Dangers of Pesticides to Human
Dangers of Pesticides - A study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and published in the September 2005 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives shows eating organic foods provides children with “dramatic and immediate” protection from exposure to two organophosphate pesticides that have been linked to harmful neurological effects in humans.
The
pesticides—malathion and chlorpyrifos—while restricted or banned for
home use, are widely used on a variety of crops, and according to the
annual survey by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pesticide Data
Program, residues of these organophosphate pesticides are still
routinely detected in food items commonly consumed by young children.
Over
a fifteen-day period, Dr. Chensheng “Alex” Lu and his colleagues from
Emory University, the University of Washington, and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention measured exposure to malathion and
chlorpyrifos in 23 elementary students in the Seattle area by testing
their urine.
The
participants, aged 3-11-years-old, were first monitored for three days
on their conventional diets before the researchers substituted most of
the children’s conventional diets with organic foods for five
consecutive days. The children were then given their normal foods and
monitored for an additional seven days.
The Dangers Of Pesticides To Humans
“Immediately
after substituting organic food items for the children’s normal diets,
the concentration of the organophosphorus pesticides found in their
bodies decreased substantially to non-detectable levels until the
conventional diets were re-introduced,” said Dr. Lu.
During
the days when children consumed organic diets, most of their urine
samples contained zero concentration of the malathion metabolite.
However, once the children returned to their conventional diets, the
average malathion metabolite concentration increased to 1.6 parts per
billion with a concentration range from 5 to 263 parts per billion. A
similar trend was seen for chlorpyrifos. The average chlorpyrifos
metabolite concentration increased from one part per billion during the
organic diet days to six parts per billion when children consumed
conventional food.
A
second study, published in the February 2006 issue of Environmental
Health Perspectives, confirmed these results. Once again, another group
of 23 children from the Seattle area aged 3-11 years participated. When
the conventionally grown foods in their diets were replaced with
comparable organically grown foods, concentrations of compounds in the
children’s urine indicating exposure to organophosphate pesticides
immediately dropped to non-detectable levels and remained non-detectable
until they once again consumed conventionally grown foods.
The
children were first monitored for three days on their normal diet.
Then, most of the conventionally grown items in their diets were
replaced with comparable organically grown items for 5 days. Substituted
items included fruits and vegetables, juices, processed fruit and
vegetable products and wheat or corn based products. Lastly, the
children returned to their normal diets for a further 7 days.
Researchers
analyzed two spot daily urine samples, first-morning and before-bedtime
voids, throughout the 15-day study period. Urinary concentrations of
compounds indicating the children were ingesting the organophosphorus
pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, became undetectable immediately
after the introduction of organic diets and remained undetectable until
the conventional diets were reintroduced.’ Emory University Health
Sciences Center
The
repetition of this research clearly demonstrates that an organic diet
provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to
organophosphorus pesticides, which are commonly used in agricultural
production. Organophosphate pesticides account for approximately half
the insecticide use in the U.S. and are applied to many conventionally
grown foods important in children’s diets.
Organophosphates work by poisoning the nervous system in pests.
Pesticides
effects on humans are damage to the nervous system, reproductive system
and other organs, developmental and behavioral abnormalities,
disruption of hormone function as well as immune dysfunction.