Do Pestisides Really "Bug" You?

In the U. S., many of the chemicals responsible for contaminating the food supply have been banned. However, other countries continue to manufacture and use those chemicals, and their residues are carried across the globe by air, water currents and precipitation. "United States consumers have a right to know that chemicals banned in this country years ago continue to contaminate their food," said Kristin Schafer of Pesticide Action Network.

The group's evaluation of POP residue data yielded hard-to-believe findings, including the following:


*Virtually ALL food products are contaminated with POPs which have been banned in the U.S., including baked goods, vegetables, fruit, poultry, meat and dairy products.

*It is not unusual for daily diets to contain food items contaminated with 3 to 7 POPs.


*A typical holiday dinner menu of 11 food items can deliver 38 "hits" of exposure to POPs - a "hit" is one persistent toxic chemical on one food item.

*The sample daily meal plans used in the study were each found to deliver between 63 and 70 hits.separate exposures to POPs per day.


*The 2 most pervasive POPs found in food are dieldrin and DDE. Dieldrin is a very persistent and highly toxic organochlorine pesticide banned since the late 1970s. DDE is a breakdown product of DDT, which has been banned in the United States since 1972.

The report shows rather convincing and compelling evidence that organic foods are much less likely to have any residues. That when organic foods have residues they have fewer and that the levels of the residues are generally lower.


The report's findings are based on pesticide residue data collected on a wide variety of foods by the United States Department of Agriculture from 1994 to 1999, tests conducted on food sold in California by the state's Department of Pesticide Regulation from 1989 through 1998, and tests by Consumers Union in 1997. The combined data covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 crops. 1,291 of those samples were organically grown, about 1.3%.

The Agriculture Department data showed that 73% of the conventionally grown foods had residue from at least one pesticide and were 6 times as likely as organic foods to contain multiple pesticide residues. Only 23% of the organic samples of the same groups had any pesticide residues.

The data obtained from the FDA shows that levels of contaminants in food are often at, or near, the levels found by the federal government to cause public health concern. In addition, recent scientific studies have discovered that exposure to minuscule levels of POPs at crucial times in fetal and infant development can damage or disrupt human hormone, neurological, reproductive and immune systems.

Botanical Health Magazine understands that in our current economy buying organic may not always be feasible to your budget. We have compiled a list of fruits and vegetables with the least amount of pesticide contamination:

Fruits
Pineapples
Plantains
Mangoes
Bananas
Watermelon
Plums
Kiwi Fruit
Blueberries
Papaya
Grapefruit


Vegetables
Avocado
Cauliflower
Brussels
Sprouts
Asparagus
Radishes
Broccoli
Onions
Okra
Cabbage
Eggplant