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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 12 2008 : 10:55:05 AM
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http://organicconsumers.org/organic/wic-faq.pdf
U.S. Government Facts:
Children’s Chemical & Pesticide Exposure via Food Products
All sources of the below data are attached. Please reference those sources for further information.
The majority of this data comes from U.S. Government agencies and their respective reports.
Data assembled in July 2005
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• According to the U.S. 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 U.S. (vi, vii, xvi)
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that one of the main sources of pesticide
exposure for U.S. children comes from the food they eat. (vi)
• The U.S. 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)
• 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)
• 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.
Sources for: 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) Curl CL , 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) p. 377 – 382.
v) U.S. EPA. 2003. Draft Final Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment. EPA/630/P-
03/001A Washington, DC. http://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,
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/2nd/
vii) Saulk Institute, Loss of neuropathy target esterase in mice linking organophosphate
exposure to hyperactivity.Journal Nature Genetics, March 2003
viii) The Royal Society (2000) Endocrine disrupting chemicals, June 2000
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/ files/statfiles/document-111.pdf
ix) Cook, Kenneth A., et al., Pesticides in the U.S. Food Supply (February 1995),
http://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 – 221.
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) p. 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/
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
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How Pesticides affect Children
