the ecomoderate

Ever wonder what pesticides are really lurking on that conventional strawberry your eating? According to What’s on my Food, a website from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), there are 8 different pesticide residues in 1 strawberry.  Pesticides are a major public health problem. They’re in our food, our bodies (for years) and travel miles on wind, water and dust in our environment.

Building on PAN’s 27 years of providing pesticide data accessible to consumers, this searchable database lists common foods and the pesticide residues that have been found on them according to USDA studies. It tells you which residues have been found and the toxicology for each chemical.

Here’s some eye opening statistics:

• 888 million pounds of pesticides used on crops in the U.S. each year; that’s 3pounds per person!
• An average child gets 5+ servings of pesticide residue each day from their food and water.
  

This is a great tool, but don’t get too overwhelmed by it. It’s not meant to make you neurotic about every food choice you make, do the best you can and use it as what it’s meant for, a resource to make you better informed about your options.

Scientists from Harvard and the U.S. Geological Survey have recently found that mercury levels have already increased 30% from 1989. This finding means that by the time 2050 rolls around the Pacific Ocean will be twice as contaminated with mercury as it was in 1995 increasing our exposure to mercury from eating fish and other seafood.

In 2007, it was reported that 40% of people’s exposure of  the neurotin, methylmercury, in the United States comes from tuna; the most widely consumed fish.

Methylmercury alters brain development in fetuses and is linked to learning problems and reduced IQs in some children.

The study also showed how mercury from industrial sources is contaminating seafood. Asia’s burning of coal is the primary worldwide source of mercury contamination.

Read more about it here.