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More:
You may not be at all surprised to learn that pesticides are bad for us. No, but, like, really bad.
A couple of months ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned about the effects of pesticides on kids. Today’s kids have grown up with a new normal of pesticide-laden food and increased food allergies (up 18 percent in the U.S. between 1997 and 2007). According to a new study, those two things might be connected. From Mother Earth News:
The study reported that high levels of dichlorophenols, a chemical used in pesticides and to chlorinate water, when found in the human body, are associated with food allergies.
“Our research shows that high levels of dichlorophenol-containing pesticides can possibly weaken food tolerance in some people, causing food allergy,” said allergist Elina Jerschow, M.D., M.Sc., ACAAI fellow and lead study author. “This chemical is commonly found in pesticides used by farmers and consumer insect and weed control products, as well as tap water …
“Previous studies have shown that both food allergies and environmental pollution are increasing in the United States,” said Dr. Jerschow. “The results of our study suggest these two trends might be linked, and that increased use of pesticides and other chemicals is associated with a higher prevalence of food allergies.”
Eat all the organic apples you want, but there’s no escaping pesticides. The New York Times’ Mark Bittman had some strong words about that this week:
[T]he most striking non-event of the last year — decade, generation — is how asleep at the wheel we have all been regarding pesticides. Because every human tested is found to have pesticides in his or her body fat. And because pesticides are found in nearly every stream in the United States, over 90 percent of wells, and — in urban and agricultural areas — over half the groundwater. So Department of Agriculture data show that the average American is exposed to 10 or more pesticides every day, via diet and drinking water.
This shouldn’t be surprising: pesticide drift is a term used to describe the phenomenon by which almost all pesticides — 95 to 98 percent is the number I’ve seen — wind up on or in something other than their intended target. (This means, of course, that in order to be effective more pesticides must be used than would be necessary if targeting were more accurate.)
Much damage has been done, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
It sure is — and not just for humans. R.I.P. bees.
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
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The odds are super low that this will make you sick, but still.
For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has used the power it gained in the landmark 2011 food safety bill to shut down a manufacturer.
In September, an outbreak of salmonella linked to organic peanut butter sold at Trader Joe’s sickened 41 people in 20 states. The tainted goo was linked back to a Sunland, Inc., plant in New Mexico — the latest in a series of problems for the site. So yesterday, the FDA revoked its license to manufacture food.
From CBS News:
Sunland had voluntarily closed its plant after a September outbreak and planned to reopen its peanut processing facility on Tuesday, with hopes of selling peanut butter again by the end of the year. Sunland’s Katalin Coburn said FDA’s decision to suspend the registration was a surprise to the company and Sunland officials had assumed they were allowed to resume operations. …
Sunland is the nation’s largest organic peanut butter processor, though it also produces many non-organic products. The company recalled hundreds of organic and non-organic nut butters and nuts manufactured since 2010 after Trader Joe’s Valencia Creamy Peanut Butter was linked to the salmonella illnesses in September.
The details of what the FDA found are … unpleasant.
During a month-long investigation, after the outbreak linked to processor Sunland and to Trader Joe’s, FDA inspectors found samples of salmonella in 28 different locations in the plant, in 13 nut butter samples and in one sample of raw peanuts.
The agency also found improper handling of the products, unclean equipment and uncovered trailers of peanuts outside the facility that were exposed to rain and birds.
The FDA said that over the past three years, the company shipped products even though portions of their lots, or daily production runs, tested positive for salmonella in internal tests. The agency also found that the internal tests failed to find salmonella when it was present.
FDA inspectors found many of the same problems — including employees putting their bare fingers in empty jars before they were filled, open bags of ingredients, unclean equipment, and many other violations — in a 2007 inspection. Similar problems were recorded by inspectors in 2009, 2010 and 2011, though government officials didn’t take any action or release the results of those inspections until after the illnesses were discovered this year.
Which prompts the question: Why wait so long? The company tests positive for salmonella for three years and then, when it finally makes several dozen people sick, the FDA steps in?
One moral of the story is: Even organic food is not without its problems. And the other moral is: Don’t eat anything, ever.
FDA halts operations at peanut butter plant linked to salmonella outbreak, CBS News
Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.
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