Pesticides in schools and how to avoid them!
An essential read for head teachers, governors, school management, local authorities, government

Pesticides in Schools and how to avoid them download booklet Reducing the need for pesticides in schools download poster

The Pesticide Trail: A Schools Project
Pesticide Action Network UK were supported by the Environmental Action Fund to produce the following educational resources:

• an educational video for secondary schools designed to fit the school curricula for citizenship and science
• a school pesticide audit and guide

• Pesticides and Food. This unit explores the use of pesticides in the production of food. It includes interviews with Friends of the Earth campaigner Sandra Bell, Lord Whitty (Cabinet minister responsible for pesticides), a representative from the Crop Protection Association (industry body representing the agrochemical industry), organic farmers, and the Coop supermarket. 
• Pesticides and Health. This unit explores the link between exposure to pesticides and ill health. In includes interviews with three people who have experienced ill-health as a result of their exposure to pesticides and Dr. David Coggan (head of the committee responsible for advising government on pesticide residue levels permissible in food)
• Pesticides and Water. This unit looks at the ways in which pesticide residues enter the water supply and the expense and technology employed by water companies in removing residues. It includes interviews with conventional farmers and with representatives from the Severn Trent water company.
• Cotton. The source of our jeans and T-shirts, conventional cotton requires more acutely toxic pesticides for its production than any other crop in the world. This unit has footage from cotton fields in Benin, discussion of fatal poisonings resulting from the use of cotton pesticides, and interviews with an organic cotton campaigner, a fashion designer Kathryn Hamnett, and a small business selling clothes made solely from organic cotton. It considers the implications of organic cotton trade initiatives for producers in developing countries.
• Chocolate. Although the pesticide lindane has been banned in the UK residues are still found in conventional chocolate bars. This unit includes an interview with a representative of the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionary Alliance and explores the use of pesticides in cocoa production.
• Pesticides and the Environment. The herbicide atrazine is one of the most widely used in the world. Recent research has shown that levels of atrazine 30 times lower than that allowed in drinking water in the United States can 'feminise' male frogs. This unit contains a video link with the US researcher who carried out the research and considers the implications of his findings.
• Pesticides in the Community. This unit explores the use of pesticides in our communities and our possible exposure. It includes an exploration of pesticide use in schools, homes, allotments and will look at ways in which we can reduce our exposure to such chemicals.