Paraquat, aldicarb and chlorpyrifos are just the cotton pesticides that are legal in America.
India and China, the top leaders in cotton production have even lower standards of pesticide control and allow more toxins to flow into their environments.
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), while now banned in India, is still widely used there and is infamous as one of the most dangerous and persistent pesticides.
In developing nations, lack of education related to the hazards of pesticides poses serious risks.
In Africa, “45 percent of cotton farmers said they used pesticide containers to carry water, while 20-35 percent used them to hold milk or soup” (State of the World 2004
A report on agricultural workers in India indicated “500 cotton farmers […] are believed to have died in 2001 as a result of pesticide exposure” (State 2004
In 1990, the World Health Organization estimated that “3 million severe acute pesticide poisonings occur in developing countries each year, including some 220,000 fatalities” (Fatal Harvest
