Report on chemicals from Dow Chemical

• Background
• Proxy Solicitation Materials
• Pesticides and Human Health
• Asthma, Pesticides & Children
• Press Advisory

Background on asthma and pesticides

Sixteen million people in the U.S. suffer from asthma.(1) Children are more susceptible than adults. The number of children dying from asthma increased almost threefold from 1979 to 1996.(2) The estimated annual cost of treating childhood asthma is $3.2 billion.(3)

• According to a 2004 study in Environmental Health Perspectives, pesticides are both a trigger and root cause of asthma.

• Researchers discovered that children exposed to herbicides are four and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with asthma before age five; toddlers exposed to insecticides are over two times more likely to get asthma.(4)
• Farmers and pesticide applicators have been found to have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory problems due to their use of pesticides.(5) However, pesticide exposure can also include home and garden use, occupational use by a household member or living in proximity to a treated field. Pesticides are also commonly applied in urban areas.
• People with asthma are especially sensitive to pesticides and at risk of attacks when exposed to even small amounts.(6)

( 1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. February 27, 2004. Asthma Prevalence and Control Characteristics by Race/Ethnicity—United States, 2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 53 (7).

(2)Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health. August 2005. Asthma's Impact on Children and Adolescents, available at http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/children.htm .

(3) Ibid.

(4) Salam, MT, YF Li, B Langholz, and FD Gilliland. May 2004. Early-life environmental risk factors for asthma: Findings from the children’s health study. Environmental Health Perspectives 112 (6): 760-765.

(5) Senthilselvan, A, HH McDuffie, and JA Dosman. 1992. Association of asthma with use of pesticides. Results of a cross-sectional survey of farmers. American Review of Respiratory Disease. 146 (4): 884-7; Royce, S, P Wald, D Sheppard, and J Balmes. 1993. Occupational asthma in a pesticides manufacturing worker. Chest 103: 295-296; Hoppin JA, DM Umbach, SH London, et al. 2002. Chemical predictors of wheeze among farmer pesticide applicators in the agricultural health study. M J Respir Crit Care Med 165: 683-689.

(6) Salameh, PR, I Baldi, P Brochard, et al. 2003. European Respiratory Journal 22: 507-512.

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