Features
How Do You like your Thianbendazole?
Have you eaten any thiabendazole lately? You're probably fairly certain that you wouldn't have chosen to eat any product with such an unhealthy name. It doesn't sound at all like anything you'd like to have on your dinner plate. But if you're eating an orange at the moment you may want to put it down before you read on. If you're fond of oranges, apples or pears there is a good chance you've eaten some thiabendazole.
According to the Pesticide Control Unit of the Department of Agriculture 17.7% of the samples they tested in 2002 contained residues of the chemical. The odds for fruit lovers are about 6 to 1. So what is this unpleasant sounding chemical? It's described as a 'a systemic benzimidazole fungicide used to control fruit and vegetable diseases such as mould, rot, blight and stain.' Among the countries whose fruit had detectable residues of thiabendazole were South Africa, Chile, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, France and Israel. Two samples of Irish potatoes also contained residues of the fungicide. Of course consumers are fed up being frightened, often unnecessarily, about what they eat, so it's important to maintain a sense of perspective and balance. In the case of thiabendazole the amounts detected were less than the maximum permitted under EU health and agricultural legislation. Admittedly, the chemical is a poison and not meant to be eaten, but the amounts of it and other agrochemicals found on our fruit and vegetables are tiny.
In most cases residues are less than one part per thousand. When force-fed to rats it took nearly 2,000 times the amount of thiabendazole found on our fruit before the unfortunate rodents keeled over and died. Nevertheless, scientists have been wrong about the safety of chemicals in the past and some pesticides previously used and considered safe in recent years are now illegal. The amounts of residues detected might be small but there are a huge variety of them about. 52% of all the samples tested by the Pesticide unit contained at least one of the 46 different chemicals detected. More worryingly, 4.7 % of the samples contained residues above the maximum residue limit. The latter included strawberries from Morocco which contained a residue of carbendazim which was 34 times the greater than the permitted legal maximum. Carbendazim has been included by the European Commission on a priority list of chemicals believed to affect hormone function. A recent study showed that animals exposed to carbendazim in the womb can have serious deformities such as lack of eyes and water on the brain. The results of the 2002 pesticide samplings offer some positive news for Irish growers and for consumers who believe that home produced vegetables are safer. Only 18% of the produce found with pesticide residues was grown in Ireland whereas 82% was imported.
No confidence in pesticide safety levels says doctor. Dr. Uwe Hild of the Irish Doctors Environmental Association says that the difficulty with the scientific testing for safe levels of pesticides is that 99.8% of them are done on one species of animal testing the toxic effects of one chemical. 'The environmental reality is that we are all exposed to a symphony of toxic agents in varying concentrations,' he says. 'I know only one experiment - done in California in 1998 - where a mixture of 8 herbicides and pesticides (all in legally permissible concentrations) was added to the drinking water of mice - they all died.' Hild believes that organic farming is the only way to ensure that our food is safe to eat. 'It's the one way that's worked for thousands of years,' he says. 'It's only in the last hundred that man has had the stupidity to use pesticides. Rather than getting more upset over every scare related to food and fighting over meaningless "safe" concentrations of this or that toxin, we should concentrate on getting our food from organic sources.'
Pesticide Facts
Of the 559 samples of fruit and vegetables taken by the Pesticide Control Unit in 2002, 52% contained detectable quantities of pesticide residues. 9% of the samples contained residues of three or more pesticides. One sample showed residues of six different chemicals.
Healthy honey and eggs. In 2002 eggs and honey were tested for pesticides for the first time. No pesticides were detected in either.
Over the limit Of the 27 samples where the level of pesticide residue was over the legally allowed limit, 4 were from Ireland and 23 imported.
Increased variety A larger variety of pesticide residues was detected in 2002 - 46 compared with 37 in 2001.
GM crops linked to rise in pesticide use 8 years of planting GM maize, cotton & soya beans in the US has significantly increased the amount of herbicide & pesticides used, says a report by Charles Benbrook, who is also head of Northwest Science & Environmental Policy Centre, Sandpoint, Idaho. Chemical use appears to decrease at first, but after 3 years rises considerably. In 2001 GM crops needed 5% more herbicide & insecticide than non-GM crops, in 2002 they needed 7.9% more & in 2003 the estimated rise was 11.5%. In total £73 million worth more agro-chemicals were sprayed in the US in 2001-2003 because of GM.
On November 25, 2003, approximately 200 Colombian flower workers were poisoned at Flores Aposentos north of Bogotá. The workers, primarily women, were taken by ambulance from the worksite in Sopó to five surrounding hospitals, all with symptoms consistent with pesticide poisoning. A childcare facility near the Flores Aposentos facility was also evacuated. Approximately sixty children were waiting to be picked up by their parents in front of the centre as the Flores Aposentos workers were carried away in ambulances. Workers are especially vulnerable to pesticide poisoning in enclosed greenhouses where multiple exposures through inhalation, skin and eyes are more likely to occur. One study of Costa Rican fern and flower farms reported over 50% of respondents experiencing at least one symptom of pesticide exposure - headache, dizziness, nausea, diarrhoea, skin eruptions, or fainting. Floriculture uses many insecticides, including organophosphate insecticides designed to interfere with nerve function. Studies have reported elevated risks of Parkinson's disease among horticultural workers, with one study of greenhouse workers reporting that nearly 60% manifested nervous system symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, hand trembling and blurred vision. Reproductive problems have also been noted; for example a study in Colombia reported that female floriculture workers showed a reduced ability to become pregnant, while sperm concentrations were 40% lower in males working more than ten years in the industry.
World Pesticide Day
The international Pesticide Action Network launched December 3 as the global "No Pesticides Use Day" in commemoration of the world's worst chemical disaster in 1984. That day in Bhopal (India) a pesticide factory exploded, releasing a toxic gas cloud which ultimately caused more than 20,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries. Every year on December 3rd campaigns are initiated in many countries to remind people of the hazardous effects of pesticides on human health and environment.
Time to round up Roundup
There are new concerns about a very commonly used herbicide, Roundup (glyphosate). Speaking recently at a conference organised by the Pesticide Action Network, expert endocrinologist, Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini presented a new study showing that the product Roundup (in formulation) is more toxic than glyphosate alone. He says: 'Roundup has some hormonal perturbating (disrupting) effects. These could account for sperm decline, increase in sexual malformations, and an increase in cancers.' Roundup was recently banned in Denmark when potentially dangerous quantities were found to be seeping into the groundwater.
Well known organic goat’s cheese makers, Inagh Farmhouse, have launched two new products in the St. Tola range. Named ‘Divine’ and...
