Modern Biology; The US Pesticide Body Burden - 100% and growing

[Guest guest]

Many North American Residents Carry Toxic Pesticides Above " Safe "

Levels

Report shows Children and Women Shoulder Heaviest " Pesticide Body

Burden "

 

Ottawa. A report released today in the US reveals that government and

industry have failed to safeguard public health from pesticide

exposures.

While Canada refuses to monitor the chemical and pesticide body

burdens of

its citizens, many U.S. residents carry toxic pesticides in their

bodies

above government assessed " acceptable " levels, according to a report

released today by Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN), Sierra

Club of Canada and Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides(CAP).

Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate

Accountability,

makes public for the first time an analysis of pesticide-related data

collected by the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC)

in a study of levels of chemicals in 9,282 people nationwide.

 

" None of us choose to have hazardous pesticides in our bodies indeed

communities across Canada are banning the cosmetic use of pesticide

in an

attempt to limit our exposure to toxic pesticides " explained Michel

Gaudet, President of the Coalition for Alternatives to

Pesticides " Yet the

CDC found pesticides in 100% of the people who had both blood and

urine

tested. The average person in this group carried a toxic cocktail of

13 of

the 23 pesticides analyzed. "

 

Many of the pesticides found in the test subjects have been linked to

serious short- and long-term health effects including infertility,

birth

defects and childhood and adult cancers.

 

" While the Canadian government develops safety levels one chemical at

a

time, this study shows that in the real world we are exposed to

multiple

chemicals simultaneously, " explained Andrea Peart, Director, Health

and

Environment, Sierra Club of Canada. " The synergistic effects of

multiple

exposures are unknown, but a growing body of research, including the

recent Ontario College of Family Physicians report, suggests that

even at

very low `acceptable' levels, the combination of these chemicals can

be

harmful to our health. "

 

Chemical Trespass found that children, women and Mexican Americans

shouldered the heaviest " pesticide body burden. " For example,

children—the

population most vulnerable to pesticides—are exposed to the highest

levels

of nerve-damaging organophosphorous (OP) pesticides. The CDC data show

that the average 6 to11 year-old sampled is exposed to the OP

pesticide

chlorpyrifos at four times the level U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency

considers " acceptable " for a long-term exposure. Chlorpyrifos,

produced

principally by Dow Chemical Corporation and found in numerous products

such as Dursban™, is designed to kill insects by disrupting the

nervous

system. Despite Sierra Club of Canada's calls to ban chlorpyrifos,

the

product is still registered for use in Canada. In humans,

chlorpyrifos is

also a nerve poison, and has been shown to disrupt hormones and

interfere

with normal development of the nervous system in laboratory animals.

 

Dave Bennett, Canadian Labour Congress Director of Health, Safety and

Environment was shocked by the findings. " Not only do vulnerable

groups

such as children and workers have an elevated burden of pesticides in

their bodies, but the general population does at well. The only

answer is

to severely restrict the USE of chemical pesticides, by elimination

or the

substitution of less unsafe alternatives. The authors' prescriptions

for

the US are applicable to Canada. The CLC has long argued that the

pesticide registration system should be changed: alternative pest

management strategies must get priority over spreading chemical

poisons on

human beings and the environment. "

 

The report also found that women have significantly higher levels of

three

of the six organochlorine (OC) pesticides evaluated. This class of

pesticides is known to have multiple harmful effects when they cross

the

placenta during pregnancy, including reduced infant birth weight and

disruption of brain development, which can lead to learning

disabilities

and other neurobehavioral problems. This ability of organochlorine

pesticides to pass from mother to child puts future generations at

serious

risk.

 

" The fact that American children carry dangerous pesticides in their

bodies represents a dramatic failure in the way both of our

governments

regulate toxic pesticides, " said Elizabeth May, Executive Director,

Sierra

Club of Canada. " Health Canada must commit to a cross-Canada sampling

of

the pesticidal body burden of Canadians. It is the first step in

shifting

the burden from our bodies back to the corporate boardroom where it

belongs. "

 

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Available for Comment:

Andrea Peart, Sierra Club of Canada, 613-241-4611

Elizabeth May, Sierra Club of Canada, 613-241-4611

Michel Gaudet, Coalition for Alternatives Pesticides, 514-220-9379

Rohini Peris, Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, 514-683-5701

 

To obtain a copy of Chemical Trespass, call 415-981-1771 or download

from

www.panna.org