Your Green Review

Wardrobes across the planet have had a hand in the corruption of environmental and social integrity in the name of cotton. Conventionally grown, cotton accounts for approximately 23% of the world’s insecticide use and, according to the World Health Oragnization, will contribute to 20,000 deaths this year alone in developing countries (on top of millions of poisonings each year). All of the top three selling pesticides are ranked as class 1 or 2 chemicals (highly or extremely hazardous) by the World Health Organization’s Acute Hazards Ranking system. Aldicarb, the second most used pesticide worldwide, is rated as a class 1a chemical (extremely hazardous); one drop absorbed into the skin is enough to kill an adult male.

While pesticides are used across the globe, communities suffering the greatest are in developing countries where chemicals are applied manually and adequate safety gear is unavailable, too expensive or too difficult to wear in hot climates. Awareness of chemical toxicity is often lacking in these regions, leaving millions unaware that the chemicals they spray in the absence of proper protective clothing are known carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, teratogens and neurotoxins. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of pesticides and are often directly exposed when living within close proximity of farm land.

Exposure to these toxins has been linked to everything from neurological and respiratory damage to DNA mutations, the evidence of which was published in a paper by the NIH. The Environmental Justice Foundation estimates that approximately 99% of the world’s cotton farmers live under these conditions in developing countries today.

There are, unfortunately, no quick fixes here. However, progress is being made through the popularization of organic cotton and alternative pest control methods. Organic farming significantly reduces the need for pesticides by planting border and trap crops to deter pests, rotating crops to promote soil quality and encouraging the introduction of predatory birds and insects as chemical alternatives. While there may be no cure-all, with global demand for organic cotton projected to reach 3.5 billion through 2008, the winds of change may just blow pesticides right out of the water

*Read More About The Effects And Future Of Cotton Production In Upcoming Articles In This Series

Read More:

Environmental Justice Foundation. Deadly Chemicals in Cotton (Article)

http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/the_deadly_chemicals_in_cotton.pdf

Pesticide Action Network. Problems With Conventional Cotton Production (Article)

http://www.panna.org/documents/conventionalCotton.dv.html

New Internationalist: The Conventional Trap (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEmBLKyDMeo

*Be sure to read YGR’s product review of Loomstate’s Organic Cotton Jeans