments
The threat of pesticide exposure is both immediate and existential for frontline communities, as was made clear last November when South Africa declared a national emergency after at least 23 children died and nearly 900 people fell ill from pesticide poisonings (including organophosphate insecticide terbufos and carbamate insecticide aldicarb). (See Daily News here.)
There is increasing evidence linking mothers’, children’s, and adolescent health in rural communities to generational effects, both in the United States and abroad. In Brazil, a 2023 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) tracked 15 years of data; the findings identified a 10 percent increase in soybean cultivation area is associated with an additional 0.40 deaths out of 10,000 due to ALL for children 5 years of age and lower and an additional 0.21 deaths of children 10 years of age and lower per 10,000 population. The study finds “a strong and persistent relationship between the arrival of high-intensity agriculture in [the Cerrado] region and adverse human health outcomes,†even after controlling for confounding factors. (See Daily News here.)
Similarly, in Mexico, a 2025 study compared two communities located less than a quarter of a mile from agricultural fields with one control community located more than a mile away. The study shows that children in the field-adjacent towns are clearly exposed to pesticides and are experiencing cellular distress, including elevated levels of biomarkers linked to oxidative stress, as a result. (See Daily News here.)
This pattern is also found in various peer-reviewed studies in U.S.-based cohorts. In analyzing data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Pesticide National Synthesis Project in combination with diagnoses through the Nebraska Cancer Registry, authors of a 2025 study published in GeoHealth found associations between 32 agrichemicals and pediatric cancer in the state. The authors found statistically significant positive associations between pesticide usage rates and children with cancer, specifically brain and central nervous system (CNS) cancers, and leukemia. (See Daily News here.)
In a separate study published this year in PNAS, University of Oregon researchers found that the rollout of genetically engineered corn in the early 2000s, followed by exponential increases in glyphosate-based herbicides, “caused previously undocumented and unequal health costs for rural U.S. communities over the last 20 years.†The researchers “focus[ed] on the over 10 million births that occurred between 1990 and 2013 in rural U.S. counties or involved mothers residing in rural counties†across the nation. (See Daily News here.)
Pesticide harms can impose long-term health risks beginning with maternal health and extending onward to prenatal, postnatal, and adolescent adverse effects. A 2025 study published in Journal of Hazardous Materials reports for the first time an association between gestational anemia (GA), pesticide exposure, and the potentially protective effects of gut microbes. While the report is still undergoing peer review, it establishes important connections eminently worthy of deeper investigation and suggests that the balance of gut microbes may be a highly effective way to reduce or prevent GA. (See Daily News here.)
Generational exposure raises serious concerns for reproductive health, as evidenced in a 2025 report published in American Journal of Epidemiology. Researchers identified the influence of prenatal pesticide exposure among Latina adolescents, leading to the influence of menstrual symptoms, such as heavy bleeding, indicating to their knowledge that “this is the first study to examine the association between prenatal pesticide exposure and menstrual outcomes in adolescents of any demographic group.†(See Daily News here.) This finding is supported by various research associating higher levels of certain pesticide metabolites with early onset of puberty (see Daily News here) and developmental neurobehavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (see Daily News here).
Call to Action
Reflecting on Juneteenth and Pollinator Week, advocates are reminded of the inextricable link between environmental justice and the necessity to eliminate pesticide exposure by targeting root causes. There is also an immediate need to ensure that food security is met while also encouraging the growth of local food systems that are invested in moving beyond the status quo of chemical-intensive, industrial agriculture.
In that spirit, you can take action today by informing your U.S. Representative and Senators to make the Local Food for Schools (LFS) Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement Program permanent through the Farm Bill. (See the Action of the Week here.)
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides. Â
Sources: Science of The Total Environment
