America's foreign policy establishment is bracing itself for a pesticide time bomb: the explosive revelations of how developing countries are being turned into dumping grounds for dangerous pesticides that are banned in the United States. A House subcommittee on international economic policy and trade, which is conducting hearings on a bill introduced by Representative Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.) to control the export of hazardous materials, has information from the World Health Organization that 500,000 people are poisoned each year in the Third World as a result of direct exposure to pesticides, about 5,000 fatally.

“The nations of the developing world are most vulnerable and often lack the capability to monitor and regulate dangerous imports,” says Jacob Scherr, staff attorney for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that monitors global environmental matters. In his testimony to Congress Scherr warned of “the potential negative foreign policy consequences of the export of hazardous wastes to developing nations.”