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Are pesticides the biggest timebomb of all for British public health?
They've become a vital part of agriculture, but linked to everything from cancer to infertility and Gulf War syndrome. Sarah Freeman asks just how bad are pesticides?
Food scares come round as regular as clockwork.
Since Edwina Currie was left with egg on her face, Britain's beef farmers have been devastated by BSE, outbreaks of E coli and listeria have put hospitals on red alert and last year a suspected salmonella scare led to thousands of pots of hummus being whipped off supermarket shelves.
However, while these high profile scares command big headlines and force at least a temporary change of diet, there are those who believe agriculture's reliance on pesticides could become the biggest health timebomb of them all.
Initially, those who dared to suggest an apple a day might not, in fact, keep the doctor away were dismissed as cranks and evidence that the level of pesticides used by farmers are too low to affect humans was offered as reassurance.
Not all were sufficiently buoyed by the news. Various chemicals were identified as having the potential to affect behaviour and the development of the brain and reproductive organs. There were also concerns that ongoing exposure to pesticides could lead to a build up of residues. These two factors fuelled safety fears.
The matter came to a head when Georgina Downs's seven-year campaign against Government policy on pesticides resulted in a landmark victory.
Nicknamed the Pesticide Nun, the 35-year-old as been on a one-woman mission to convince the authorities that 20 years spent living next to a crop field, sprayed as many as 30 times in six months, had left her with a host of medical problems.
Having sifted through stacks of evidence compiled by Downs, including a DVD of interviews with people exposed to pesticides who now suffer
from cancer, MS, Parkinson's, nausea, tiredness, and
leukemia (and the list goes on), the judicial review found the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) – had indeed failed to protect people, particularly rural residents.
The ruling came as a boost to fellow campaigners, but with toxic chemicals ending up in our foods, clothing, toiletries and almost impossible to avoid it has left the rest of us asking just how dangerous are they?
Cotton, for example, may seem harmless, but it is the most polluting crop on earth, using 25 per cent of the world's pesticides.
For cotton to go from woolly ball to T-shirt it needs to be washed, bleached, dyed and printed – using at least 8,000 chemicals in the process. While many of those chemicals are classified by the World Health Organisation as "moderately hazardous" to "acutely hazardous", the jury is still out on how they, and the pesticides used on the crop to begin with, affect your health in both the short and long term.
"Pesticides are designed to kill insects and as a result have a high level of toxicity," explains Lee Holdstock, organic textile expert at the Soil Association. "Those pesticides don't disappear after the first rain or after a few days of being sprayed; they stick with that garment – but whether that sticks with you and gives you health problems is still unknown."
While Holdstock recommends erring on the side of safety – and opting for organic over conventional textiles where possible – it's not just our own health we need to worry about, but that of the farmers producing the stuff as well.
"Most cotton comes from the developing world, where farmers aren't required to wear protective clothing, pesticide containers are often reused to carry water and the cost of pesticides can be as much as 60 per cent of production costs – leading many farmers into chronic
debt," says Damien Sanfilippo, cotton project officer at the Pesticide Action Network (PAN-UK).
The conventional textile industry argues that organic crops don't produce the same yields. But according to research by the Soil Association, going organic by using natural pest management and fertilisers instead of chemical and energy-intensive pesticides
and synthetic fertilisers produces just as much, if not more, all while using a quarter less energy.
Part of the problem with raising awareness is the apparent invisibility of pesticides. While we can't see them or taste them and analysis by the European Commission recently found almost half of all our fruit, veg and cereals are contaminated with pesticides and even baby food contained significant levels of chemical residues.
"They're called 'residues' but that's a complete misnomer," says Emma Hockridge, policy campaigner at the Soil Association.
"They're not 'residues', they're the actual pesticides left on the crop itself. Even if you wash the fruit and veg when you get home, the pesticides remain – the testing carried out isn't just looking at the skin but at the pesticides within the food itself."
The UK's dependence on pesticides began at the end of the Second World War, when the chemical companies that had been producing nerve gases turned their attention toward industrial agriculture.
Fifty years on, 31,000 tonnes of chemicals are used in farming in the UK each year to kill weeds, insects and other pests that attack crops.
"Farmers very rarely use an individual pesticide," says Downs. "Instead they'll use four or five mixes of products, which can often result in up to 25 different chemicals in any single application."
While individual chemicals used in pesticides might be tested under the current regulations, their "cocktail effect" – ie what happens when they are mixed together – hasn't yet been assessed, although studies have shown that some mixtures can have synergistic – or increased toxicity – effects.
While PAN-UK advocates getting rid of the most dangerous pesticides and slowly easing the UK into using fewer pesticides, Downs – and the
Soil Association – want to see a complete rehaul of Britain's and Europe's pesticide policy to forgo chemical dependence for natural non-chemical pest management and organic farming.
Buying organic fruit and veg – or growing your own – will help reduce your own exposure to these chemicals.
In a 2006 report, the European Commission noted that "continuous exposure" to pesticides, including through pesticide residues in food,
could lead to a "higher risk of incidence of cancer or other chronic diseases, birth defects, cancer in offspring, stillbirths and reproductive problems, skin rashes and disorders, (and] disturbed enzyme and nervous system".
Since the Downs ruling, Defra has confirmed it will look at ways to strengthen the system of regulations, but has warned such a move could put the UK "out of step" with other European countries and the National Farmers' Union have also expressed concerns about the possible knock-on effect for members.
The European Parliament is already deliberating controversial plans which would see the amount of pesticides available to farmers
dramatically reduced. Opponents have claimed, if approved, it would lead to reduced harvests and a sharp rise in the price of food.
It's a price Down and her supporters think is worth paying.
"This landmark legal victory is now the best chance we have to fundamentally change the system for the future of public health," says Downs.
"We've already spent 50 years using these pesticides – we can't wait around another 50 years to outlaw them one by one. It needs to happen now."
TOP 10 PESTICIDE HEAVY FOODS
1. Flour
2. Potatoes
3. Bread
4. Apples
5. Pears
6. Grapes
7. Strawberries
8. Green beans
9. Tomatoes
10. Cucumber
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