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‘Dirty dozen’ produce carries more pesticide residue
If you’re eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.
The group, a nonprofit focused on public health, scoured nearly 100,000 produce pesticide reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine what fruits and vegetables we eat have the highest, and lowest, amounts of chemical residue.
Most alarming are the fruits and vegetables dubbed the “Dirty Dozen,” which contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides. “It’s critical people know what they are consuming,” the Environmental Working Group’s Amy Rosenthal said. “The list is based on pesticide tests conducted after the produce was washed with USDA high-power pressure water system. The numbers reflect the closest thing to what consumers are buying at the store.”
Special report: Toxic America
The group suggests limiting consumption of pesticides by purchasing organic for the 12 fruits and vegetables.
“You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 80 percent by buying the organic version of the Dirty Dozen,” Rosenthal said.
The Dirty Dozen
Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce
Not all non-organic fruits and vegetables have a high pesticide level. Some produce has a strong outer layer that provides a defense against pesticide contamination. The group found a number of non-organic fruits and vegetables dubbed the “Clean 15″ that contained little to no pesticides.
The Clean 15
Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi fruit
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Sweet onions
What is a pesticide?
A pesticide is a mixture of chemical substances used on farms to destroy or prevent pests, diseases and weeds from affecting crops. According to the USDA, 45 percent of the world’s crops are lost to damage or spoilage, so many farmers count on pesticides.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the FDA and the USDA work together to monitor and set limits as to how much pesticide can be used on farms and how much is safe to remain on the produce once it hits grocery store shelves.
“In setting the tolerance amount, the EPA must make a safety finding that the pesticide can be used with ‘reasonable certainty of no harm.’ The EPA ensures that the tolerance selected will be safe,” according the EPA’s website.
Although the President’s Cancer Panel recently recommended that consumers eat produce without pesticides to reduce their risk of getting cancer and other diseases, the low levels of pesticides found on even the Dirty Dozen are government-approved amounts.
Can small amounts of pesticides hurt you?
The government says that consuming pesticides in low amounts doesn’t harm you, but some studies show an association between pesticides and health problems such as cancer, attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder and nervous system disorders and say exposure could weaken immune systems.
The Environmental Working Group acknowledges that data from long-term studies aren’t available but warns consumers of the potential dangers.
“Pesticides are designed to kill things. Why wait for 20 years to discover they are bad for us?” Rosenthal said.
Some doctors warn that children’s growing brains are the most vulnerable to pesticides in food.
“A kid’s brain goes through extraordinary development, and if pesticides get into the brain, it can cause damage,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Can pesticides be washed away?
Not necessarily. The pesticide tests mentioned above were conducted after the food had been power-washed by the USDA. Also, although some pesticides are found on the surface of foods, other pesticides may be taken up through the roots and into the plant and cannot be removed.
“We’ve found that washing doesn’t do much,” Rosenthal said. “Peeling can help, although you have to take into account that the pesticides are in the water, so they can be inside the fruit because of the soil.”
All fresh produce, whether it’s grown with or without pesticides, should be washed with water to remove dirt and potentially harmful bacteria. And health experts agree that when it comes to the Dirty Dozen list, choose organic if it’s available.
“To the extent you can afford to do so, [parents] should simply buy organic, because there have been some very good studies that shows people who eat mostly organic food reduce 95 percent of pesticides [in their body] in two weeks,” Landrigan said.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/01/dirty.dozen.produce.pesticide/index.html
I can not believe you recommend sweet corn, since it is all genetically engineered. Even if does not have all that much pesticide on it.
I fully agree with Elisabeth! No one, especially children, should eat anything that has been or contains genetically modified vegetables or fruit. Learn about it and you’ll be frightened at the huge experiment they have been using people for!
Not only may the corn be genetically modified, but some of your other listed food may be — for example some pineapples. A question about watermelon — sometimes when I eat watermelon, I get almost a burning in my mouth — I always assumed it was due to pesticides or herbicides used on it???? This isn’t with all watermelon, so it’s not an allergic reaction to watermelon in general. And you’re saying they’re on your ok list??? Just wondering….
Where did you get this list from????? I agree on the corn concerns, but can also add personal experience from accidentally buying non-organic cantelope — the melon tasted like Round-up!!! So, you can peel the outside off these fruits — but they weren’t sprayed when they were mature, they were sprayed while developing, so the sprays are incorporated in the fruit. If I can’t eat fresh organic, I’ll go to frozen or SKIP IT. Not worth the chronic illnesses.
I’m glad to see the readers may be more alert than the authors of the study. Imagine overlooking the adversarial affects of the genetically modified foods. Can’t help but wonder which are the worst, the GM or the pesticides.
This info came from the Environmental Working Groups website and is listed as The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen. The purpose is to alert people who cannot afford to buy all of their produce organic as to what choices that they can make. So they can buy their conventional guacamole ingredients for less, but buy their apple juice organic. I give this list to people all the time either because they cannot afford organic or because they really don’t understand the ramifications of conventional produce yet and therefore aren’t willing to pay extra for organic. The list is a good starting point for many. (I am a NC student). The study simply doesn’t address GMO. As for the corn, as of a few years ago white corn was not GMO, but it was appearing in even Indian corn, so it is possible it has cross-contaminated by now. But last week Trader Joe’s had a sign posted- non-GMO white corn.
This is great info to have — thanks for sharing Kathleen. It almost makes me afraid to eat anything!
As to GMO. I visited Ukraine last year, and I need to say the corn they have completely differs from any I tried (not any more) in North America. They do have non-GMO one and its taste is outstanding: meaty,not like local watery one, but real fleshy, you eat and feed yourself. That is the one they probably brought couple centuries ago from America, and at that time no one played a deadly GMO game yet. Up to now they stayed with the original one most of Americans already forgot how it tastes. The same applies to many other cultures: tomatoes, watermelons etc. Unfortunately to all under the ugly pressure from US corporations, and corrupted governments Europe may change as well coming to GMS side. So you still have chance to try the real corn your grand parents ate in their times.
This list is great. I refer to it as I make my grocery list. I do have a question; hopefully someone can shed some insight. Although may fruits and vegetables have tough outer skins, and are therefore on the safe list, is it possible that the pesticides are leaching into the soil, and therefore still getting into the produce?
With the FDA controlling the term “Organic” and it’s definition, it is now damned impossible to know what is “really organic” and what is infested with chemicals. Even produce that claims to be “organic” doesn’t necessarily need to be clean of all pesticides. There is a need to get rid of the FDA and find another way to do the job they are supposed to do. Such a small percentage of imported produce is inspected, it’s not worth buying if your concerned about quality produce.
I am disgusted.
Elisabeth is correct! Sadly no one is safe eating corn with the GMO issues!
i think all the worrying you all are doing about what chemicals you’re ingesting and in what foods is probably just as damaging to you as the chemicals themselves.
“therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; nor about your body, what you will put on it. is not life not more than food and the body more than clothes?” mt6:25 “which of you by worrying can add one inch to his stature?” mt6:27 in the book of jeremiah it talks about before we were born our life had already been written before it began and the day and time of our death already decided.
my husband loved pizza and rootbeer. he ate pizza almost every other day and drank a two liter rootbeer everyday. he died at 29 in a car accident. no amount of organic unmodified corn would have cured his broken neck. it makes me glad to know that while he was alive he spent his time playing with our kids and eating pizza instead of reading labels and worrying about high fructose corn syrup. life is so much more than worrying.