{"id":30951,"date":"2022-04-22T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T04:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=30951"},"modified":"2022-04-22T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T13:56:55","slug":"black-indigenous-and-people-of-color-community-at-disproportionate-risk-from-pesticides-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2022\/04\/black-indigenous-and-people-of-color-community-at-disproportionate-risk-from-pesticides-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Community at Disproportionate Risk from Pesticides, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, April 22, 2022) A study published on April 18 finds<\/a> that people in U.S. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) communities, as well as those living in low-income communities, endure a very disproportionate rate of exposure to pesticides, and of subsequent risks of harm. It finds that such disparities exist in both urban and rural communities, and at all points in the pesticide \u201clife cycle,\u201d from manufacture to application. A section of Beyond Pesticides\u2019 recent mega-issue of Pesticides and You<\/em>, \u201cRetrospective 2021: A Call to Urgent Action<\/a>,\u201d is devoted to such inequities. Section IV, \u201cDisproportionate Pesticide Harm Is Racial Injustice: Documenting Victimization: Structural Racism,\u201d<\/a> reprises Beyond Pesticides\u2019 2021 coverage of environmental injustices. It also calls for urgent action<\/a> re: federal and state \u201cevaluations that go into toxic chemical regulation . . . to reform and replace the current regulatory decision-making process, which is empirically racist, with one that acknowledges and cares for those with the highest real-world vulnerabilities and exposure[s].\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The first comprehensive assessment of disparities in pesticide protections and oversight in the U.S., the study paper appeared in the journal\u00a0BMC Public Health<\/em><\/a>. The authors set out the broad history of how humanity moved from \u201cTraditional Ecological Knowledge\u201d approaches to pests, practiced by indigenous populations the world over \u2014 through use of \u201cthe largest and most effective pest controller,\u201d nature itself \u2014 to the current era of massive deployment of chemical pesticides. They also provide the overlay<\/a> of the dynamic intersection of institutional racism and class discrimination in the U.S. with the current, chemically intensive, paradigm. \u201cThis structural racism and classism, defined here as a system brought about by historical, institutional, cultural, or behavioral societal actions that routinely disadvantage, harm, and cumulatively oppress BIPOC and\/or people of low-income or wealth, has led to significant disparities in exposure to many pollutants that can lead to premature death or chronic disease.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The acute and chronic health impacts of pesticide exposure are myriad. Beyond Pesticides identifies specific diseases and other health anomalies linked to exposures to pesticides, and points readers to research papers that provide evidence of such links, in its Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database<\/a>. Through its Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management<\/a>, the public can find details on roughly 400 pesticides, including fact sheets, uses, health and environmental effects, and alternatives.<\/p>\r\n

The disproportionate exposures and impacts of pesticide use for BIPOC and low-income community members tend to occur through occupational activities, largely in agriculture, and\/or via places of residence, which may be near to agricultural storage and application sites or pesticide manufactories, or in substandard, overcrowded, and usually urban housing that is typically subject to the use of pesticides as a short-term fix for chronic pest problems. Of course, these inequities are layered over the typical exposure routes to which nearly everyone in the U.S. is vulnerable: through food, contaminated drinking water and air, and\/or pesticides used on public and private landscapes and in all kinds of buildings.<\/p>\r\n

The peer-reviewed study was conducted by researchers from environmental\/conservation, farmworker, and racial justice organizations, as well as from HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). The researchers\u2019 objective<\/a> was \u201cto identify and discuss not only the historical injustices that have led to these disparities, but also the current laws, policies and regulatory practices that perpetuate them to this day with the ultimate goal of proposing achievable solutions.\u201d The team asserts that the disparities identified continue via current regulations and statutes that (1) inadequately protect workers, (2) operate with a pesticide safety \u201cdouble standard,\u201d and (3) permit the export of toxic pesticides to \u201cdeveloping\u201d countries, as detailed in these specific findings:<\/p>\r\n