Pesticides found in 207 food samples by FDA study.

The FDA's Pesticide Monitoring Report from 2015 contains a report on what pesticides were found in foods. It's a good idea to show these studies to show how dangerous some of the pesticides are, and how widespread they are. Organizations have known this for quite a long time. But some organizations that claim to protect your health are bought out by industry.

Excerpts:

In FY 2015 (October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015), FDA analyzed 5,989 samples in its regulatory monitoring program: 5,572 human foods and 417 animal foods.  Because the violation rates of import samples are generally higher than for domestic samples, FDA tests more imported than domestic commodities (4,737 import and 835 domestic samples).  We collected imported human food samples from 111 countries and domestic human food samples from 39 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

75% of food samples were found to be contaminated.

Source
FDA PDF from 2015.
More FDA Pesticide Monitoring Reports.

UK will support ban on pesticides that harm bees

This reverses an earlier decision by the UK government, because new evidence has appeared that shows neonicitinoids have contaminated the whole landscape.  75% of all flying insects have disappeared from Germany.

Read more at The Guardian.

For more information on neonics click here.

Henry Miller: Small amounts of poison are good for you

When people selectively ignore facts, that could be called religion, or a cult. So here's Henry I. Miller. He was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology. He's written numerous articles about GMO foods. He is against labeling GMO foods and against informed decisions. He gets paid for writing articles supporting something so you know his opinion is biased.

Be careful with religious fanatics. The results could be bad.

Source
USRTK.org.

What is the truth about GMOs and pesticides?

EarthOpenSource has a 330pg PDF for free that claims to cut through the corporate BS. But be careful, even well-meaning groups can misinterpret studies or even have their own agenda.

You can read the PDF here. But they want your name and email address, so you will surely be put on a "newsletter" list.

The truth is, many studies from many countries show the harm pesticides can do to people, not just farmers. Some of these studies are covered in this blog. You can click on the right sidebar to find a tag name to narrow down the blog posts you want to see. For example, all blog posts where the main topic is "glyphosate" have the "glyphosate" tag. But tags also are for the main agencies involved (like "FDA"), countries involved (like "India", but not "US"), and the pesticide name (like "dicamba").

Dicamba pesticide drift destroying more crops in Arkansas

1. Dicamba spray can be lifted by the wind onto neighboring fields. This drifting spray is killing thousands of acres of cotton, soybeans, fruit trees, and more.
2. Damage to people from dicamba shows up at much lower concentrations than originally though. (Source.)
3. Insurance companies do not cover losses from dicamba. (See here.)
4. And Monsanto has been sued over dead crops from spray drift.
5. There has also been an assault over continued spray drift onto a neighboring field.

Source
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Farmers know how dangerous dicamba is

Highlights: 

1. Dicamba use will expand a lot in 2017.
2. Make sure to wash dicamba tanks REALLY well. Not doing so can result in crop damage and legal problems.
3. A triple rinse is advised.
4. Damage from that chemical "shows up at much lower levels" than some other herbicides, said Fred Whitford, a professor in Purdue University's pesticide program. 
5. Disposing of rinse water can be tricky as even small amounts of dicamba are dangerous. 

Source
The Progressive Farmer.

EPA to reevaluate Neonics, as possibly responsible for bee deaths around the US

1/16/2017

EPA documents say that the EPA will reevaluate neonicotinoids as they are possibly responsible bee devastation around the US. Assessments to be finished in 2018.

On Jan 12, 2017, the EPA released its preliminary pollinator-only risk assessments for the neonicotinoid insecticides clothianidin (Poncho), thiamethoxam (Cruiser), and dinotefuran, a preliminary aquatic risk assessment for imidacloprid (Gaucho). The risk assessment plan is open to public comment until about Mar 12, 2017. The actual risk assessments wil be released in mid-2018.


Source
DTNPF.
EPA risk assessment for neonics. This is just a timeline that shows they are reassessing several pesticides. Alt link.
Comment on the EPA's risk assessment plan here.

