Pesticide Action Network: "Kids & Pesticides Don't Mix"

I don’t like to use the word “organic” because I think it prevents us from understanding the bigger problems of our food supply.

Don’t get me wrong; a lot of the food I eat is organic, since I try to avoid pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified crops.

But since we’ve come to rely on “organic” as a catch-all, many dangers that should be common knowledge aren’t. Follows is a perfect example, relayed via the Pesticide Action Network’s latest e-mail update.

Kids & Pesticides Don’t Mix

This Monday, a study out of Harvard linked low-level, dietary exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OP's) with increased prevalence of ADHD in kids. It was all over the news -- as was the message, "therefore, buy organic."

Here's the angle that didn't get covered: most families cannot access organic food, and children in the families who grow our food face even more exposure to OP's because they live, learn and play near agricultural fields. That's why we are asking EPA to remove these pesticides from the U.S. food supply. Period.

Act Now! Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide. It's a neurotoxin that presents particular dangers to the developing brains and bodies of children -- as do all OP's. That's why chlorpyrifos was banned for non-agricultural uses in 2001. Tell EPA it's high time to finish that job -- ban chlorpyrifos, once and for all.

Although their use is gradually declining, OP pesticides remain the most widely used insecticides in the U.S. They are also among the most toxic, yet rural and farmworker kids in particular face regular exposure to chlorpyrifos because it is still used on many crops including cotton, oranges and almonds.

Safe food and a healthy childhood should be a right, not a privilege. We don't need chemicals like OPs to grow our food -- farmers are growing without them across the country. Tell EPA to take action today to protect rural children from chlorpyrifos by getting it out of our agricultural fields.