Vulnerability of children to pesticide residues in food

Background

Analyses of 4,500 samples of fruits and vegetables taken from supermarket warehouses in the USA between 1990 and 1992 found 2 or more pesticides on 62 percent of orange samples, 44 percent of apple samples, and from one-quarter to one-third of cherry, peach, strawberry, celery, pear and grape samples.

Children may be more sensitive than adults to pesticide exposures because scientific studies have shown that children are more sensitive than adults to many chemical compounds, such as aspirin; hexachlorobenzene; hexachlorophene; lead; mercury; nitrate; phenobarbital; tetracycline; and tobacco smoke. Children are known to be more sensitive than adults to radiation. It is only reasonable to assume that children will be more sensitive than adults to some pesticides.

Claim

Infants and children are routinely exposed to combinations of 2 or 3 (in rare cases as many as 8) pesticides on each food they consume.

Children are continuously exposed to a complex, low-level mixture of pesticides in food. The health effects of these exposures are not known and are not being investigated.

The cornerstone of the "food safety" system is a mathematical technique called risk assessment. For each proposed use of each chemical on each food type, a risk assessment is completed to estimate the risk. The cumulative risks, taken together, are never considered.