Wa: Harmful pesticides found in everyday food products - Mercer Island children tested in yearlong study

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pesticides in foods - chart on url or herein

Chensheng Lu

[foto] Chensheng Lu, holding an apple from Pike Place Market, studied

the pesticide levels in Mercer Island children. In the study, the

children ate a variety of conventional produce from area groceries and

then switched to organic. Andy / P-I

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*Harmful pesticides found in everyday food products*

*Mercer Island children tested in yearlong study*

By ANDREW SCHNEIDER

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/349263_pesticide30.html

Government promises to rid the nation's food supply of brain-damaging

pesticides aren't doing the job, according to the results of a yearlong

study that carefully monitored the diets of a group of local children.

The peer-reviewed study found that the urine and saliva of children

eating a variety of conventional foods from area groceries contained

biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned

by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.

When the same children ate organic fruits, vegetables and juices, signs

of pesticides were not found.

" The transformation is extremely rapid, " said Chensheng Lu, the

principal author of the study published online in the current issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives.

" Once you switch from conventional food to organic, the pesticides

(malathion and chlorpyrifos) that we can measure in the urine

disappears. The level returns immediately when you go back to the

conventional diets, " said Lu, a professor at Emory University's School

of Public Health and a leading authority on pesticides and children.

Within eight to 36 hours of the children switching to organic food, the

pesticides were no longer detected in the testing.

The subjects for his testing were 21 children, ages 3 to 11, from two

elementary schools and a Montessori preschool on Mercer Island.

The community has double the median national income, but the wealth of

Mercer Island made no difference in the outcome, he said.

" We are confident that if we did the same study in poor communities, we

would get the same results, " he said. The study is being repeated in

Georgia.

The study has not yet linked the pesticide levels to specific foods, but

other studies have shown peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers,

nectarines, strawberries and cherries are among those that most

frequently have detectable levels of pesticides.

*Measuring the harm*

Lu is quick to point out that there is no certainty that the pesticides

measured in this group of children would cause any adverse health

outcomes. However, he added that a recent animal study demonstrated that

persistent cognitive impairment occurred in rats after chronic dietary

exposure to chlorpyrifos.

Death or serious health problems have been documented in thousands of

cases in which there were high-level exposures to malathion and

chlorpyrifos. But a link between neurological impairments and repeated

low-level exposure is far more difficult to determine.

" There's a large underpinning of animal research for organophosphate

pesticides, and particularly for chlorpyrifos, that points to bad

outcomes in terms of effects on brain development and behavior, " Dr.

Theodore Slotkin, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke

University in North Carolina, said in the April 2006 Environmental

Health Perspectives.

Lu says more research must be done into the harm these pesticides may do

to children, even at the low levels found on food.

" In animal and a few human studies, we know chlorpyrifos inhibits an

enzyme that transmits a signal in the brain so the body can function

properly. Unfortunately, that's all we know. "

Not many chemicals, including pharmaceutical products, were designed

specifically to kill mammals, which was genesis of organophosphates.

" It is appropriate to assume that if we -- human beings -- are exposed

to (this class of) pesticides, even though it's a low-level exposure on

a daily basis, there are going to be some health concerns down the

road, " said Lu, who is on the Environmental Protection Agency's

pesticide advisory panel.

The EPA says it eliminated the use of organophosphates on many crops and

imposed numerous restrictions on the remaining organophosphate pesticide

uses.

Congressional concern that children were being harmed by excessive

exposure to pesticides led to the unanimous passage of the Food Quality

Protection Act. At its heart was a requirement that by 2006, the EPA

complete a comprehensive reassessment of the 9,721 pesticides*

*permitted for use and determine the safe level of pesticide residues

permitted for all food products.

" As a result, the amount of these pesticides used on kids' foods (has

undergone) a 57 percent reduction, " said Shradar, the EPA's

spokesman.

But that's not nearly enough to prevent birth defects and neurological

problems, said Chuck Benbrook, chief scientist of the Organic Center, a

nationwide, nonprofit, food research organization.

" The pesticide limits that EPA permits are far, far too high to say

they're safe. And, the reduction that EPA cites in the U.S. has been

accompanied by a steady increase in pesticide-contaminated imported

foods, which are capturing a growing share of the market, " he said.

Yet the EPA continues to insist that " dietary exposures from eating food

crops treated with chlorpyrifos are below the level of concern for the

entire U.S. population, including infants and children. "

That statement is " not supported by science, " Benbrook said.

" Given the almost daily reminders that children are suffering from an

array of behavioral, learning, neurological problems, doesn't it make

sense to eliminate exposures to chemicals known to trigger such outcomes

like chlorpyrifos? " he asked.

*What to do*

While the gut reaction of some parents might be to limit the consumption

of fresh produce or switch completely to organic food, Lu cautions not

to make the wrong decision.

" It is vital for children to consume significantly more fresh fruits and

vegetables than is commonly the case today, " he says, citing such

problems as juvenile diabetes and obesity.

" Nor is our purpose to promote the consumption of organic food, although

our data clearly demonstrate that food grown organically contains far

less pesticide residues. "

Lu says an all-organic diet is not necessary. He has two sons, 10 and

13, and he estimates that about 60 percent of his family's diet is organic.

" Consumers, " he says, " should be encouraged to buy produce direct from

the farmers they know. These need not be just organic farmers, but

conventional growers who minimize their use of pesticides. "

Understanding how fruits and vegetables grow can help guide the

consumer, he says.

For example, organic strawberries probably are worth the money because

they are a tender-fleshed fruit grown close to the dirt, so more

pesticides are needed to fight insects and bugs from the soil. He adds

apples and spinach to his list.

" It may also be money-smart to choose conventionally grown broccoli

because it has a web of leaves surrounding the florets, resulting in

lower levels of pesticide residue, " Lu says.

He is greatly concerned about one finding from the study.

" Overall pesticide (marker) levels in urine samples were even higher in

the winter months, suggesting children may have consumed fruits and

vegetables that are imported. The government needs to ensure that

imported food comply with the standards we impose on domestic produce, "

he said.

*Dangerous science*

Chlorpyrifos, made by Dow Chemical Co., is one of the most widely used

organophosphate insecticides in the United States and, many believe, the

world.

For years, millions of pounds of the chemical insecticide were used in

schools, homes, day care centers and public housing, and studies show

that children were often exposed to enormously high doses. Just as the

EPA was ready to ban the product, which analysts said would have damaged

Dow's overseas sales, the company " voluntarily " removed it from the home

market. Yet, with few exceptions, the agricultural uses continued.

The EPA's Web site is a study in contradictions when it comes to

chlorpyrifos.

At one section, it " acknowledged the special susceptibility and

sensitivity of children to developmental and neurological effects from

exposure to chlorpyrifos. "

But in another section, the agency reports that infants and children

face no risk from eating food crops treated with chlorpyrifos. However,

the agency doesn't say how it reached that conclusion. There is no

agreement of how much of the neurotoxin is too much.

Benbrook said the EPA has refused orders from Congress to study the

cumulative developmental risk to children from low-dose exposures.

" Perhaps we can rest assured that EPA has protected us adults from acute

insecticide poisoning risk, but our kids are on their own, " Benbrook said.

chart

*

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