CRITIQUE OF THE WORLD-RESOURCES-INSTITUTE REPORT PESTICIDES AND THE IMMUNE-SYSTEM - THE PUBLIC-HEALTH RISKS

A recent World Resources Institute (WRI) report concluded that pestici des are a likely cause of immune suppression for millions of people th roughout the world. The gravity of this conclusion motivated us to rev iew the scientific evidence cited in the report. The predominant human evidence came from cross-sectional studies conducted in the former So viet Union. These studies were difficult to evaluate due to incomplete reporting and had obvious limitations in terms of subject selection, exposure assessment, lack of quality control, statistical analysis, ad equacy of the comparison group, and confounding. The toxicologic evide nce was comprised mainly of acute high-dose studies in which the expos ure conditions resulted in systemic toxicity. The relevance of these s tudies to effects at typical human exposure levels is questionable. We did not find consistent, credible evidence to support the conclusion of widespread pesticide-related immune suppression. Nonetheless, the W RI report is an important document because it focuses attention on a p otentially important issue for future research and brings a substantia l literature of foreign language studies to the attention of Western s cientists.