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Specialized United Nations agencies have classified pesticides as hazardous substances due to the substantial harm they cause to human health and ecosystems. Although extensive documentation exists attributing the primary impact of exposure to agricultural workers who are in direct contact with these substances, there is also evidence of equal exposure among rural and urban children, even among those not engaged in agricultural activities. This phenomenon is attributable to the fact that exposure to these toxic substances is not limited to direct contact but occurs through multiple routes. Of particular concern is the dispersion of pesticides beyond the designated application sites, a phenomenon that enables these chemicals to be inhaled and deposited in water sources, soils, and both public and private spaces. Given the numerous avenues of exposure, the rural population—which remains sizable and predominantly engages in agricultural activities—constitutes a substantial health concern due to its heightened exposure and vulnerability to the adverse effects of pesticides.

According to the World Bank's definitions, derived from national statistical offices, the rural population—defined as the difference between the total population and the urban population—accounted for approximately 3.423 billion individuals in 2020, constituting 42.7% of the global population ^[1].

In Latin America, according to national definitions adopted by the World Bank and ECLAC, the rural population is estimated at 96.8 million people, equivalent to 14.5% of the total population  ^[2]. In Mexico, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI)^[3] has identified 18,888 rural localities with populations of fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, which collectively house nearly 21.5 million individuals. In these localities, 55% of the economically active population is engaged in primary activities such as agriculture. When the aforementioned criterion is extended to encompass localities with populations of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, the total number of entities rises to approximately 96,468, constituting 27.8% of the national population. Of these entities, approximately 40% are engaged in primary activities.

In rural areas, it is imperative to identify and analyze the demographic segments of the population that, due to their age and developmental stage, are more susceptible to the adverse health effects of pesticides. It has been determined that two specific demographic groups, pregnant women and children, are at an elevated risk due to their increased biological and behavioral vulnerability. The WHO 2006,^[4] has noted that during the first 12 years of life, children experience excessive exposure, associated with a higher intake rate in relation to their body weight (through air, water, and food), the immaturity of their metabolic and renal systems—which limits their ability to detoxify—and characteristic behavioral patterns, such as crawling and hand-to-mouth contact, which increase contact with pesticide residues accumulated in soil and on surfaces. Consequently, pesticides have been observed to persist longer in children's bodies, potentially resulting in more pronounced effects.

This daily exposure of children and young people in rural areas constitutes a public health problem that requires immediate attention. The objective of thes study was to examine children's exposure to pesticides from a transdisciplinary perspective, with the aim of comprehending the socio-environmental contexts in which it occurs and the implications that arise from it. To this end, in the analysis of a rural locality in western Mexico, a multiscale approach was first adopted that linked its particular situation to national and international socio-environmental processes that shape children's exposure to pesticides. These processes are intricately intertwined and manifest in the fabric of everyday life, collectively forming a set of factors that elucidate their pervasive persistence at the local level.

Secondly, this study employs an interdisciplinary approach, integrating methodologies and techniques from the health, environmental, and social sciences to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under analysis. Thirdly, the present case study endeavored to revisit approaches that examine the historical and structural processes linked to public health.^[5] Among these processes, the agro-industrial production model is particularly salient. This model was consolidated in Mexico in the mid-20th century with the so-called Green Revolution and subsequently expanded globally through transnational corporations, with the active support of national governments.^[6]

This historical pattern sought to increase agricultural productivity and competitiveness through the expansion of monocultures oriented toward national and international markets, the adoption of high-yield improved seeds, the intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, and the systematic application of pesticides to control "weeds" and pests.^[7] However, this production model has contributed significantly to the degradation of ecosystems, the reduction of biodiversity, and a growing technological dependence on the countries that adopt it. In addition to generating serious health and social impacts in the rural communities where it is implemented, this production model has significant environmental consequences.^[8] The economic costs associated with the degradation of human and environmental health resulting from this model are systematically externalized by the producing companies. This is because the costs are not incorporated into their accounting schemes and are instead allocated to less degraded agricultural areas in the regions and countries where they operate.^[9] Consequently, this pattern has been characterized as fundamentally extractive.^[10]

The agricultural production model is manifestly evident in the locality under study, whose analysis at the local level provides fundamental empirical and theoretical insights into the daily interconnections among the environment, health, and social organization.

The findings in the study indicate a persistent presence of pesticides, which has a continuous and detrimental effect on the child population in the rural town of El Mentidero (EM). This phenomenon is indicative of the prevailing patterns of agricultural utilization that are inextricably linked to environmental and seasonal factors. Consequently, the children in this community are confronted with pervasive biological, environmental, and social risks.

The case study's analysis transcends its local and empirical nature by revealing a historical and structural social problem that conditions children's exposure to pesticides. Empirical evidence has been demonstrated to show a widespread and apparently constant presence of EM children in six, seven, and even eight pesticides used in sugarcane and vegetable monocultures. This pattern of exposure is indicative of a historically reproduced network of labor and health inequality faced by rural areas in Mexico.

While exposure is associated with household members carrying pesticides on their clothes, shoes, and skin, and with children's direct participation in agricultural work, the results indicate that the predominant route of exposure is environmental, stemming from living in a contaminated area. This situation is further compounded by the potential dietary exposure from products originating from other regions of the country, where a predominant agricultural pattern that relies heavily on pesticides exists.

The evidence indicates that children's exposure to pesticides constitutes a triple exposure—environmental, occupational, and domestic—rooted in historical and structural conditions associated with an agro-industrial model that is intensive in chemical inputs and a permissive state with limited capacity to protect the health and well-being of children in rural populations, which it has delegated to other economic actors. This exposure, therefore, cannot be considered exclusively as an environmental or biomedical risk. Rather, it is indicative of historical processes of social marginalization, job insecurity, and exclusion from basic services. These processes systematically externalize socio-environmental costs to children and require comprehensive responses based on social and environmental justice and the comprehensive protection of children.

Acknowledging the historical and structural conditions that underpin the dilemmas of survival and the social normalization of risk creates the opportunity for the development of intervention strategies that extend beyond the scope of technical risk reduction. These strategies prioritize processes of denormalization, critical education, the reconstruction of the link between health, territory, and food, and, most notably, the promotion of an agroecological transition.