Watch list for pesticides

By Alton Turley, posted September 19th, 2009
Flagler Organics - Head Stock Boy

Wow, the more I read about conventionally grown food the more I realize that our food has been exposed to poisonous and polluting substances. Conventionally grown foods use pesticides that leave a poisonous residue on the produce. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has been combing over government studies. They have released compelling information about how to lower pesticide in your diet by selecting those foods that have the least exposure to pesticides. EWG and Flagler Organics believes that giving information about the overall load of pesticides found on commonly eaten fruits and vegetables, consumers will have what they need to make choices to reduce pesticides in their diets.

We believe that all adverse effects are equal and that there is a significant degree of uncertainty about the health effects of pesticide mixtures. In making value judgments, the uncertainty of the risks in pesticide exposure is a concern.

I have learned that by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead you can lower your exposure to pesticides by almost 80%. If you want to expose your family to about 10 pesticides per day, on average, then eat these 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Of course eating organic foods eliminates the concern about pesticides.

THE DIRTY DOZEN

Nectarines – 97.3 % positive for pesticides, the highest tested. Next came peaches (96.7%) then apples (94.1%)
The highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single sample award goes to peaches with 87% of this fruit having two or more pesticide residue found. Nectarines and apples came in next with 85.3 and 82.3% in that order.
Peaches and apples had the most pesticides detected on a single sample, with nine pesticides on a single sample, followed by strawberries and imported grapes where eight pesticides were found on a single sample of each fruit.
Peaches had the most pesticides overall, with some combination of up to 53 pesticides found on the samples tested, followed by apples with 50 pesticides and strawberries with 38.

Wow, again. What can I say, but there is more. When the EWG looked at vegetables the studies showed that sweet bell peppers, celery, kale, lettuce,and carrots are the vegetables most likely to expose consumer to pesticides.

Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (94.1 percent), followed by sweet bell peppers (81.5 percent) and carrots (82.3 percent).
Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single vegetable (79.8 percent of samples), followed by sweet bell peppers (62.2 percent) and kale (53.1 percent).
Sweet bell peppers had the most pesticides detected on a single sample (11 found on one sample), followed by kale (10 found on one sample), then lettuce and celery (both with nine).
Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides overall, with 64, followed by lettuce with 57 and carrots with 40.

THE CLEAN FIFTEEN

If you can not eat organic fruits and vegetables EWG suggest that you select fruits and vegetables that are likely to have less exposure to pesticides. They are onions, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, cabbage, eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Over half of the tomatoes (53.1 percent), broccoli (65.2 percent), eggplant (75.4 percent), cabbage (82.1 percent), and sweet pea (77.1 percent) samples had no detectable pesticides. Among the other three vegetables on the least-contaminated list (asparagus, sweet corn, and onions), there were no detectable residues on 90 percent or more of the samples.
Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on any of these least contaminated vegetables. Tomatoes had the highest likelihood, with a 13.5 percent chance of more than one pesticide when ready to eat. Onions and corn both had the lowest chance with zero samples containing more than one pesticide.
The greatest number of pesticides detected on a single sample of any of these low-pesticide vegetables was five (as compared to 11 found on sweet bell peppers, the vegetable with the most residues on a single sample).
Broccoli had the most pesticides found on a single type of vegetable, with up to 28 pesticides, but far fewer than the most contaminated vegetable, sweet bell peppers, on which 64 were found.

The fruits least likely to have pesticide residues on them are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, papayas, watermelon and grapefruit.

Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples had detectable pesticides on them, and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.
Though 54.5 percent of grapefruit had detectable pesticides, multiple residues are less common, with only 17.5 percent of samples containing more than one residue. Watermelon had residues on 28.1 percent of samples, and just 9.6 percent had multiple pesticide residues.

THE SOLUTION

Flagler Organics is concern about the availability and cost of uncontaminated produce in the Flagler Community.

We believe:

The solution to pesticides is to eliminate them by selecting organically grown foods.
When you can not eat organic foods use the list to make choices for the least contamination from pesticides.
Organically grown produce and organic non perishable products need not cost more than contaminated foods.
Education is the key to understanding the health benefit of an organic lifestyle.

But most importantly,

A community can influence the choices available to them by supporting merchants that promote sustainability, environmental recycling and local artisan and producers.

Here is a list for review. EWG ranked a total of 47 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because they looked at both domestic and imported samples.

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE	The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 47 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 87,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies used to create the list test produce after it has been rinsed or peeled. Contamination was measured in six different ways and crops were ranked based on a composite score from all categories. The six measures of contamination we used were: * Percent of the samples tested with detectable pesticides * Percent of the samples with two or more pesticides * Average number of pesticides found on a sample * Average amount (level in parts per million) of all pesticides found * Maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample * Number of pesticides found on the commodity in total The philosophy behind the guide is simple: give consumers the information they need to make choices to reduce pesticides in their diets. In this spirit, the Guide does not present a complex assessment of pesticide risks, but instead simply reflects the overall load of pesticides found on commonly eaten fruits and vegetables. This approach best captures the uncertainty of the risks of pesticide exposure and the value judgments involved in the choice to buy food with less pesticides. Pesticides cause many adverse effects in well designed animal studies, from cancer to nervous system damage to reproductive effects. Rather than assign more weight to cancer than birth defects, we simply assumed that all adverse effects are equal. There is a significant degree of uncertainty about the health effects of pesticide mixtures. This ranking takes this uncertainty into account in the most defensible way possible, by simply ranking fruits and vegetables by their likelihood of being consistently contaminated with the greatest number of pesticides at the highest levels. The produce listed in the Guide was chosen after an analysis of USDA food consumption data from 1994-1996. The 47 selected were those reported eaten on at least one tenth of one percent of all “eating days” in the survey and with a minimum of 100 pesticide test results from the years 2000 to 2007. An eating day is one day of food consumption reported to USDA by one individual, some of whom were followed for three days.
1 (worst)	Peach	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apple	93
3	Sweet Bell Pepper	83
4	Celery	82
5	Nectarine	81
6	Strawberries	80
7	Cherries	73
8	Kale	69
9	Lettuce	67
10	Grapes – Imported	66
11	Carrot	63
12	Pear	63
13	Collard Greens	60
14	Spinach	58
15	Potato	56
16	Green Beans	53
17	Summer Squash	53
18	Pepper	51
19	Cucumber	50
20	Raspberries	46
21	Grapes – Domestic	44
22	Plum	44
23	Orange	44
24	Cauliflower	39
25	Tangerine	37
26	Mushrooms	36
27	Banana	34
28	Winter Squash	34
29	Cantaloupe	33
30	Cranberries	33
31	Honeydew Melon	30
32	Grapefruit	29
33	Sweet Potato	29
34	Tomato	29
35	Broccoli	28
36	Watermelon	26
37	Papaya	20
38	Eggplant	20
39	Cabbage	17
40	Kiwi	13
41	Sweet Peas – Frozen	10
42	Asparagus	10
43	Mango	9
44	Pineapple	7
45	Sweet Corn – Frozen	2
46	Avocado	1
47 (best)	Onion	1 (lowest pesticide load)