PANNA: Pesticides on Apples Endanger U.S. Children Pesticide
Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS) March 8, 1999 Ten years
after the U.S. public demanded that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) ban the cancer-causing pesticide Alar,
children are no better protected from pesticides in the nation's
food supply, according to a new report from the Environmental
Working Group (EWG). The group's recent analyses of government
pesticide records show that multiple pesticides known or
suspected to cause brain and nervous system damage, cancer,
disruption of the endocrine and immune systems, and a host of
other toxic effects are commonly found in foods children
regularly consume. Major findings of EWG's February 1999 report
"How 'Bout Them Apples?" include: * Twenty million children ages
five and under eat an average of eight pesticides a day, every
day -- a total of more than 2,900 pesticide exposures per child
per year from food alone. * Every day, 610,000 children ages one
through five eat a dose of neu