U.S. residents carry unhealthy levels of pesticides

[Guest guest]

Quote: The study said one company - Dow Chemical Corp.

- was responsible for 80 percent of the chlorpyrifos

in Americans' bodies "

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This story is taken from AP State Wire News at

sacbee.com.

U.S. residents carry unhealthy levels of pesticides,

study finds By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer

- (Published May 11, 2004)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Many U.S. residents carry

unhealthy levels of pesticides in their bodies, with

children, women and Mexican Americans

disproportionately exposed to the toxic chemicals,

according to a study released Tuesday.

The Pesticide Action Network analyzed data collected

by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

in a study of more than 2,648 people tested for levels

of 34 pesticides, the environmental group said.

The PAN study - called " Chemical Trespass: Pesticides

in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability " - found

that a large percentage of people who had their blood

and urine tested carried pesticides above levels

considered safe by government health and environmental

agencies.

" The pesticide body burden data represents a failure

of our approach to how we protect people from toxic

pesticides, " said Schafer, the study's lead

author and PAN's program coordinator. " We really hope

that it will help us move toward a different system of

how we control pests in agriculture and all other

areas. "

San Francisco-based PAN, which advocates for

alternatives to pesticide use for pest control, found

that the average person in the study carried 13 of the

23 pesticides they evaluated. Many of the pesticides

have been linked to infertility, birth defects, cancer

and other serious health ailments, said Margaret

Reeves, a senior scientist at PAN.

" A growing body of research suggests that even at very

low levels, the combination of these chemicals can be

harmful to our health, " Reeves said.

The PAN study found that children between 6 and 11

years old were exposed to the nerve-damaging pesticide

chlorpyrifos at four times the level deemed acceptable

by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Chlorpyrifos is designed to kill insects by disrupting

the nervous system.

" It does appear to have some validity, " said Francis

B. Suhre, of the EPA. " The crux of the matter is what

does it all mean and is it reflecting past effects as

opposed to current. At first blush, it requires

further screening. "

The study said one company - Dow Chemical Corp. - was

responsible for 80 percent of the chlorpyrifos in

Americans' bodies. The figure was derived from the

amount of the chemical in the bodies of the people

tested and a " conservative estimate of Dow's market

share, " said Skip Spitzer, a program coordinator for

PAN and one of the study's authors.

Dow spokesman Garry Hamlin confirmed the company is

the largest manufacturer of the pesticide in the

country, but said the pesticide leaves the body

quickly without doing harm. He said the CDC has noted

that the measurement of an environmental chemical in a

person's blood or urine does not mean that the

chemical causes disease.

" Chlorpyrifos is widely used, and studies by the

Centers for Disease Control suggest that people are

exposed to chlorpyrifos at very tiny levels. ... When

people are exposed, the product breaks down readily

and is eliminated from the body in a matter of days, "

he said.

The report said that women carry " significantly "

higher levels of three pesticides called

organochlorines known to reduce birth weight and

disrupt brain development in infants.

PAN's analysis also found that Mexican Americans

carried higher levels of chemicals linked to the

insecticides lindane, DDT and methyl parthion than

other ethnic groups.

The PAN study didn't reveal why certain groups were

more exposed to certain chemicals because the CDC data

didn't include information about where the test

subjects lived or what kinds of jobs they held. People

are thought to ingest pesticides through air, water

and food.

CDC spokeswoman Creel said the center would

not comment on the findings because it did not

participate in the analysis.

PAN researchers believe pesticide makers should be

held responsible for the " pesticide body burden " and

its financial and health impacts.

" There's a case to be made that the primary

responsibility for these pesticides in our bodies lies

with the folks that manufacture and market them, "

Schafer said.

The study recommends that Congress investigate

corporate responsibility for pesticide contamination,

an EPA ban on using hazardous pesticides, and

requiring manufacturers to demonstrate that pesticide

doesn't harm human health before using it.

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On the Net:

Pesticide Action Network: http://www.panna.org

CropLife America: http://www.croplifeamerica.org