Pesticides developed in the hope that they may be safer than older chemicals known to cause cancer may be only slightly better, according to Margaret Whalen, a biochemist at Tennessee State University. They found the compounds, which are used to protect crops such as pecans, potatoes and sugar beets, as well as to protect boats and wood, can damage cells in the human body that seek out and destroy microbes and cancer cells.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began an ongoing study in 1999 in an effort to calculate the public?s exposures to environmental contaminants, including mercury, tobacco smoke, and certain pesticides. By taking blood and urine samples, scientists can monitor the population?s contact with chemicals present in the air, water, dust, food, and soil over time.
?So far, the results of the initial CDC National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals confirm what many people already suspected,? says Susan Kegley, staff scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA). ?The general population has contaminant levels exceeding those set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as safe.?
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Three years ago, in response to mounting criticism from environmentalists and physicians, the Clinton administration stopped using information from industry studies conducted on humans to determine the amount of pesticides that could be applied to fruits, vegetables and other crops.
This is related to the problem that physicians have had since World War II, when deciding whether or not to use the test results from Nazi doctors testing Jewish subjects in concentration camps. Since these tests cannot be duplicated, this is the only data available in many cases about the reaction of the human body to things like extreme cold.
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