Re: Pesticides on Food
Craig Lanoye (lanoye@together.net)
Sat, 15 Nov 1997 15:39:50 +0000
Steve Groff wrote:
>
> I saw this in today's paper:
>
> PESTICIDES ON FOOD 'ALMOST NO' CANCER DANGER
>
> ATLANTA (AP)
> Pesticides left on fruits and vegetables are so negligible that they
> pose almost no cancer danger, an expert panel said, concluding people
> would be at greater risk for failing to eat their apples and greens.
>
> Large and frequent doses of pesticides are believed to be toxic, but
> most people are exposed to only tiny amounts in fruits and vegetables.
>
> Motivated by public worries, a panel of cancer experts formed in 1994
> and reviewed at least 50 published studies between 1981 and 1996 on
> pesticides to find out if there was cause for alarm. "A diverse diet
> that has plenty of fruits and vegetables is very important in reducing
> cancer, " said Dr. Clark Heath of the American Cancer Society. "Compared
> to that, the risk of cancer from manmade chemicals is negligible."
>
> For the average person, there's nothing to fear, the panel said in a
> study to be published Saturday in the journal Cancer.
>
> "It is extremely unlikely that pesticides in the diet have any
> meaningful contribution to cancer rates," stated Len Ritter, a Canadian
> environmental biology professor on the panel and executive director of
> the Canadian Network of Toxicology Centres.
>
> Tobacco use, blamed for one in five deaths in the United States, should
> remain the priority in the fight against cancer, the panel said.
>
> "For whatever reason,...people feel more concern for risks over which
> they have no personal control than for risks associated with their
> familiar everyday life habits," Heath wrote in an editorial.
I'm sick of the norrow minded view of these "science heads" who
can't seem to uderstand how we are all subjected to these "acceptable
risks" by eating a varity of todays polluted foods. What about the
accumulation of thousands of various toxic chemicals in minute amounts
over the years? There is no way to measure that risk, yet it is the
reality of how a true assesment must be made! There is no acceptable
amount of cancer causing agent in our food (conventionally grown)
anymore! Maybe there may have been a time when this "acceptable risk
crap" made sense.... not anymore.
Craig
> --
> "New Generation Cropping Systems": the cutting edge of sustainable
> agriculture
> http://www2.epix.net/~cmfarm/
> Steve Groff
> Cedar Meadow Farm
> 679 Hilldale Rd
> Holtwood PA 17532 USA
> Ph. 717-284-5152
>
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