Re: [PANUPS: Children's Exposure]

FionaNyx@aol.com
Fri, 12 Jun 1998 01:21:21 EDT

In a message dated 98-06-12 00:19:16 EDT, dmhinds@acnet.net (Douglas M. Hinds)
writes:
<< Do any of you have any experience importing fruit? I'm hearing a lot of
assumptions based on very litlle first hand contact. Take a run down to the
border some time. (If I'm there, I'll be glad to help you get deeper into
it).
Do you really think any grower or exporter is going to want to risk the value
of a
truckload by shipping a product that might be turned back?>>

A rhetorical argument about what seems to make sense is irrelevant. Your
comments do not address mine. My comment was about shipped produce. The
facts are the monitoring is token and the consequences are typically fines a
fraction of the profit on the crops. Not only this, but the FDA doesn't test
AT ALL for many pesticide chemicals that are applied to crops because tests
simply don't exist. None of this is assumption. I researched this issue
myself three years ago from the Congressional Record, a GAO review of FDA
monitoring of imported crops, and the FDA's "Pesticide Monitoring Crop Reports
for Fruits and Vegetables", 1985-1988.

~~Sherry <FionaNyx@aol.com>

For reference:
FionaNyx@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 98-06-08 09:57:38 EDT, sals@rain.org writes:
>
> << can we assume that a lot of the food in the store does not come from
> American farms but are crossing the border in big lots. can we assume
that
> most those pesticides come from the good old USA and the food is coming
> back here. can we assume these trucks are not inspected very good so we
> have no idea where what is going. can we assume that even if pesticides
> are found unsafe in America the American farmer will fight to keep them
> because of money. >>
>
> Actually, this stuff was documented from FDA records in testimony before
> Congress. Much of the produce is arriving by ship, but the idea is the
same.
> It comes from countries which import pesticides that cannot be applied in
the
> US, but are still manufactured here for export. The percentage of these
> shipments that are tested is miniscule, tests often reveal excessive
levels
> of pesticides, yet much of the produce in those shipments that test
> contaminated have already moved on into the foodstream by the time the
results
> are returned from the labs.
>
> ~~Sherry <FionaNyx@aol.com> >>

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