Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks

Although some pesticides have been restricted or banned because they pose risks of cancer, birth defects, or neurological damage, little attention has so far been given to what may be their greatest health risk: impairment of the immune system. According to this report, there is considerable evidence that widely used pesticides may suppress immune responsed to bacteria, viruses, parasites, and tumors, making people significantly more vulnerable to disease. Pesticides and the Immune System brings together for the first time an extensive body of experimental and epidemiological research from around the world documenting pesticides'effects on the immune system and the attendant health risks. The authors show that steps now underway to resolve this issue are far from adequate. If pesticides are undermining people's ability to withstand infectious and parasitic disease- still the world's main cause of death - then pesticide policy must be profoundly altered.

Dr. Robert Repetto, a WRI Senior Fellow, is the author of numerous publications on the environment and economics.

Before joining WRI in 1983, Dr. Repetto taught environmental, resource and population economics at Harvard University; worked with the World Bank Resident Mission in Indonesia; and served as an advisor to the Economic Planning Board of East Pakistan. Author of World Enough and Time, Dr. Repetto edited the conference papers from the 1985 Global Possible Conference. He also was a contributor to the economics work of the World Commission on Environment and their report, Our Common Future. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College, a master of science degree in mathematical economics and econometrics from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.