Pesticide content in baby food debated
By Susan Milius
WASHINGTON (UPI): Test results released earlier this week demonstrated that baby foods from stores in three U.S. cities had traces of 16 pesticides, including three chemicals classified as probable human carcinogens, five as possible human carcinogens and eight as neurotoxins.
The levels detected fell within federal safety standards, but the Environmental Working Group, which sponsored the test, said that current standards are not strict enough to protect children.
The cities were Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco.
"While baby food appears to have lower levels of pesticides in it than fresh fruits and vegetables, it still contains residues of pesticides at levels that have not been shown to be safe for infants," said the group's report.
The National Food Processors Association responded that the environmental group "cynically uses scare tactics to advance the groups' political agenda."
The test results reopen the stormy debate over the safety of baby foods, which has drawn in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
The NAS released a study on pesticides in the diets of infants in 1993 that concluded "standards do not provide adequate protection for children," said report committee chairman Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.
"Children are more vulnerable than adults because they're still growing and developing," he said. "Also, kids focus on relatively few foods. As much as 20 percent to 40 percent of their diets may consist of a single food stuff."
He is concerned that the effects of routine exposure to pesticides may not show up for years. "We're taking the long view," he said.
"It's just not prudent to expose our children," he said. "And this is a preventable risk: It's not as if these are necessary to making baby food," said Landrigan.
Gerber, a major maker of baby foods, strongly defended its products. "All Gerber baby foods are safe," said company spokesman Van Hindes.
He emphasized that the report found pesticide levels within federal standards and in fact found lower levels in baby food than in fresh fruit and vegetables.
"You get into a numbers game," said Al Heier, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticide use.
Heier disagreed with environmentalists' charges that the pesticide regulations do not consider the special vulnerability of children.
When calculating how much of a pesticide could be tolerated in food, the EPA considers the diets of 22 special groups, including infants that are not nursing.
The group that eats a lot of a particular food dominates the process of setting the tolerance for it, said Heier.
Now EPA bases diet analyses on surveys of food patterns that are about 20 years old, he said. EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture have planned a new study of eating habits but have no funding for it.
Heier said that lowering the levels of pesticides allowed on food even by half would not change the U.S. food supply much. "Most food already has only 50 percent of the allowable residues," he said.
Asked about the NAS report of pesticides in infants, Heier said, "I don't think the scientists are saying that our food is unsafe; they think it could be safer, and we agree."