FACTS

1. Pesticide exposures can lead to symptoms including:

• • nausea/vomiting
  • headaches
  • dizziness
  • shortness of breath

2. Pesticides can enter the body in several ways — through the skin, mouth, lungs, and eyes. Skin contamination is the number one cause of pesticide-related illness. To keep pesticides off your skin you will need special protective gear. Limit clothing worn while handling pesticides to that use only.
3. Any time you work with pesticides, you will need at least a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, gloves, a hat and socks and shoes. Always read pesticide labels for information on what to wear.
4. The more toxic a pesticide, the more care should be taken in protecting against contamination and in laundering clothes. 
5. Clothing can keep pesticides away from the skin, however, that same clothing can become a source of contamination if pesticides aren’t laundered out after each wearing. 

STATS

• An average of about 200,000 people die from the toxic exposure of pesticides per year across the world, the United Nations says, calling for tougher global regulation of substances meant to control pests or weeds for plant cultivation.
• The World Health Organization estimates the total cases of pesticide poisoning worldwide at between 2 and 5 million workers each year, of which 40,000 are fatal.
• Exposure to pesticides and agrochemicals constitutes one of the major risks faced by farm workers, accounting in some countries for as much as 14% of all occupational injuries in the agricultural sector and 10% of all fatal injuries.
• Developing countries consume more than 20% of the world production of agrochemicals, which are responsible for approximately 70% of the total cases of acute poisoning in the working population, i.e., more than 1.1 million cases.