A healthy diet includes fresh fruits and vegetables, and concern about pesticide residues on food are how most people first engage with the problem of pesticides. How much pesticide intake from dietary exposure is too much? The question is complicated, depending both on the specific pesticide (or pesticides) and who is being exposed.
Even at the very low levels of pesticide residues typically found on food, health harms are possible — and children are particularly vulnerable. The American Academy of Pediatrics points to food as the primary source of children’s exposure to pesticides.
Unfortunately, washing fruits and vegetables doesn’t often help. Many of the pesticides used today are “systemic,” meaning they are taken up by roots and distributed throughout the plant — so no amount of washing will remove them. According to one analysis, systemic pesticides account for about 60% of dietary exposure.
Informed choices
Eating less produce is not the solution. The vast majority of people in the U.S. (an estimated 80 percent) already fall far short of recommended intake of fruits and vegetables.
Consumers can minimize risk by choosing organic when possible, though organic produce is not yet affordable or accessible for everyone. Families can also select produce known to have fewer residues — though if our pesticide rules were more protective of public health, it would not be up to individuals to protect themselves from harmful pesticides.
PAN’s WhatsOnMyFood.org website helps consumers make informed choices by linking pesticide residue data collected by USDA with toxicological profiles, in an easily searchable database. Some sample data:
- 54 different pesticides were found on spinach, including five that are linked to cancer;
- Peaches and pears have the most pesticides found among the baby foods sampled (22 and 26, respectively); and
- 47 residues were found on apples, including 16 suspected hormone disruptors.
One UK report analyzed government data on pesticide residues over a 13-year time span. Researchers found that residues had significantly increased over time, and that the frequency of residues in bread had more than doubled over the study’s time period, from 28% in 2001 to 63% in 2013. The number of samples testing positive for multiple residues have also more than doubled in the last seven years.
Healthy for all
Several studies have shown that switching to an organic diet can reduce the level of pesticides found in our bodies. For example when researchers in Washington state compared pesticide breakdown products in the bodies of children who eat organic vs. conventional diets, they found children who eat mostly organic foods carry fewer pesticides in their bodies.
Some of these pesticides break down fairly quickly, which means increasing your consumption of organic foods can have an immediate impact on pesticide exposure levels.
Eating food produced organically or without pesticides not only reduces individual exposure levels, it also supports farmers who have shifted away from reliance on harmful chemicals that put farmworkers, rural communities, and consumers at risk.
Resources:
Consumer Reports: Stop Eating Pesticides