8.3 Pesticides


Last night I had nopales (cactus), black beans, a salad, corn tortillas and a berry water. According to http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/involved.jsp there was an incredibly high amounts of pesticide residue on my dinner last night. The pesticide residues on my food ranged from 52 found in the lettuce, 86 in the cucumbers, 35 in the tomatoes, 68 in the cilantro, and 21 in frozen berries. These pesticides range from honeybee toxins, developmental and reproductive toxins, neurotoxins, hormone disruptors and carcinogens.  WHAT IN THE WORLD!??


So, what this website was basically letting me know was that I consumed 262 pesticide residues last night. After learning about the active substance residue and how there is a max residue level, I can't help but wonder how it is possible for that many pesticide resides be on 1 vegetable? Why is the Department of Food and Agriculture not doing more for our healthy and safety. Learning that in California alone, 200 million pounds of active pesticide ingredients are applied through the Golden State is nauseating (Shelton, et. al, 2014). From Sacramento Valley to Southern California we are inundated in pesticides no wonder the honey bees are dying .

Buying organic and no supporting the agriculture businesses that poison us is an important first step. However as public health students and professionals, the more we learn the more action we need to take to the steps of Sacramento.

 


Comments

  1. Krissy PamatmatOctober 20, 2017 at 1:29 PM

    Hi Mayra,

    I'm surprised to know that most of the food that you ate contained large amount of pesticide residues. I also thought about the same question. I wonder if the Department of Food and Agriculture is doing anything about the pesticide residues found in our food. I think the agency should check each farm about what pesticide they use. The agency should only allow farmers to use safe and approved pesticides and banned all the harmful pesticides. After learning about the pesticide residues in my food and what it can do to my body, I also started thinking about buying more organic food. If I'm not taking an environmental class, I'm sure I will not be able to know that most of the foods that I eat have pesticide residues. How about other people? How will they know and understand the harmful effects of pesticide residues from their food? I think health agencies and organizations need to educate people and spread educational handouts about pesticides and other harmful chemicals that can harm their health.

    - Krissy

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

9.3 Green Chemistry

Image
Our world, especially, the Pacific Ocean area known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" would  look a lot differently if the 12 principles of green chemistry were applied when plastic was invented. For example, instead of plastic disintegrating into smaller and smaller components and remaining a polymer, it could have been made biodegradable ( P rinciple 10- Design chemicals and products to degrade after use )  so that it does not end up accumulating in the environment. Also, if green chemistry was considered and applied before the bottle was designed and produced, aquatic wildlife would not ingest toxic derivatives of plastic such as PCB and BPA ( Principle 8 Avoid chemical derivatives, Principle 4-Design safer chemicals and products, Principle 3-Design less hazardous chemical syntheses, Principle 2-Maximize atom econom y). The polymer, the smallest unit of plastic is so toxic and harmful to the food chain, that even people that consume fish intoxicated by plastic residues
Read more

10.5 Occupational Safety and Health Org

Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) recently released update guidelines that can be applied to small or medium sized work settings. My work place is the type where OSHA guidelines could be applicable. The goal of the guidelines is to reduce work related injuries and or death, reduce workers' compensation issues, and overall improve the workplace environment for employee and employers. The core elements are management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and assessment, hazard prevention and control, education and training, program evaluation and improvement, and lastly, communication and coordination for host employers, contractors, and staffing agencies. For example, for hazard prevention and control, the benefit for workers is that workers identify what they would consider a type of hazard. Worker's input is highly regarded and seen as essential. This is important, although at my work, we have occupational therapist check our work space to
Read more