For those new to the list...especially those with young children and
grandchildren...organophosphorous pesticide formulations (OPs) found as
residues in 'conventionally' grown foods are 'nerve poisons'
(www.google.com), increasingly linked to cancer, leukemia and tumours,
and damage to organs and multiple body systems in both children and
adults.
 
 Pamela Valenti
Representative
Australian Chemical Trauma Alliance
(ACTA Inc)
 

ORGANOPHOSPHORUS PESTICIDE EXPOSURE OF URBAN AND SUBURBAN PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL DIETS
November 18, 2002
Environmental Health Perspectives
Cynthia L. Curl, Richard A. Fenske, Kai Elgethun
Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and
Community
Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7234.
Abstract
Organophosphorus (OP) pesticide exposure from diet was assessed by
biological monitoring among Seattle pre-school children. Parents kept
food
diaries for three days prior to urine collection, and distinguished
organic
and conventional foods based on label information.
Children were then classified as having consumed either organic or
conventional diets based on analysis of the diary data. Residential
pesticide use was also recorded for each home. Twentyfour hour urine
samples
were collected from 18 children with organic diets and 21 children with
conventional diets, and analyzed for five OP pesticide metabolites.
Significantly higher median concentrations of total dimethyl
alkylphosphate
metabolites were found than total diethyl alkylphosphate metabolites
(0.06
and 0.02 =B5mol/L, respectively; p=.0001). The median total dimethyl
metabolite concentration was approximately six times higher for children
with conventional diets than for children with organic diets (0.17 and
0.03
=B5mol/L, p=.0003); mean concentrations differed by a factor of nine
(0.34
and 0.04 =B5mol/L). Dose estimates were calculated from urinary dimethyl
metabolites and from agricultural pesticide use data, assuming that all
exposure came from a single pesticide. The dose estimates suggest that
consumption of organic fruits, vegetables and juice can reduce
children=92s
exposure levels from above to below the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency=92s current guidelines, thereby shifting exposures from a range
of
uncertain risk to a range of negligible risk. Consumption of organic
produce
appears to provide a relatively simple means for parents to reduce their
children=92s exposure to organophosphorus pesticides.