Organic Diets Versus Conventional Diets for ChildrenTwo recent studies, one in 2003 and the other in 2005, both involving children
in the Seattle, Washington, metropolitan area, confirm the value of organic diets
vis-a-vis conventional menus for children. In the first study, preschool children ages
two to four were the subjects. University of Washington researchers analyzed pesti-
cide breakdown products (metabolites) in the children and found that those who
ate organic fruits and vegetables had concentrations of pesticide metabolites six
times lower than children who consumed conventional produce. The researchers
compared breakdown concentrations of organophosphorus pesticides in the urine
of thirty-nine urban and suburban children. Their findings point to a relatively sim-
ple way for parents to reduce their children’s chemical loads—serve organic
produce.
The authors focused on children’s dietary pesticide exposure because children are
at greater risk for two reasons: 1) they eat more food relative to body mass, and
2) they eat foods higher in pesticide residues, foods such as juices, fresh fruits, and vege-
tables. An earlier study had looked at pesticide metabolites in the urine of ninety-six
urban and suburban children and found OP pesticides in the urine of all the children
but one. The parents of the child with no pesticide metabolites reported buying exclu-
sively organic produce.
The first Seattle study confirms what is already known about pesticide residues on
conventional produce. Parents of young children have been warned to limit or avoid
conventionally grown foods known to have high residues. The study’s main conclu-
sion—eating organic fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce children’s pesticide
loads—is information that parents can act on to reduce their children’s risk. A sec-
ondary conclusion, that small children may be exceeding ‘‘safe’’ levels of pesticide ex-
posure, is information that regulators should act on, at the very least, to reduce uses
of these pesticides on food crops.^57
In the second study, Dr. Chensheng Lu and his colleagues from Emory University,
the University of Washington, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) measured the exposure of two OPs, malathion and chorpyrifos, in twenty-
three elementary students in the Seattle area by testing their urine over a fifteen-day
period. The participants, ages three to eleven, were first monitored for three days on
their normal diets. Then the researchers substituted most of the children’s conven-
tional diets with organic food items for five consecutive days. The children were then
reintroduced to their normal foods and monitored for an additional seven days.
According to Dr. Lu, there was a ‘‘dramatic and immediate protective effect’’
against the pesticides until the conventional diets were reintroduced. While consum-
ing organic food, most of the children’s urine samples contained zero concentration
for the malathion metabolite. However, once the children returned to their normal
diets, the average metabolite concentration increased to 1.6 parts per billion with a
concentration range from five to 263 parts per billion. A similar trend was observed
for chlorpyrifos, as the average chlorpyrifos metabolite concentration increased from100 | Pesticides