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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

...Perspectives, concludes that pesticides are present in the urine and saliva of children who eat conventionally grown produce. The good news is that it's easy to go organic and protect your kids from pesticide exposure.  

And not just any pesticides. The researchers tested for malathion and chlorpyrifos and other chemicals in the organophosphate family.

Malathion and chlorpyrifos are banned for use in homes, but they are still widely used on crops. In fact, organophosphate pesticides account for approximately half the insecticides used in the U.S. They work by poisoning the nervous system in pests (hmmm...aren't we always told to keep poisons away from children?) In humans, these pesticides can cause damage to the nervous system, organ damage, behavior disorders, immune system dysfunction, behavioral abnormalities, and hormone disruption.
 
In other words, these are nasty chemicals and you don't want them anywhere near your kids. But maybe you thought that the pesticides wash off when you clean your veggies at home, or peel off with the skins. Unfortunately, according to the EHP study, not so.
 
The good news is that it's easy to go organic and protect your kids from pesticide exposure. And the researchers detected a difference almost immediately. According to Chengsheng Lu, the study's author:
 
"The transformation is extremely rapid. Once you switch from conventional food to organic, the pesticides that we can measure in the urine disappears. The level returns immediately when you go back to the conventional diets."
 
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/10912/10912.html

CHILDREN FED NON-ORGANIC FOOD HAVE PESTICIDES IN THE URINE
A new peer-reviewed study found levels of nerve-gas like pesticides in the bodies of children who eat conventional foods. Researchers found that if a child switched to an organic diet, the pesticide disappeared from the child's urine within 36 hours. Organophosphates were designed during WWII specifically to kill humans and later evolved into commonly used pesticides for food crops. The study has not yet linked the pesticide levels to specific foods, but other studies have shown peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, nectarines, strawberries and cherries are among those that most frequently have detectable levels of pesticides. Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10066.cfm