A survey of school attendance and mortality records, hospital admissions, and illness among plantation groups was undertaken to determine the possible toxic hazard from the use of modern insecticides in the Mississippi Delta. In all studies reported no evidence could be found that pesticides were the direct or indirect cause of any chronic disease of a contributing cause in diseases generally recognized as having other etiologies. A definite problem exists in relation to widespread use of toxic compounds by inadequately trained and sometimes careless people.