
	Certified cotton is grown without pesticides. The facts listed below are intended to help you understand the environmental and health risks associated with commercial, chemically-grown cotton. -There are 400 pesticides on the market that were registered before they were required to be tested to determine cancer, birth-defect, or wildlife-toxicity risks. -3,700 chemicals can be legally concealed in pesticide formulas. These ingredients can comprise up to 97% of the product. These “inerts” are often insecticides such as DDT or contaminants such as dioxin. -Currently in the U.S., there are over 17,00 registered pesticide products and over 800 related active ingredients. -No one ever asked us whether we wanted pesticides in our bodies. -Sometimes we miss the simplest statements: “Pesticides are poisons designed to kill living things.” -Conventionally-grown cotton uses more pesticides than any other single crop, and includes some of the most hazardous pesticides on the market. These cotton pesticides are frequently broad-spectrum organophosphates and carbamates. -Even though only 2.4% of the world’s total arable land is using for growing cotton, this crop accounts for about 24% ($1,776 million) of the insecticides sold worldwide. -Two-thirds of the cotton crop winds up in food. Half a million tons of cottonseed oil go into processed foods like baked goods, snacks, salad dressing. Three million tons of cottonseed are fed to beef and dairy cattle. -Farm workers have the highest annual rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group in the U.S. Approximately 300,000 of these illnesses are pesticide-related. -Pesticides can produce a wide range of adverse effects on human health, including acute neurologic toxicity, cancer, and dysfunction of the immune,, endocrine, and reproductive systems. -In the U.S., there are approximately 67,000 human pesticide poisonings per year, and thousands of cases of poisoned domestic animals (dogs and cats being the most common). -As far back as 1988, the EPA had detected over 70 different pesticides present in the groundwater of 32 states. -50% of the total U.S. population is supplied with drinking water from ground-water. -Regarding aerial spraying, it is estimated that about one one-thousandth of aerial insecticides actually prevent insect infestation. The balance goes into the soil, water, leaves, wildlife, and ourselves. -In 1995, the pesticides endosulfan and methyl parathion leached from Alabama cotton fields into a creek after heavy rains. Within days, at least 240,000 fish were killed. This same source has also estimated that pesticides unintentionally kill at least 67 million birds a year. -Every person on earth has absorbed at least 250 synthetic chemicals into his or her body. -Chemicals have replaced bacteria and viruses as the main threat to health. The diseases we’re beginning to see as the major causes of death in the latter part of this century and into the 21st century are diseases of chemical origin.