Cotton is "the world's dirtiest crop": The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton, a joint report by Pesticide Action Network UK and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), notes that $2 billion worth of chemicals are used on the world's cotton fields every year and "cotton is responsible for the release of 16% of global insecticides."
The World Health Organization classifies the cotton pesticide aldicarb as "extremely hazardous" while the joint report calls the organochlorine pesticide endosulfan "the most important source of fatal poisoning among cotton farmers in West Africa." Cotton chemicals also pose a major health risk to workers and children in Uzbekistan, India and other high-production countries. EJF's "White Gold- The True Cost of Cotton" about cotton's impacts in Uzbekistan won the Environmental Activism & Social Justice Award at the 9th Annual Earth Vision International Environmental Film Festival in Santa Cruz, CA this month.
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