In response to a Congressional request, the General Accounting Office examined issues related to pesticide safety for children in agricultural settings. Pesticides can cause acute, chronic, or delayed-onset illnesses. Children may be exposed to pesticides through farm work; eating pesticide-treated foods; or contact with drift from pesticide…

Agricultural work is the most hazardous and grueling area of employment open to U.S. children and is also the least protected. Adolescent farmworkers labor under more dangerous conditions than their peers working in nonagricultural settings and also face persistent wage exploitation and fraud. These adolescent workers are protected less under U.S.…