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What Shouldn’t Be There: Contaminants in Children’s Food
Becky Gillette
Healthy Child Healthy WorldMonday, April 30, 2007
Eat your spinach, moms chant across the nation. As much as kids try to avoid the green stuff, moms know it is a safe bet nutritionally. But, increasingly, researchers are discovering some unappetizing facts about our foods:
They can be contaminated with potentially harmful pesticides, and industrial pollutants, such as PCBs and mercury.
Even trace amounts of a chemical, as found in food, may harm children. Because of their small body sizes, a chemical can impact children more so than adults, especially since kids eat proportionately more, pound-for-pound, than adults. And infants and children have immature organs that can’t eliminate toxins as easily. These toxins can interfere with normal growth and can even set the stage for diseases later in life.
Children's exposure starts in the womb as many of these harmful substances, like mercury and PCBs, can pass from food into the mother’s bloodstream, then through the placenta into the womb. Recent studies link some food contaminants to low sperm counts, learning disabilities, aggressive behavior, impaired immune function, reproductive problems, and diseases like cancer, endometriosis and Parkinson’s disease.
THE CULPRITS
Persistant Organic Pollutants
Among the food contaminants of greatest concern are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) Many are believed to be cancer-causing and may interfere with the hormonal systems of animals and humans. POPs don’t break down in the environment quickly, sometimes remaining in soil and water for decades. Their persistence increases the likelihood that they’ll wind up in the food supply. Dieldrin, a pesticide that was banned in the United States in 1974, continues to be detected in U.S.-grown cantaloupes, spinach, soybeans, sweet potatoes and other crops at levels considered unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to a Consumers Union (CU) analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data on pesticide residues on food, Update: Pesticides in Children’s Food.
Other POPs, like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and furans, are industrial chemicals that now enter the environment from waste sites. PCBs, once widely used in electrical transformers, are a major cause of fish consumption advisories in the United States due to contamination of rivers and lakes. PCBs can cause developmental delays and neurological damage, such as memory problems and learning disabilities, in children.
Dioxin, a byproduct of chlorine bleaching of paper and the manufacture and incineration of PVC (vinyl) plastic, is a potent carcinogen and endocrine disruptor that has become widespread in the environment and the food supply.
Though POPs can contaminate any kind of food, they tend to accumulate in animal fat, rising up the food chain. That means that animals, especially those at the top of the food chain, like sharks and humans, have the highest concentrations of POPs in their bodies. POPS are most highly concentrated in fatty food like meats, fish, eggs, butter and cheese, according to pediatrician Dr. Gina Solomon, senior scientist at the National Resources Defense Council and a co-author of Generations at Risk.
"Eating lots of vegetables, fruits and grains is probably better than eating lots of fats," Soloman says.
Agricultural Pesticides
Less persistant, but still potent, are the pesticides used on food. Pesticide residues in foods that children eat every day often exceed safe levels, according to CU’s report. Chlorpyrifos (Dursban), a member of the nerve-damaging organophosphate family of insecticides, was often detected at unsafe levels in produce in USDA tests. All in all, CU found that about 20 pesticides, each used on a handful of foods kids eat a lot of, account for over 95 percent of their dietary risk.
Baby food companies have made great strides in reducing pesticides from their products. "They are using more pesticide-free fruits and vegetables in baby foods," Dr. Solomon says. And, today, there are a number of certified organic baby foods, such as Earth’s Best, Gerber Tender Harvest and The Well-Fed Baby, on the market.
Heavy Metals
As the result of industrial pollution, heavy metals are more likely to be a part of our diet these days. Pregnant women, babies and young children are at greatest risk from mercury, which can cause brain damage, by eating tuna and other fish. Mercury in air emissions from coal-fired power plants, incinerators and factories is deposited in waterways. There, it is converted by bacteria into methylmercury, a more toxic form easily absorbed by fish. Mercury levels are highest in large and predatory fish, such as tuna, shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, especially the larger ones.
Even at low doses, mercury can damage the developing brain, resulting in attention deficits, impaired memory and language abilities, and loss of motor function. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six percent of American women of childbearing age has mercury levels high enough to damage a fetus.
Like mercury, arsenic, cadmium and chromium can enter the food chain through industrial pollution, though the level of food contamination is not as significant a concern.
Image Courtesy of Savannah's Grandfather.
