The US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that children have a twelve times greater health risk than adults from pesticides because of their greater contact with dust and soil. Children spend more time on the floor or ground, touching all manner of objects and putting them on their fingers and in their mouths. This is also one of the reasons why they have greater exposure to domestic pesticides than adults living in the same house. Pesticides residues settle on surfaces and floors and children take them in through the skin or orally with house dust, as well as inhaling them as the adults would.

Children also tend to be more exposed to pesticides residues than adults because children’s diets tend to contain more water, milk and fruit juice. This higher exposure is cause for concern in itself, but doubly so when one appreciates that children’s lower body weights mean that the toxins are also more concentrated in the body.

A 1999 Italian study involving 195 children living in Siena established a significant link between domestic indoor and garden use of organophosphate pesticides (OPs) during the previous month and OP metabolite in the children’s urine. The levels of OP metabolite in the children’s urine were significantly higher than in adults living in the same houses.