PESTICIDE RESIDUES AND HEALTH
Could the minute amounts of pesticide that we eat with our food ever be injurious to health ? The answer to this question really depends on how dangerous those pesticides are – and this is something that cannot easily be answered. All new pesticides are tested very rigorously, and the risk posed by eating small amounts are assessed. Unfortunately, many of the pesticides that are widely used today were developed before adequate testing procedures were introduced, and there is concern that some of these may be toxic or carcinogenic, even in minute doses. A government programme is underway to retest such pesticides, but there are only four scientists involved in the testing, and at the present rate of progress it will be at least 50 years before all those now in use have been properly tested.
Even with the newer pesticides, there is some cause for concern. Some were tested by the discredited commercial laboratory mentioned on p306, in connection with food additives. Despite the doubts that this casts over their safety, these are still in use. More seriously, pesticides are never tested in combination, for any possible ‘cocktail effects’. Such effects are not unlikely. It is known that some insecticides affect
the liver, for example, making it less able to detoxify other chemicals. The safety data on pesticides, like that on food additives, are not open to public inspection because they are covered by the Official Secrets Act. After many years of assuring the public that pesticide residues were insignificant and harmless, the Ministry of Agriculture has recently admitted that there are serious problems. A confidential report, leaked to the press in August 1988 states ‘ consumers may be exposed to higher dosages of these chemicals than has hitherto been suspected. These residues could present a health hazard to man and it is plainly desirable that appropriate statutory controls are enacted to limit human exposure to pesticide residues from food.’ The report adds that even the ‘inert substances’ used to dilute the active ingredients of pesticides may be damaging to health.
In addition to pesticide residues, some foods contain hormones and antibiotics that are routinely fed to farm animals. Meat, poultry, milk, cheese and eggs are the main sources of these chemicals, but fish from fish farms may also contain some antibiotics. Some individuals are allergic to minute amounts of certain antibiotics, and they may react to traces of antibiotic in food.
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