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People who eat organic produce may have lower levels of some
pesticides in their bodies than people who eat similar amounts of
conventionally grown fruits and veggies, according to a new study.
The study is among the first to predict adult exposures to
organophosphate pesticides based on people's usual diets, the researchers said.
Organophosphates are the pesticides commonly used on conventionally grown
produce.
Scientists studied nearly 4,500 people from six cities in
the United States, and collected dietary information, including the types and
amounts of produce eaten in the past year and how often participants ate
organic foods. The researchers estimated pesticide exposure by comparing
typical intake of specific food items with average pesticide residue levels for
those items. [9 Snack Foods: Healthy or Not?]
To check their estimates, the scientists compared the
calculated pesticide exposures to the levels of breakdown products from
pesticides excreted in the urine of a subset of participants.
When matched on produce intake, people who reported eating
organic fruits and veggies at least occasionally had significantly lower levels
of pesticide residue in their urine than people who almost always ate
conventionally grown produce.
Those who "often or always" ate organic fruits and
vegetables averaged approximately 65 percent lower levels of pesticide
metabolites in their urine than those who "rarely or never" ate
organic.
Organophosphate pesticides degrade quickly in the body, so a
urine test alone can only detect a person's exposures in the past day or two.
But "by combining with information on typical diet, we can begin to
estimate a person's long-term exposures," said study author Cynthia Curl,
an environmental health scientist at Boise State University in Idaho.
Still, the findings may not represent a person's total
exposure to pesticides. While organophosphates are the most commonly used
insecticides on conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, the researchers did
not estimate exposure to other types of pesticides that could have been applied
to the produce.
Compared to guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the results of this study "do not suggest unacceptable
risk" from organophosphate pesticides, even for people with the highest
exposure levels, the researchers wrote in the study.
However, current guidelines were devised in large part to
protect farm workers from acute poisoning and may not adequately reflect the
risks associated with lower levels of exposure to organophosphate pesticides or
to mixtures of pesticides that may be part of the diet. "Researchers are
just beginning to understand these risks," Curl said.
Recent studies in mothers and children have suggested that
prenatal organophosphate pesticide exposure may be associated with attention
problems and developmental delays in children.
The new "research provides another piece of evidence
that consumption of organic foods may reduce pesticide exposure," said
Jonathan Chevrier, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada,
who was not involved with the study.
Some types of conventionally grown produce are lower in
pesticides than others. For those interested in reducing exposure to
pesticides, Curl suggested using the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty
Dozen" list to see which fruits and vegetables tend to contain more
pesticides. "This can help [people] pick and chose when to buy
organic," she said.
The findings were published online Feb. 5 in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives.
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