Exerpt by Stephen Sherwood, Donald Cole and Douglas Murray

While difficult to demonstrate scientifically, continual exposure to neuro-toxins produces symptoms of depression. Depression often leads people to commit self-harming acts. This has led some medical experts to argue that exposure to highly toxic pesticides may contribute to the climbing number of suicide attempts worldwide. Regardless of whether highly toxics are the cause of wanting to take your life or just an effective means of doing so, where access to extremely and highly hazardous pesticides has been restricted, suicide rates have fallen. Further, research in Northern Ecuador revealed that not just those who applied pesticides were at risk. Women and young children, although not commonly active in field agriculture there, were affected nearly as much. Further research demonstrated that treatment costs and work days lost impose a significant financial burden on the public health system and the individual. Each human poisoning (not accounting for deaths) cost about six worker days. Chronic exposure to highly toxic pesticides adversely affects farmer thinking and motor performance to a level that would justify worker disability payments in wealthier countries. Read More (pdf)