A peer-reviewed study confirms the long-held belief that organic diets lower children’s exposure to pesticides.
It sounds like stating the obvious but for those promoting organics, the new data is valuable information.
“We’re always looking for stuff that can help us with policymakers,” said Laura Telford, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers.
Any scientific health claim, especially one involving children, is good capital to have when it comes to knocking on doors in Ottawa.
Telford said the organization will use the study in an upcoming project to promote the use of organic foods in day cares.
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“I find this kind of evidence really useful. It’s right up our alley for sure,” she said.
The finding stems from a 2003 study conducted by Alex Lu, assistant professor at the Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia. He measured the levels of various organophosphate pesticide residues in the urine of 23 elementary school children in Seattle over a 15-day period.
For a five-day stretch halfway through the experiment Lu switched the children from a conventional to an organic diet and then back again.
The children, aged three to 11, were fed organic fruit, vegetables, grain and fruit juices during that interlude.
“As soon as they switched their diet to organic their (pesticide) levels became non-detectable,” said Lu, who published his results this February in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the U.S. National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences.
Pesticide exposure is of particular concern with children because they eat more food per body mass than adults and tend to eat food with higher levels of chemical residue, such as juice, fruit and vegetables.
Lu also said children’s neurological systems are still developing, which is worrisome because pesticides are designed to kill insects by paralyzing their neurological systems.
His study showed that children on conventional diets had concentrations of malathion in their urine in the range of 2.9 to 4.4 micrograms per litre compared to 0.3 micrograms in the organic phase of their diets.
The mean level of chlorpyrifos was 5.8 to 7.2 micrograms per litre during the conventional phase and 1.7 micrograms during the organic phase.
Although there is no solid evidence that those pesticide residue levels could be harmful, Lu said the data suggests an organic diet can shift exposure to organophosphate pesticides from a range of uncertain risk to a range of negligible risk.
The one exception was coumaphos, an organophosphate insecticide used on livestock. The levels of that pesticide stayed the same in Lu’s study, which he attributed to children continuing to eat conventional seafood and meat and drink conventional dairy products during the organic phase of their diets.
Lu said the data is meaningful in that it shows food is an important vehicle for pesticide contamination.
“We can conclude that if not 100 percent then 99.9 percent of organophosphate pesticide exposures are coming from dietary intake.”
Telford said that conclusion is a compelling piece of evidence for the organic sector.
“It shows a direct relationship between diet and contaminants,” she said.
“We’ve got some pretty strong critics out there hounding us at every move, so you have to do the obvious science.”
Lu said it should be noted that switching to an organic diet will not eliminate all exposure to pesticides.
A group of pesticides called pyrethroids, which have replaced organophosphates in the household control of insects, found their way into the bodies of his subjects through skin absorption and air intake.
