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High Pesticide Exposure Found in N.C. 

It could be a father hugging his children after a day's work in the tobacco field, or pesticide residue on his clothing washed with family laundry. Maybe it was children playing in farming fields outside their homes.

A new study suggests all could be factors in high levels of pesticide exposure detected in children of migrant workers in eastern North Carolina, where an estimated 21,000 people in the heart of the state's agriculture industry work in vast fields of tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce.

Educating workers and pushing for more enforcement of safety laws are central to protecting workers and their children from chemicals, experts say.

"We know that exposure to these pesticides creates all kinds of problems, we just don't know exactly how much," said Thomas A. Arcury, lead researcher for a study conducted by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

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