In developed nations such as the United States, concern over the impacts on human health and the environment has
led to the banning of many pesticides and the strict regulation of others. However, agrichemicals represent a multibillion
dollar industry and the multinational corporations that manufacture large quantities of pesticides find markets
for their products in the developing world. For example, seventy percent of the pesticides used in Thailand and India
are banned or severely restricted in the West. A survey in the Indian state of Punjab detected DDT and BHC –
agrichemicals banned in the west – in all of seventy-five samples of human breast milk.iii During the 1980s, the US
was producing 100 – 150 million pounds per year of pesticides considered too dangerous for domestic use. These
chemicals were produced for export to nations with less stringent environmental standards. Ironically, such nations
often use these chemicals on crops that they grow for export back to the US and Western Europe – in this way,
citizens of developed countries may be exposed to chemicals banned by their own governments.iv