Pesticide and Environmental Update
Toxic
America
On June 2nd and 3rd, CNN aired "Toxic
America," a special investigative report detailing the prevalence and
invisibility of hazardous chemicals we are all exposed to in our homes,
air, water and food. "For 80 percent of the common chemicals in
everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not
they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the
reproductive system, and the other developing organs," noted Dr. Phil
Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of the Children's Environmental
Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The first hour of the CNN
report presented the struggle by residents of Mossville, Louisiana to
regain their right to live in a healthy environment despite being
surrounded by 14 chemical plants. Mossville has an astounding cancer
cluster, clearly linked to the contamination of the air, water and ground
beneath residents' homes. The investigation was aided by Advocates for
Environmental Human Rights, a DC-based public interest law firm and
Pesticide Action Network ally working with groups particularly in the Gulf
states.
The second hour of the CNN report focuses
on food contamination. By eating any one of the 12 most contaminated
fruits or vegetables featured on the program, consumers risk ingesting
between 47 and 67 different pesticides; and this result is after the
produce has been washed with a high power pressure water system by USDA
analysts. According to PAN's pesticide residue database,
What'sOnMyFood.org, a single serving apple may contain carcinogens,
suspected hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, and developmental and
reproductive toxins. CNN points out that consumers can avoid up to 80
percent of dietary pesticide exposures simply by buying organic versions
of what the Environmental Working Group calls the "Dirty Dozen"
produce items. Not covered in the story were dangers posed to farmers,
farmworkers and their families who remain exposed to pesticides applied
during the full production cycle of even those foods that retain the least
residues. Also not covered was the fact that pesticides used on fields
often make their way into drinking water. Thus purchasing produce with
fewer pesticides on the final product will not necessarily reduce our
exposure from drinking water. Sweet corn, for example, typically retains
minimal pesticide residue. Yet atrazine, a known hormone disruptor and
ubiquitous herbicide used predominately on corn, is found in 94% of tested
U.S. drinking water.
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