India: spinach from Hyderabad contains pesticides

Spinach can be good for you, if it doesn't contain pesticides.

A survey by some research scholars of Jayashankar Agricultural University revealed this startling reality after testing the samples secured from Rythu bazaars in Mehdipatnam, Gudimalkapur and Shamshabad. The survey found that the leaf vegetable contains 11 types of pesticides, including five commonly used, like chlorpyrifos, triazophos, cypermethrin, deltamethrin and profenofos, Dr Narasimha Reddy, a scientist of Pesticide Action Networks India told The Hans India. He said the pesticides were found to have been sprinkled on the leaves of the vegetable to prolong its longevity post-harvest, after cutting.

Pesticides are in more foods than you think, which is why it's time to have a portable pesticide detector for consumers to check all food. Not all organic food is pesticide- or gmo-free.

Source
Freshplaza.

97% of threatened species likely harmed by 2 pesticides

The EPA recently released its analysis of 1800 species protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely harmed by 2 pesticides: chlorpyrifos and malathion. It appears decades later, that neither government nor industry has learned a thing after the PCB and other fiascos of the 1960s and 1970s.

Source

1. EcoWatch. Jan 19, 2017. EcoWatch did not provide a link to the EPA report.
2. Possible related reports: EPA report on malathion. The date of the report is conspicuously absent. EPA report on chlorpyrifos. EPA report on diazinon.
3. Possible draft of the report from the EPA, April 2016. "As part of the Endangered Species Act consultation process with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), EPA has released for public comment the first-ever draft biological evaluations analyzing the nation-wide effects of chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion on endangered and threatened species and designated critical habitat. Partial evaluations, without the effects determinations, were released in December 2015."

USDA: 85% of foods tested contain pesticides

The USDA runs a program called the Pesticide Data Program where it tests foods for pesticide residues. The 2015 report (released Nov 2016) says 85% of foods tested contained pesticides. One sample of strawberries contained 20 pesticides. Only 15% of foods were free from pesticides.

1. There were 10,000+ samples collected.
2. Apples, cherries (fresh and frozen), cucumbers, grapefruit, grapes, green beans, lettuce, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, sweet corn (fresh and frozen), tomatoes, and watermelon.
3. Because PDP data are mainly used for risk assessments, PDP laboratory methods are geared to detect the lowest possible levels of pesticide residues.
4. Samples were taken from a variety of US states. Both domestic items and imported items were sampled.

Source
Archive.is backup link to PDF.

Historical pesticide overview

Here's a good series of PDFs about the history of pesticides from Scientific Beekeeping. The first one I opened is a series of images, i.e. scanned pages. It would be difficult to get the text from it.

It's an article from Barbara J. Erickson and Eric H. Erickson Jr.  It's in the American Bee Journal from November 1983. At the end of the article there is a list of studies they quoted.

How to test your food and water for pesticides

Go to this site: http://www.abraxiskits.com/products/pesticides/

They have a kit for many different pesticides. You can test for the CRY proteins (the BT protein that is produced by the plant to kill insects), 2,4-D, DDT, glyphosate, and more. Some kits have test strips.

Links to how to test for pesticides.
http://www.abraxiskits.com/publications/#pesticides

Pesticides in organic and non-organic food

Remember: The USDA Organic program allows non-approved chemicals and GMO products if no other organic product is available. USDA Organic does not mean organic! More info here on the USDA Organic Program. Look for Non-GMO Project verified instead.

Below: Just a few points about how often pesticides occur in certain foods.

Below: Foods most likely to have pesticides:

Below: Highest and lowest ranked in pesticides:

The corn is hard to believe since 92% of corn grown in the US is Roundup Ready.

Below: Pesticides found in 15% of organic foods in 2014. Source: Foodsafety News.

Below:  And what's the effect of pesticides?

