Fairtrade label Pants to Poverty claims one in 50 pairs of cotton pants from India should carry a warning due to endosulfan - illegal in 62 countries including the UK.
They found up to seven million cheap pairs sold in budget stores and markets here contained 10ml from cotton plant spraying.
The chemical will wash off, but they warned Indian cotton harvesters in direct contact with it suffer severe effects such as birth defects, miscarriages and cancer.
The group is urging people to post their worst pair of pants to German drugs giant Bayer for selling endosulfan to the Third World.
Pesticide Action said: "Why sell a pesticide banned in its country to poor farmers?" Bayer's UK office in Cambridge said: "It's designed to kill insects and must be used appropriately. We go out of our way to make sure farmers are trained how to use it."
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