We have two new kits – Pesticides 2 and Pesticides 3.

Pesticide 2 Test Kit includes many pesticides and herbicides that are among the most frequently used including Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, 2,4-D, Glyphosate and Imidacloprid. It also includes some mixed vials which give you access to a wide range of these potential toxins. Commercial DDT is banned in most countries but is a persistent pollutant in the environment. It is a mixture of several closely–related compounds. 4,4′-DDT (77%) and 2,4′-DDT (15%) are the main chemicals with DDE and DDD making up the balance. DDE and DDD are also the major metabolites and breakdown products in the environment. All four are in this kit.

Pesticide 3 Test Kit includes more pesticides, including some used in the home and garden.

The kits contain some pesticides that have been banned, but many persist in the environment and in the animal food chain (particularly in animal fat, so people who eat meat will generally have exposure to these pesticides even now). Studies of human breast milk also show significant levels of these chemicals.

All this is of concern because many of the pesticides affect the nervous system and act to disrupt the hormone/endocrine system.

Studies have shown that children with higher levels of malathion (pesticide 2) in their urine seem to be at an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Chlorpyrifos (pesticide 2) is one of the most widely used insecticides. The crops with the most intense chlorpyrifos use are cotton, corn, almonds, and fruit trees including oranges and apples. It is associated with early childhood developmental delays, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

A study published in 2006 (Diabetes Care, 29:1638–1644) indicated a link between blood serum levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and diabetes. POPs are chemicals such as DDT, dioxins, PCBs and Chlordane, etc.) Individuals with elevated levels of POPs in their body were found to be up to 38 times more likely to be insulin resistant than individuals with low levels of these pollutants, though the study did not demonstrate a cause and effect relationship. As most exposure to POPs is through consumption of animal fats, study participants with high levels of serum POPs are also very likely to be consumers of high amounts of animal fats, and thus the consumption of the fats themselves, or other associated factors may be responsible for the observed increase in insulin resistance. Another possibility is that insulin resistance causes increased accumulation of POPs. Among study participants, obesity was associated with diabetes only in people who tested high for these pollutants. Chlordane is included in this test kit.

There is evidence of Metolachlor (pesticide 3) in ground and surface water. Concentrations have been found in fish. Some evidence that it may be carcinogenic. Evidence of the bioaccumulation of metolachlor in edible species of fish as well as its adverse effect on the growth and development raise concerns on its effects on human health.

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) collected samples (in 2009) with surface wipes from U.S. kitchen floors. The most frequently detected pesticides, after permethrin (89 percent), were chlorpyrifos (78 percent); chlordane (74 percent); piperonyl butoxide (52 percent); cypermethrin (46 percent); and fipronil (40 percent). This includes products voluntarily removed from the market years ago. While in most cases, the pesticide concentrations measured were low, the insecticides may serve as a potential source of exposure to occupants. All of these are in the Pesticide kits.

Men exposed to organochlorine pesticide metabolites, such as DDE (in Pesticide 2), had an increased risk of testicular germ cell tumors.

Licensed pesticide applicators who used chlorinated pesticides on more than 100 days in their lifetime were at greater risk of diabetes, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The associations between specific pesticides and incident diabetes ranged from a 20 per cent to a 200 per cent increase in risk, said the scientists with the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Among the 50 different pesticides the researchers looked at, they found seven specific pesticides -- aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor and cynazine -- that increased the likelihood of diabetes among study participants who had ever been exposed to any of these pesticides, and an even greater risk as cumulative days of lifetime exposure increased.

With the aim to eradicate the most dangerous of these chemicals, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was organised under the guidance of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2001. The Convention, which entered into force in May 2004, listed the 12 most dangerous POPs (called the “dirty dozen”) that shall be either outlawed or strictly limited. These 12 initial chemicals included a range of chlorinated pesticides (DDT, Aldrin, Chlordane, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Hexachlorobenzene, Mirex and Toxaphene) as well as dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

In May 2009, a follow-up conference was held to update the list of hazardous chemicals. Parties agreed to expand the list by nine more chemicals, including Lindane, α- and β-hexachlorocyclohexane, chlordecone, perfluorooctane sulphonic acid, pentachlorobenzene, hexabromobiphenyl,and two bromodiphenylether congeners (BDE).

Persistent organic pollutants are a threat to human health and to the environment. Since they are very stable and hydrophobic molecules, they bio-accumulate through the food web and pose significant health risks such as cancer, birth defects, reproductive disorders, and dysfunctional nervous and immune systems in humans and in wildlife. Polar regions are most exposed, since many toxins are swept to the Arctic by ocean or air currents; no individual in any global region, however, is free from measurable traces of POPs.

Almost of all these 21 substances can be found in in the Pesticide Kits and the Industrial & Environmental Kits.