Pesticides on Apples Endanger U.S. Children
March 8, 1999
Ten years after the U.S. public demanded that the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ban the cancer-causing
pesticide Alar, children are no better protected from pesticides in
the nation's food supply, according to a new report from the
Environmental Working Group (EWG). The group's recent
analyses of government pesticide records show that multiple
pesticides known or suspected to cause brain and nervous system
damage, cancer, disruption of the endocrine and immune systems,
and a host of other toxic effects are commonly found in foods
children regularly consume.
Major findings of EWG's February 1999 report "How 'Bout Them
Apples?" include:
--Twenty million children ages five and under eat an average of
eight pesticides a day, every day -- a total of more than 2,900
pesticide exposures per child per year from food alone.
--Every day, 610,000 children ages one through five eat a dose of
neurotoxic organophosphate insecticides the U.S. government
deems unsafe.
--More than 320,000 of these unsafe exposures are from one
pesticide, methyl parathion.
--Pesticide concentrations increased from 1992 through 1996 on
seven of eight foods heavily consumed by children.
The EWG called on EPA Administrator Carol Browner to
immediately halt use of methyl parathion because of the short-term
risks it poses to small children. The group said an emergency
cancellation of the pesticide is needed because hundreds of
thousands of preschoolers are exceeding government-established
safety limits for the pesticide every day, primarily by consumption
of apples and peaches. EWG recommended that until methyl
parathion is banned, parents shift from apples and peaches to other
fresh fruits for preschoolers.
Methyl parathion is an EPA category 1 acute toxin (the most
dangerous classification) by oral, dermal and inhalation exposure.
Peer-reviewed studies in open literature show that methyl
parathion is more toxic to fetal and newborn rats than mature rats.
Additional studies show that exposure during critical
developmental periods can cause permanent behavioral damage.
Methyl parathion is also included on the PAN International list of
Dirty Dozen pesticides.
EWG's report documents that overall pesticide use in the U.S. has
increased by about 8% or 60 million pounds since 1989, with high
volume field crop and fumigant uses still dominated by older,
highly toxic pesticides. Use of pesticides that leave residues on
food (insecticides and fungicides) has increased even more.
Applications per acre increased 34% for insecticides and
fungicides between 1990 and 1995. And, even though the market
for organic food continues to grow, it still only represents 1.5% of
all food sales.
Use of high risk pesticides in apple production increased
dramatically during the 1990s. In particular, use of the cancer-
causing EBDC fungicides increased from several hundred
thousand pounds in 1991 to more than 1.4 million pounds in 1997.
Use of methyl parathion, the most toxic organophosphate (OP)
insecticide allowed on food in the U.S., nearly doubled on apples
during the same period, from 135,000 to 259,000 pounds. Use of
chlorpyrifos, a developmental neurotoxin and potent OP, increased
from 468,000 to 571,000 pounds, and use of methoxychlor, a
relative of DDT, went from no applications on apples in 1991 to
more than 50,000 pounds in 1997. Pesticide use in apples increased
even as the number of fruit-bearing acres decreased.
In response to the EWG report, Dean R. Kleckner, president of the
American Farm Bureau Federation, stated, "Today's release by the
Environmental Working Group of a report on pesticides and food
safety is a shameless attempt to frighten parents and an arrogant
power play to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency to
ban safe and effective crop protection tools. It is unconscionable
that ten years after the debunked Alar scare, EWG is once again
foisting on the American public a report rooted in junk science and
anti-pesticide use propaganda."
The EWG points out that although the chemical industry has tried
to rewrite the history of Alar as an unfounded food "scare,"
numerous studies confirming that it causes cancer show that the
public was right to demand its removal from the food supply. Alar,
or daminozide, is a plant growth regulator used to keep ripening
apples on the tree. Since the 1970s, evidence had been
accumulating that a breakdown product of daminozide called
UDMH induced cancer in animal tests. This metabolite of Alar
was formed when apples containing daminozide residues were
heat-processed to make juice or applesauce. Alar was later pulled
from the market by its producer, Uniroyal Chemical Co., and EPA
confirmed that it posed an unacceptable risk as a probable human
carcinogen.
The EWG reports, "How 'Bout Them Apples?" and "Ten Years
Later, Myth of 'Alar Scare' Persists: How the Chemical Industry
Rewrote the History of a Banned Pesticide," are available on the
EWG web site: www.ewg.org.
Sources: "How 'Bout Them Apples?" EWG, 1999; "Ten Years
Later, Myth of 'Alar Scare' Persists," EWG, 1999; Comments on
Preliminary Risk Assessment Document for Methyl Parathion,
EWG, February 12, 1999; "Pest Management at the Crossroads,"
Consumers Union, 1996; American Farm Bureau Federation press
release, February 25, 1999.
Contact: Environmental Working Group, 1718 Connecticut
Avenue NW, Suite 600, Washington DC 20009; phone (202) 667-
6982; fax (202) 232-2592; email info@ewg.org.
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