Below: And what about conventional, vs "natural", vs "organic"?

Below: What level of pesticides does one person have?

Source: Off-Grid. Urine levels of pesticides were 6.7x higher before he ate organic foods. After eating organic, pesticide levels dropped by a factor of 6.7x.

2014: 60% of bread in the UK contains pesticides

Even though this is older, people should still know about it.

Two in every three loaves of bread sold in the UK contain pesticide residues, according to a new analysis of government data by environmental campaigners. Tests on hundreds of loaves also showed that 25% contained residues of more than one pesticide.

Links

1. Guardian article. 
2. The report PDF in the Guardian article was supposed to be available, but instead redirected me to here. I managed to find the PDF here.
3. Pesticide Action Network, UK. 

Pesticides in your foods and how the US deals with the issue

The issue of pesticides in or on your food is important. Scientists do not know how long exposure to low levels of pesticides, or other chemicals, affect people and their health. In 1997 the US FDA tested 4501 domestic and 5342 imported food. According to this source, imported foods account for 10% of the US market. Imported foods come from 97 countries. Pesticides were found on 34% of the combined imported and domestic foods. Pesticide residues that violated FDA guidelines made up 1.2% of domestic foods, and 1.6% of foods imported to the US.

The issue of pesticides on imported foods is important because some countries do not have laws regarding pesticide residue on foods, or they simply don't enforce them. And some countries have more pesticide risk on their foods than others.

Some notes from a Consumer Reports article about pesticides on foods:

1. The average American has 29 pesticides in their body. 
2. Eating one serving of US green beans is 200x more risky than eating one serving of US-grown broccoli. 
3. Consumer reports has a 31 page PDF paper entitled "From Crop To Table". It is a pdf that is free at the time of this blog post. 

Notes taken from "From Crop to Table".

1. 10,000-20,000 pesticide poisonings are confirmed by doctors each year among 2 million farm workers. That's about 1% of farm workers.
2. Studies show a correlation between fields where 2,4-D is used and people who live near these fields.  
3. Almost all, but not all, pesticides are banned on US organic farms (page 25).
4. PLU codes used on US produce are a standard code used to label produce in retail stores. A 4 digit code means it is not an organic product. A 5 digit code beginning with "9" means it is an organic product. (I am personally involved in making produce signs that use this PLU code.)
5. Consumer Reports created a DRI (Dietary Risk Index) that takes into account the serving size of the food, the amount and frequency of the residues found, and other factors. 
6. Starting on page 34, CR includes tables for each food and country of origin and calculates a DRI for each food based on the country, food, and farming method. Take a look, it's interesting. 
7. Here are some non-organic fruits that are in the Very High risk category: peaches, tangerines, plums, nectarines, apples, strawberries. For a strawberry crop to remain profitable the farmers must use some pretty dangerous pesticides. Always wash foods thoroughly.  
8. Here are some non-organic vegetables that are in the Very High risk category: green beans, sweet bell peppers, hot peppers. Here are veggies in the High risk category, excluding the duplicates from the Very High category: winter squash, cucumbers, summer squash, snap peas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes. 
9. This report also has DRI risk scores over time. Some scores have gone down (now with lower risk).

On this page is an interactive "wheel". Click on the food in the horizontal bar, and it will tell you the country or origin that is the safest for you (has the lowest DRI). For examples, apples from New Zealand have a lower DRI than apples from the US. This is why Country Of Origin Labeling laws, very much opposed by industry, are so important.

And why the EPA guidelines are broken:

In a 2010 report on environmental cancer risks, the President’s Cancer Panel (an expert committee that monitors the country’s cancer program) wrote: “The entire U.S. population is exposed on a daily basis to numerous agricultural chemicals. … Many of these chemicals have known or suspected carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting properties.” Endocrine disruptors can block or mimic the action of hormones, even at low doses. “Endocrine effects aren’t sufficiently factored into the EPA pesticide-tolerance levels...”