WAIMEA, HAWAI'I – The island of Kaua'i, Hawai'i, has become Ground Zero in the intense political battle over genetically modified (GMO) crops in the United States. But the fight isn't just about the concerns over GMO technology. It's also about chemical pesticides. The four transnational corporations that are experimenting with genetically engineered crops on Kaua'i have transformed part of the island into what could be one of the most toxic chemical environments in all of U.S. agriculture.

For the better part of two decades, Syngenta, BASF Plant Science, DuPont Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences have been drenching their test crops near this small town on the southwest coast of Kaua'i with some of the most dangerous synthetic pesticides in use in agriculture today, at an intensity that far surpasses the norm at most other American farms, an analysis of government pesticide databases shows.

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Six of the seven restricted-use pesticides used most heavily on Kaua'i are suspected of being endocrine disruptors, according to the EPA. Endocrine disruptors can cause reproductive problems and may result in an increased incidence in some problems in humans and animals, according to the NIH. Tyrone Hayes, an endocrinologist at the University of California-Berkeley whose reputation has been viciously attacked by Syngenta, has raised particular concerns about the potentially gender-bending effects of even tiny amounts of atrazine. A review of the scientific literature published in March in the British journal The Lancet Neurology also found that chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin, is one of a dozen chemicals commonly found in the environment that "injure the developing brain" of children.

Four of the seven heavily used restricted pesticides are suspected or likely carcinogens. And between them, the seven have been linked to, among other things, neurological and brain problems and damage to the lungs, heart, kidneys, adrenal glands, central nervous system, muscles, spleen, and liver.