Here's a fun way to start:
Here's an article I wrote about pesticides! It's part of a three part series on pesticides I wrote for the Irish Examiner.

I'll post all 3, as there is a logical sequence to them. They go from the centre out, from the individual to the planet.

I write a weekly column for the Irish Examiner Newspaper. My column is in the farming supplement every Thursday, and is always in some way related to orgnaic farming. Occasionally, I'll post articles from there here (after they've been there first!)

Pesticides and people: part one.

There are three main areas where pesticides are a cause of concern. These are pesticide residues in food; pesticide drift (the implications for the environment and people who live near sprayed fields) and, finally, pesticide poisonings, mostly of farm labourers, and mostly, though not exclusively, in the third world. Over the next three weeks, each area will be examined in detail. Today, we�ll deal with pesticide residues in consumers.

First things first: pesticides are designed to attack the central nervous system of living creatures. Despite being different in many ways, both insects and mammals have a similar neural mechanism, so, in the �correct� dose, pesticides can obviously kill humans. For example, one teaspoon of Paraquat ingested would be fatal for a fully grown man. So there is no debate over whether pesticides are dangerous for humans or not, just over the levels.

A peer-reviewed report from the University of Washington from 2003 found that children who are a mostly organic diet had significantly lower pesticide residues in them than those who ate a mostly conventional food diet. Some pesticides were at a six times higher rate in the children who ate mostly conventional foods. This meant that the children eating organic food were in a �negligible risk� category, whereas the children eating conventional food were in an �uncertain risk� category.

The methodology used was particularly reliable. Rather than just testing mashed up apples for one pesticide at a time, (as is standard) they tested people (in this case 2-5 year old preschool children) over a period of days. Food diaries were used and the use of domestic pesticides (ie for gardening) was factored for.

The researchers decided to test for pesticide residues in children for a couple of reasons. For one thing, children eat more food as a proportion of their body weight than adults. Secondly, many of the foods children consume, and indeed are encouraged to consume as healthy, can be particularly high in pesticide residues. Examples include fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juices. (Being fresh, as opposed to processed increases the risk of residues being present)

In fact, what prompted the research in the first place was the discovery that out of 110 children previously tested, only 1 (yes 1) didn�t have measurable levels of organophosphate pesticides. That 1 child ate a diet the child�s parents described to researchers as �exclusively organic�.

We can also add the fact that children are still growing and developing, so substances which disrupt hormones or the development of the brain are of particular concern.

But are small does of pesticides dangerous? More research needs to be done, especially on the combined or cocktail effect of chemicals. It has been shown that their combined effect can be more potent, and that disrupting hormones even at minute levels can be especially risky for the foetus or for breast fed children.

Some toxicologists have expressed particular concerns. Dr. Vyvyan Howard, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Foetal and Infant Toxico-pathology Group at the University of Liverpool, states that it is impossible to test for all the combinations. However research conducted by Dr. Howard in 2001 found that when more than one pesticide is mixed together, they can be ten times more toxic than individual chemicals.

This is compounded by the fact that some pesticides are not broken down and excreted, but are instead stored in the body fat. According to Dr.Elizabeth Cullen, of the Irish Doctors� Environmental Alliance, �Exposure to chlorinated chemicals (which includes pesticides) has been linked to depressed immune systems, reduction in sperm counts, altered fertility and some adult cancers. In children they have also been associated with low birth weight, genital abnormalities and impaired neurological development�.

She goes on to claim that chemicals in body fat are not tested for in Ireland, and there is no national database of congenital malformations.

Taking all of the above into account, it is clear that the most reliable way to avoid pesticides is to eat organic food. It may all turn out to be fine, but do you really want to use yourself as a human guinea pig?