Legal. But Safe?

 

Weedkillers in wheat crackers and cereals, insecticides in apple juice and a mix of multiple pesticides in spinach, string beans and other veggies—all are part of the daily diets of many Americans.

For decades, federal officials have declared tiny traces of these contaminants to be safe. But a new wave of scientific scrutiny is challenging those assertions.

According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) latest report, more than 75 percent of fruits and more than 50 percent of vegetables sampled carried pesticides residues. Even residues of the tightly restricted bug-killing chemical DDT are found in food, along with a range of other pesticides known by scientists to be linked to a range of illnesses and disease.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb claims that because the residues fall below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tolerances, they pose no risk to consumers.

But as U.S. Right to Know’s Carey Gillam reports, recent scientific studies have prompted many scientists to warn that years of promises of safety may be wrong. In fact, repeated low-level exposures to trace amounts of pesticides in the diet could be contributing to a range of health problems, particularly for children.