Children at risk from pesticide residues – claim

20 February 1998

Children at risk from pesticide residues – claim

By FWi staff

UK children are at risk from excessive amounts of pesticide residues in most crops, according to a UK pressure group.

The Pesticides Trust claims that safety margins for pesticide residues have been eroded in recent years. Its findings are based on research that UK children eating an unpeeled apple may be consuming up to four times the safe daily pesticide limit.

A further study in the USA has found that one million American children who apples, peaches and grapes are consuming unsafe levels of organophosphate pesticides.

“The US figures may not apply in the UK,” acknowledged Peter Beaumont of the Pesticides Trust. “But it is increasingly difficult to control the incidence of individual pesticide levels in food.”

Mr Beaumont has asked the Governments Advisory Committeee on Pesticides to comment urgently on the US report.