research to develop safe alternatives to pesticide use. Consumers’ dietary intake comes
from four sources: on-farm pesticide use, post-harvest pesticide use, pesticides used
on imported foods, and canceled pesticides that persist in the environment. Post-
harvest uses account for the largest share of dietary intake of residues, but canceled
and persistent chemicals appear among the highest risk indicators. Thus, research to
develop on-farm pest control alternatives will not address all of the sources of these resi-
dues. While most pesticide use does not result in detectable residues, higher levels of use
do result in higher residues. The geographic source of residues can be identified.^7
Underreporting Pesticide Residues
Pesticides in children’s food are the subject of a report that examined the patterns
of food consumption of young children and the monitoring capabilities of the FDA’s
laboratories. It considered that FDA seriously underreports pesticide residues in the
food supply. From 80 percent to 100 percent of residue analyses at five of twelve
FDA regional laboratories were not capable of finding 80 percent of pesticides used
in agriculture. This investigation, which also considered the exposure of children to
pesticides that the EPA considers probable or possible human carcinogens, estimated
that, by the age of five, millions of children have already received up to 35 percent of
their entire lifetime doses of some cancer-causing pesticides. This pattern is most evi-
dent in pesticides used on foods heavily consumed in the first years of life. These
include the fungicides captan (35 percent of lifetime risk by age five) and benomyl
(29 percent), and the insecticide dicofol (32 percent).
Changing regulatory procedures is not considered the optimum means to move
forward. Rather, the report stressed the importance of continuing to eat fresh fruit,
vegetables, and other staples. It also advocated reducing the use of pesticides in food
production, including: 1) a targeted pesticide risk reduction strategy that will gradu-
ally phase out the use of pesticides that present the greatest hazards to children,
including all those classified by the EPA as known carcinogens or potential carcino-
gens; 2) a program of research for agricultural producers to help them develop alter-
native pest control practices for high-risk pesticide/crop combinations; and 3) steps
to expand consumer access and farmers’ markets for foods produced with fewer pesti-
cides and that contain no residues, and a voluntary no-detected or ultra-low standard
for pesticide residues in food.^8
Children Differ From Adults
A seminal 1993 report by the National Research Council,Pesticides in the Diets of
Infants and Children, found that existing EPA standards for setting allowable pesticide
residue limits did not consider the unique vulnerabilities and exposures of infants
and children.
Most of the data used in regulating pesticides come from food surveys and labora-
tory tests that don’t adequately account for the vulnerabilities of children. It is critical
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