Your Daily Poison - Pesticide Action Network UK

2 Food residues
PAN UK has conducted an analysis of residues
both from the UK government’s testing
programme (2004 results) and from the
European Union testing programme (2003,
latest results), identifying the occurrence of
pesticides of particular concern for human
health. There are serious issues about
potential health effects, particularly on the
unborn, babies, and toddlers. For example,
recent research suggests that exposure to
carcinogens in the uterus or early childhood
can damage DNA and heighten susceptibility
to disease later in life 15 . Children can consume
a disproportionate level of pesticide residues
because of their high consumption relative to
their bodyweight.
Europe
Levels of residues in food across Europe have
remained high. The latest figures from the
European Commission’s monitoring
programme indicate that conventionally
produced food is as contaminated with
pesticides as in 2002 (Appendix 5a). In a new
report 16 the EC acknowledges that toxic
chemicals in food are a risk to the health of
children and vulnerable adults, reporting
breaches of safety limits which are a significant
risk to health. According to PAN Europe,
‘These results show a complete failure of the
EU in controlling the level of pesticides in our
food 17 .’ Countries which test a relatively high
number of samples, such as Germany, detect
a higher number of residues. The number of
samples tested per head of the population in
the UK is the lowest in Europe with the
exception of Portugal 18 .
According to the data from the European
survey, babies and toddlers are at risk from
residues of some of the most acutely toxic
pesticides detected in tests. At the residue
levels found, a toddler could consume well over
the health-based safety limit, the amount that
can be safely consumed in one meal or one
day, see Acute Reference Dose, ARfD, page
22. This would equate to 147% of chlorpyrifos
in table grapes, 164% of methamidophos in
sweet peppers, over twice the limit of
endosulfan, over five times the limit of
triazophos in sweet peppers and a staggering
ten times the limit of methomyl – 1035% – in
table grapes.
UK
The government’s Pesticide Residues
Committee (PRC) runs a programme of
residue testing jointly paid for by a levy on
agrochemical companies and by government
funding. The official source of data on
pesticides used in the UK is the Central
Science Laboratory’s Pesticide Usage Survey
Group data 19 . This is a sample of approximately
2,000 UK farms. The PRC acknowledges that
‘the range of pesticides that may be used in
agriculture and food production, either in this
country or abroad, is very wide. About 350
active substances are currently approved for
use as agricultural pesticides in the UK and
over 850 are approved in one or more EU
states. Potentially around 1,000 different
chemicals might be sought 20 .’ Yet the PRC only
tested for 123 pesticides in 2004 21 .
Results from the UK government’s testing
programme (Appendix 5b) indicate rising levels
of residues – 25 per cent of foods sampled in
2003 contained pesticide residues, and the
figure rose to 31 per cent in 2004. Residues
below or at the legal limit (the Maximum
Residue Level, see page 22) contaminated 30
per cent of samples (24 per cent in 2003), and
above the legal limit 1 per cent of samples
(less than 1 per cent in 2003).
One sample of round lettuce was found to
contain inorganic bromide at between 2.9 and
5.4 times the ARfD for children and adults.
One sample of lettuce imported was found to
contain two residues above the legal limit (the
MRL, page 22) of endosulfan and
methamidophos. A risk assessment for
methamidophos estimated exposure at 9.3
times the ARfD for children. According to the
PRC, ‘Short-term negative effects on people’s
health are unlikely, but sensitive children might
briefly have symptoms such as sweating,
producing too much saliva or stomachs’ [sic,
presumably stomach ache]. One sample of
imported speciality beans (yard-long beans)
contained two residues above the legal limit. A
risk assessment for triazophos showed that
intakes for adults and infants were 1.7 and 3
times the ARfD 22 .
PAN UK has collated the UK data and
established the known hazards to health of the
residues found in it. This indicates that
consumers are being exposed to pesticides
the second UK pesticide exposure report 9