pesticides affect children the most

Subject: Toxic Chemicals and US – Need any other reasons to eat organic and detox?

Toxic Chemicals and US – Need any other reasons to eat organic and detox?

U.S. Government Facts: Children’s Chemical Exposure via Food Products

a. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Academy of Sciences, standard chemicals are up to ten times more toxic to children than to adults, depending on body weight. This is due to the fact that children take in more toxic chemicals relative to body weight than adults and have developing organ systems that are more vulnerable and less able to detoxify toxic chemicals. (ii,iii)

b. According to EPA’s “Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment,”

children receive 50% of their lifetime cancer risks in the first

two years of life. (v)

c. According to the Food and Drug Administration, half of produce

currently tested in grocery stores contains measurable residues

of pesticides. Laboratory tests of eight industry-leader baby

foods reveal the presence of 16 pesticides, including three carcinogens.

(x,ix)

d. In blood samples of children aged 2 to 4, concentrations of pesticide residues are six times higher in children eating conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables compared with those eating organic food. (iv)

e. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services,

organophosphate pesticides (OP) are now found in the blood of

95% of Americans tested. OP levels are twice as high in blood

samples taken from children than in adults. Exposure to OPs is

linked to hyperactivity, behavior disorders, learning disabilities,

developmental delays and motor dysfunction. OPs account for

half of the insecticides used in the US. (vi, vii, xvi)

f. The US Centers for Disease Control reports that one of the main

sources of pesticide exposure for US children comes from the

food they eat. (vi)

g. The US Department of Agriculture strictly prohibits mixing different types of pesticides for disposal, due to the well known

process of the individual chemicals combining into new highly

toxic chemical compounds. There are no regulations regarding

pesticide mixture on a consumer product level, even though, in

a similar manner, those same individual pesticide residues interact

and mix together into new chemical compounds when conventional

multiple ingredient products are made. 62% of food

products tested contain a measurable mixture of residues of at

least three different pesticides. (xi,xii,xiii,xiv,xv)

h. Currently, over 400 chemicals can be regularly used in conventional farming as biocides to kill weeds and insects. For example, apples can be sprayed up to 16 times with 36 different pesticides. None of these chemicals are present in organic foods. (i)

i. Over 300 synthetic food additives are allowed by the FDA in conventional foods. None of these are allowed in foods that are

USDA certified organic.

References:

U.S. Government Facts: Children’s Chemical Exposure via Food Products

i) MAFF (1998): Orchards and Fruit Stores in Great Britain 1996,

Pesticide Usage Survey Report 142, MAFF publications, London.

ii) US EPA, Office of the Administrator: Environmental

Health Threats to Children, EPA 175-F-96-001, September 1996.

iii) National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences:

Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children,

National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1993: 184-185.

iv) CL Curl, RA Fenske, and K Elgethun (2003): Organophosphorus pesticide

exposure of urban and suburban pre-school children with organic and

conventional diets, Environmental Health Perspectives, 111 (3) 377–382.

v) US EPA, 2003: Draft Final Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment,

EPA/630/P-03/001A Washington, DC.

www.epa.gov/ncea/raf/cancer2003.htm (accessed July 9, 2004)

vi) Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Disease

Control, National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental

Chemicals, March 2003, www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/2nd/

vii) Saulk Institute: Loss of neuropathy target esterase in mice linking organophosphate

exposure to hyperactivity. Journal Nature Genetics, March 03

viii) The Royal Society: Endocrine disrupting chemicals, June 2000

www.royalsoc.ac.uk/displaypagedoc.asp?id=11310

ix) Cook, Kenneth A., et al: Pesticides in the US Food Supply

(February 1995), www.ewg.org/reports/fruit/Contents.html

x) CFSAN FDA Office of Plant and Dairy Foods: FDA Pesticide Residue

Monitoring Program 1994-2002, http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/pesrpts.html

xi) Porter, et al (1993): Groundwater pesticides: interactive effects of low concentrations of carbamates aldicarb and methomyl and the triazine metribuzin on thyroxine and somatrophin levels in white rats, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, (40) p. 15–34.

xii) Boyd, et al (1990): Behavioural and neurochemical changes associated with chronic exposure to low level concentrations of pesticide mixtures, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, (30) p. 209–21. xiii) Porter, et al (1999): Endochrine immune and behavioural effects of aldicarb (carbamate), atrazine (triazine) and nitrate (fertiliser) mixtures at groundwater concentrations, Toxicology and Industrial health, (15) 133–150.

xiv) Thiruchelvam, M, et al (2000): The nigrostriatal dopaminergic system as a preferential target of repeated exposures to combined paraquat and maneb: implications for Parkinson’s Disease,

Journal of Neuroscience, 20 (24) p. 2907–9214.

xv) Pesticide Data Program (2000-2002), Baker, et al (2000):

Food Additives, Vol.19, No.5, 427-446

xvi) Environmental Protection Agency: America’s Children and the

Environment (March 2003) www.epa.gov/envirohealth/children/

Source: http://organicconsumers.org/organic/wic-faq.pdf