The topic of my research is environmental justice and pesticide health effects, furthermore my research will explain the correlation between areas with high pesticide use and schools with a high percentage of Hispanic enrollment. To elaborate on the importance of the research, the research proposal must also explain why discovering a positive correlation can help expose environmental justice where a minority group is subjected to environmental hazards, for example Hispanics and pesticides in Ventura County.
The article used is titled “Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 4. Pesticides”, the article was written by Margaret D. Sanborn, Donald Cole, Alan Abelsohn and Erica Weir. The article can be found on CMAJ Open, an online open-access journal.
First, pesticides are used to “kill animal, insect, plant and fungal pests in agricultural, domestic and institutional settings.” There are three major ways humans absorb toxic pesticides, they are ingestion, inhalation, and dermal absorption. The people most vulnerable to dermal absorption are children, this is because of “behavioral factors such as hand-mouth behavior and play patterns…”. Schools closest to agricultural pesticide exposure will have a higher toxicity and health effects like non-Hodgkins lymphoma will be more prominent. “Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (also known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, NHL, or sometimes just lymphoma) is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system (American Cancer Society).”
This research example was used to find reasons why the correlation between pesticides and environmental justice is important. Discovering reasons why a correlation is important will help the subjected change their circumstances.
Sanborn, Margaret D., et al. “Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 4. Pesticides.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 166.11 (2002): 1431-1436.
“What Is Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?” , www.cancer.org/cancer/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/about/what-is-non-hodgkin-lymphoma.html.