How bad are pesticides?

This is the last article of my food additive series (I talked about MSG and BVO in the past newsletter). Over the last 5 years, the popularity and awareness about avoiding pesticides has increased. You can purchase organic products even at Wal-Mart. I totally encourage this movement and all the readers to choose “organic” over “conventional” as much as possible. Here are the reasons why…

11. Pesticides
Every year more than two billion pounds of pesticides are applied to our food supply.  That’s about ten pounds per person per year. And many, perhaps most of the pesticides used throughout the world are carcinogenic. Yet only 10% of the pesticides approved for use on food have been adequately tested for use in humans.

Pesticides are not only found in our food supply, however; they pollute our water, and the cells in our body. They are sprayed on lawns, in gardens, in parks, and on playing fields. After it rains, these chemicals are carried through storm drains and sewers into creeks, rivers, and our oceans, where they account for more than 90 percent of water pollution.

Pesticides accumulate in our bodies as well. 99% of mothers’ milk in the United States, for example, contains dangerous levels of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT).  All of us also have measurable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin, heptachlor, chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin, and other pesticides in our bloodstream. And since our bodies cannot remove these chemicals, over time, they weaken our endocrine, reproductive, circulatory, immune, and central nervous systems. As a result, our likelihood of having heart disease, cancer, and allergies is greatly increased. Pesticide accumulation also undermines our ability to resist infectious organisms, may impair fertility, and contributes to miscarriages and birth defects.

So, not only the food you select, please be conscious about the water you drink too.