WASHINGTON — Armed with a new report which says that current practices place children at risk of overexposure to agricultural pesticides, lawmakers have begun debating two proposals to overhaul the Environmental Protection Agency's tolerance standards.
Both bills seek to give the EPA workable pesticide standards. Laws passed as early as the 1950s set tolerance levels for pesticides on processed foods at zero. But modern equipment can detect residues that previously could not be detected, thus making many processed foods in violation of the older laws.
At a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the report by the National Academy of Science "gives strong support" to legislation that he and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) introduced last February.
The Kennedy-Waxman bill would prohibit the sale of foods with pesticide residues unless the health risk from those residues is "negligible" over a person's lifetime. According to the study, most health risks from pesticide exposure, including cancer and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's Disease, accumulate over a lifetime of exposure and often develop decades after initial contact.
The second measure was introduced by Rep. Richard H. Lehman (D-North Fork). He told the committee that he believes his food quality bill is better because it gives the EPA "the flexibility needed" to adjust tolerance standards as technology for detecting pesticide residue improves.
The report, "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children," was produced by a team of scientists and doctors appointed by the National Academy of Sciences. The study, commissioned by Congress, examines the policies of federal agencies, including the EPA, in regulating pesticides in foods consumed by infants and children.
The report found that current EPA policies do not adequately account for the effects of toxic pesticides on children, which are more pronounced than on adults.
Children often suffer greater risk of exposure to pesticide residues because they consume more food per unit of body weight than adults, the study said, and far fewer types of foods than adults. Further, because children's organs and nervous and immune systems are still developing, they may be more susceptible to damage.
