backgrounder: pesticides & children in US

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Chemical Agriculture's Dirty Fight

Posted: 05/08/2012 8:37 am

Formuzis, of the Environmental Working Group

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/chemical-agricultures-dir_b_1499272.h\

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began testing fruits and

vegetables for pesticide residues in 1991 after the public became

concerned about their potential risks to children. Remember Alar? In

1993, at the request of Congress, several top public health experts

released a seminal report, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and

Children. Three years later, Congress responded by passing unanimously

the federal Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), which required the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement health-based

standards for all pesticides used in food, with special safeguards for

infants and babies.

This flurry of activity grew out of one overarching conclusion embraced

by scientists, physicians, policy makers, parents, and the public

interest community: Pesticides used in the cultivation of fruits and

vegetables can cause serious and lasting harm to young children.

That didn't stop conventional agribusiness interests from trying hard to

water down or remove provisions of the proposed law designed to protect

infants and children. The industry argued that it would cut into its

profits if it had to take children's health into consideration....

more

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