Many of the pesticides that are on the market pose extreme risks to human health, Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney for the Earthjustice said. Earthjustice has filed four lawsuits in the past two years against the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that the agency has not done enough to prevent pesticides from being a source of groundwater contamination and a major threat for human health.

The lawsuits say that the EPA “has not fully assessed” the risks posed by several pesticides to human health. On the other hand, according to EPA’s Web site, the agency is “highly susceptible to contamination from septic tanks, agricultural runoff, highway de-icing, landfills, and pipe leaks” and contamination from pesticides is among EPA’s concerns. EPA has not updated ocean pollution criteria since 1986. Currently ocean pollution criteria is based on the likelihood of contracting gastrointestinal ailments.

“We should be doing a lot more to protect our groundwater,” Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, told ABCNews.com. “There just has not been a willingness to classify some of the pesticides or to look at the human health effects,” she said.

“Looking at pesticides has become very politicized. EPA hasn’t been doing what they need to do,” alleged Hauter.

Earlier this year, EPA accused five of the country’s states – Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan – of violating one of its recently added pollution standards. The agency is conducting an exhaustive research and the by December the final list should be completed.