The consumer push for more organic food has come about for many reasons. One area of great concern among organic consumers is the potential damage of pesticide use on fields, plants and other food sources that affect our environment and our health. Many researches, doctors and members of the public in general feel that overuse of the chemicals in our environment play a role in lifetime risks for cancer, the developmental issues in our children and infertility struggles many couples have. Education is one of our greatest assets to help our communities locally and nationally become better aware of the problems and solutions associated with pesticides.
Should pesticides be a concern? Pesticides are among the list of well over 70,000 chemicals approved to be used in the United States. While some of these chemicals pose little threat to the environment, we have an extremely low amount of information in how these chemicals interact with each other. Just as important is the worldwide distribution of pesticides with almost little to no knowledge of how the combination of pesticides and chemicals (again of which there are several thousand) will affect us [Source: Weiss]. There has been a noted link with pesticides to cancer including leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, breast and pancreas [Source: Fagoli, Et al]. Women with higher levels of pesticides in the blood have 4-10 times higher risk of breast cancer [Source: Nutrition Week]. Research has also shown ill effects of pesticides on the brain. One of the body’s main detoxifying treatments is a substance called glutathione, which plays a major role in detoxification in the liver and also in the brain. Glutathione is used rapidly to help detoxify and eliminate pesticides from the body. Low glutathione is associated with degenerative changes seen in Parkinson’s disease [Source: Schulz]. Postmortem brain biopsies have shown significantly higher rates of pesticides than those without Parkinson’s [Source: Fleming]. Comparisons of the development of children living in low pesticide uses areas in Mexico versus areas of higher exposure show substantially slower stamina, poorer hand/eye coordination and less short-term memory in the children with higher pesticide exposure [Source: Nutrition Week]. These same children had a much harder time drawing pictures of people than the children with low exposure, illustrating concerns for brain, muscle and nerve development in these children.
