Pesticides impact nearly all life on earth. They are designed to kill pests (such as weeds and insects) but can also have a major impact on non-target organisms, including people.
Pesticides can drive a range of environmental harms, including contaminating water and soil. They impact wildlife such as birds and bees and have been named as one of the key drivers in recent studies on biodiversity losses which have revealed that one million species are now at risk of extinction.
Pesticide use is helping to drive the climate crisis. 99% of pesticides are made from fossil fuels and they exacerbate the climate emergency throughout their lifecycle via manufacturing, packaging, transportation, application, and even through environmental degradation and disposal.
Pesticides have also been shown to cause a range of health impacts. Repeated or continuous exposure at low levels, for example through diet, have been linked to very serious illnesses such as cancer. Meanwhile those directly exposed to pesticides, such as farmers and farmworkers, are at risk of acute poisoning which can cause harmful or lethal effects after a single episode of ingestion, inhalation or skin contact. This problem is exacerbated in the global south where pesticide regulations are often weak and where the majority of farmworker poisonings take place.
