Study: Kids Eating Organics Have Lower Pesticide Exposure

A new study published in the Journal of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science finds that children who eat organically grown fruits and vegetables appear to have less exposure to pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki has details:

Transcript

A new study published in the Journal of the National Institutes of Environmental Health
Science finds that children who eat organically grown fruits and vegetables appear to
have less exposure to pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki has
details:


Researchers at the University of Washington compared urine samples from children who
ate conventional produce to those from a group who ate mostly organic fruits and
vegetables. They looked for a residue of pesticides. What they found was that children
who ate conventional produce had about six times higher concentration of the chemicals
than those who ate organic food.


And that, wrote the authors, suggests that children can reduce their exposure to pesticides
from above the U.S. EPA guidelines to below, by switching to organic foods. But the
authors could not determine the toxicity of the pesticides. And officials from the
pesticide industry noted that the study could not determine whether the children had eaten
the full strength chemical or merely the by-product after the pesticide had already broken
down.


A few years ago, Consumer Reports magazine tested food and found that conventional
produce did contain more pesticides than organic fruits and vegetables but even the
organics had some pesticides. The magazine suggested the easiest way to reduce
pesticide exposure in food: wash it, with soap and water.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Urycki.