The Pesticide Action Network recently analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in a study of about 2,650 people who were tested for levels of 34 different pesticides. PAN found that a large percentage of people who had their blood and urine tested carried pesticides above levels considered safe by government health and environmental agencies.

Women, children and Mexican Americans were found to be disproportionately exposed to toxic chemicals, according to the report, which was released on Tuesday. Children ages 6 to 11 were exposed to the nerve-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos at four times the level deemed acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Dow Chemical Company, responsible for 80% of the chlorpyrifos found in people's bodies, claims that most of the pesticide leaves the body very quickly, without doing any harm to the individual. Evaluating blood and urine is not, Dow says, an accurate way of determining how much chlorpyifos has been retained by someone's body.

More testing--and testing of a more sophisticated nature--needs to be done to determine more precisely what type of effect potent, nerve-damaging pesticides have on people, and especially on children. However, the significantly higher levels of many cancers found among farm workers tells us that pesticides are dangerous and are not properly regulated.

Of course, there is a safe alternative--organic farming. Not only are organic methods safe for people and wildlife, but study after study shows that pests are better controlled and crops are healthier when organic methods are used. But organic farming is not healthy for the huge American chemical industry, so cancer it is.