Toxic chemicals in foods

Don’t hop on POPs

Most of us have probably had an experience like this: an exterminator shows up at a workplace or an apartment building, he’s carrying a silver tank that looks like a fire extinguisher, he quietly squirts along all the baseboards, and in five minutes he’s gone – leaving behind a sharp chemical aroma that gives just about everyone a headache. Now ask yourself this question: would you want traces of whatever creates that aroma in your diet?

If you don’t like the idea of consuming pesticides, then organic foods have clear advantages over conventional foods – which may also be genetically modified and almost certainly contain residue of chemical fertilizers or, in the case of livestock, growth hormones.

Last week I came across two reports that, admittedly, are not necessarily groundbreaking, but reveal evidence that prolonged exposure to pesticides, coupled with exposure to a wide variety of pesticides, may create cumulative effects that play havoc with human health.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a specific class of toxic chemicals (such as DDT, dioxin, and dieldrin) that can remain in the environment for many years – in some cases (as with DDT) several decades after they’ve been banned. So a Canadian environmental group called the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) recently analyzed U.S. government data to determine the extent of POPs in our diets.

The researchers concluded that adults who eat a balanced diet may ingest as much as 90 times the acceptable limit of exposure to POPs. A few of the most common items on PAN’s list of the foods most likely to be POPs contaminated are: butter, spinach, summer and winter squash, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and peanuts.

Furthermore, as much as 20% of a balanced diet may have traces of the POPs toxins, as well as other pesticides. And when fresh produce alone was analyzed, PAN found that three-quarters of conventionally grown produce contains POPs residues, while about one-quarter of organic produce contains the same residues.

These numbers are consistent with a report I told you about in an e-Alert last spring (“The Pest of both Worlds” 5/14/02). It’s no secret that certain pesticides are considered “green” and allowed for crops that are certified organic. It’s also logical that in a world filled with contaminants, it’s easy for stray pesticides and fertilizers to find their way onto organic farms through drifting of contaminated soil or from runoff water from contaminated farms.

And yet, even with these allowances, the PAN report concludes that those who eat organic produce exclusively may be getting as much as 50% fewer traces of POPs and other pesticides in their diets than those who eat conventional fruits and vegetables.

One of the authors of the PAN report, Kristin Schafer, told the Canadian Broadcasting Network that “Prevention of further food contamination must be a national health policy in every country.”

And how did the authorities respond when presented with this observation? Government representatives of both the U.S. and Canada complained that the report was flawed and accused PAN of “fear-mongering.”

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officials admit that various toxins including DDT have been found in foods, but they claim that the levels are miniscule and too low to have an adverse affect on human health. And it’s true – the “miniscule” amount you ingest today alone probably won’t harm you. But what CFIA doesn’t take into consideration (or, more likely, is conveniently ignoring) is the fact that POPs are known to accumulate in the fatty tissues of the body. So as the years go by, your daily miniscule intake adds up, with the potential of eventually triggering serious health consequences.

A representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) backed up the CFIA position, stating that no scientific basis supports the claim that the chemical levels in the report present a hazard to humans. Again, they’re conveniently ignoring the cumulative effect of these chemicals ingested over a period of many years.

And they’re either unaware of, (or, as with CFIA, conveniently ignoring) a report released last year from research at Liverpool University in Liverpool, England, that observed how the affects of a combination of different pesticides are more toxic to human health than the affects of the same pesticides when considered individually. For instance: one pesticide may cause headache, while another may cause nausea, but when ingested together they might cause blurred vision, in addition to headache and nausea. These are exaggerated examples, but you get the idea.

So while the World Health Organization may be comfortable with the combined effects of multiple pesticides ingested over a lifetime, there are many of us who are not. But fortunately, prevention of food contamination doesn’t have to be a national policy – it can be a personal policy that starts with a diet of organic foods that are as free as possible of pesticides, for a regular detoxification regimen.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute