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PESTICIDES IN FOOD: WHY GO ORGANIC

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PESTICIDES IN FOOD: WHY GO ORGANIC

An analysis of New Zealand's latest Total Diet Survey

by Alison White

Pesticide Action Network NZ/ Safe Food Campaign NZ

PO Box 9206

Wellington

Executive summary

The Ministry of Health assures us that "the pesticide residue levels found in [the latest Total Diet Survey] are unlikely to have any adverse health implications for the New Zealand population."  Their conclusions are based on the assumption that pesticide levels below the Acceptable Daily Intake are safe.  But this is based in turn on several unscientific assumptions, such as that we are exposed to only one chemical at a time.  Results from the survey are furthermore questionable with the very small sample sizes being analysed:  86% of the 114 foods tested had a mere two composite samples analysed.

Young children in New Zealand are getting about five times more pesticide residues than young American children.  A sizable proportion of young NZ children could suffer from acute organophosphate poisoning from the residues in their food.  The young child, aged 1-3 years old, takes in more pesticide residues than other age-sex groups, more than two and a half times more than men, for example.

The percentage of total samples with pesticide residues is significantly greater than some other countries, for example, the UK and the US.  Wine, grains, especially wheat, and meat are more likely to contain pesticide residues than other food groups.  When ranked according to the number of pesticides in combination with the percentage containing residues, bread and wheat products, wine, fruit and salad vegetables come out worst.

Recent findings concerning the endocrine disrupting potential of certain pesticides, eight of which are found in this survey, are a matter of grave concern, with disturbing consequences for the future of the individual, the family and society as a whole.A group of fungicides of concern, the most common of which is mancozeb, a known endocrine disruptor, continue to be used on a wide range of fruit and vegetables.

Analysis of the latest Total Diet Survey reveals tragically unnecessary pesticide residues in the New Zealand diet.  With co-operation from regulatory authorities and growers and farmers, New Zealand can become an organic nation by 2020.

Shortcomings of the survey

90 pesticides of approximately 300 odd pesticide active ingredients registered in New Zealand were analysed for in this survey.  Many pesticides may not have shown up because of the very small sample sizes.  98 out of 114 food groups had a sample size of 2, with the maximum sample size being 12.

Fewer pesticides would also not have been detected because of the large proportion of composite sampling done.  Almost a third of the 460 samples analysed were composite samples, with between 6 and 10 samples combined together to form 2 samples that were analysed for pesticide residues.  An effect of this is to dilute pesticide residues so they become undetectable.  Also, it is not possible to obtain an accurate range of concentrations.  A specific recommendation of the 1990/1 Total Diet Survey was to have "individualised sampling to maintain and improve sensitivity in future studies, and to enable worthwhile comparisons".  No doubt for financial reasons, as it is very expensive to analyse for pesticides, this recommendation was not entirely followed for the latest total diet survey.  The sample sizes in this survey compared to the last survey have been consistently reduced in size, suggesting that budgetary constraints have outweighed considerations of the accuracy of estimated dietary exposure to pesticides.  Are we consuming fewer pesticide residues?  Have fruitgrowers really reduced their pesticide residues?  These questions cannot be answered with any confidence.

An assumption was made that if no residue was detected in a sample, the true concentration of the pesticide in that sample was zero.  But the large proportion of composite sampling along with the very low sample sizes would mean zero results may not be a true zero.  I believe a more accurate measure would have been to assign a value half way between the limit of detection and zero.  As it is, the mean concentration of a residue would tend to be underestimated.

When pesticides are tested on animals, they are only tested individually, as if people were exposed to them one at a time.  Studies are rarely done that reflect the reality of our exposure to a cocktail of chemicals over a life time.  A typical lunch of a bread roll with butter, lettuce, tomato, luncheon sausage and an apple could have 16 different pesticides in it (data drawn from the Total Diet Survey 1990/1).

Research has found that mixtures of chemicals can be more potent than each individual one.  An Italian study, for example, found that a mixture of 15 different pesticides commonly found in food caused liver and free radical damage of DNA, even at low doses.  The study also found that when one pesticide, benomyl (a fungicide still used in NZ and never analysed for), was removed the mixture was much less toxic (Lodovic 1994).

Only the active ingredient of a pesticide is tested for long-term effects.  The full pesticide formulation, containing secret and possibly very toxic ingredients, is not tested.  No account is taken of the cumulative effects of a pesticide .  Yet pesticides contain 'inert' as well as 'active' ingredients.  There could be as many as 1700 different inert ingredients in the 700 pesticides on sale in New Zealand and many pesticides are almost entirely made up of these 'inert' ingredients.  Yet by law they are not required to be listed on a label, even though the US Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that some of them, such as mercury and lead, are dangerous.