Children eating organic foods have lower pesticide levels

US (November 28, 2002) - A new study finds that children who eat organic foods have lower levels of one class of agricultural pesticides in their bodies.

University of Washington researchers conducted the study, which tested 18 children fed primarily organic diets and 21 children who eat mostly conventional diets. The study, published in "Environmental Health Perspectives," concludes that parents could reduce their children's exposure to pesticides by buying more organic foods.

Research by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) that supports these findings can be found on the website database FoodNews, at: http://www.ewg.org. The database includes the latest government testing data - 150,000 samples from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - on pesticide residues found on produce.

The website offers the first interactive tool allowing consumers to select specific produce, or fill up a virtual shopping cart, to see how many pesticides are found on those items. FoodNews then compares these items with their organic counterparts.

EWG is calling on the USDA to formally recognize the safety advantage of reduced pesticide exposure offered by organic food.

On its website at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html, the USDA emphasizes that "USDA makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food. Organic food differs from conventionally produced food in the way it is grown, handled, and processed."

At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is banning more and more pesticides from use on foods because they present unacceptable risks to children.

"In the past five years, the EPA has removed several dangerous pesticides from conventional food that organic food never had," said EWG senior vice president Richard Wiles. "Yet, even as EPA slowly bans pesticides that fail federal safety standards for children, industry lobbyists and their allies at USDA continue to claim that all pesticides in food are completely safe and that food without chemical pesticides is no safer."

Consumers can now choose organically produced meat, fruits and vegetables by looking for the new USDA organic label. For more information on organic labeling, visit: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/FactSheets/LabelingE.html

For a list of farmers' markets and other organic food providers in your area, visit the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Eat Well Guide at: http://www.iatp.org/EatWell/orgResults.cfm

Source : ENS