Pesticides and healthy public policy

Despite concern over long-term human and environmental health risks, Canadian and international pesticide use continues to increase. Enormous gaps in pesticide toxicity data persist and, though equivocal, there is mounting evidence that certain pesticide families are carcinogenic. Farmworkers are at greatest risk of pesticide poisoning and long-term health effects, and unions representing farmworkers have initiated a boycott of California grapes to draw attention to the need to reduce pesticide use and improve health and safety conditions. The boycott is a model of "healthy public policy" in action, and can be one element in a public health strategy to reduce significantly pesticide use and promote less toxic alternatives and less chemically dependent forms of agriculture and silviculture.