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The dirty dozen: What’s poisoning your blood?

  • Reporter- Helena Wellings
  • Broadcast: February 02, 2008

Fresh fruit from your local super-market and fruit stores are likely to contain potentially harmful doses of chemicals - including one that is banned.

Australia is generally seen as having the world’s highest-quality produce but with the continuing appeal of organics, just how artificial are commercial typical vegetables and fruits?

“There is a poor practise on pesticides going on out there - folks are using too much, and the effects of pesticides are obvious, either through being too enthusiastic or poor training” Choice magazine’s Christopher Zin said.

There are 12 different fruit and vegetables that most likely contain pesticides.

Referred to as as the dirty dozen, they are strawberries, plums, peaches, apples, celery, cherries, grapes, bell peppers, potatoes, spinach, raspberries and nectarines.

Christopher Zinn, from consumer magazine Choice, said of 27 samples of strawberries tested, three had higher than recommended MAX residue limits.

“The latest test results show that typical delicious strawberries as having far greater pesticide residue than any of the other dozen, some being laced with banned chemicals,” he said.

Of the conventionally grown strawberries tested bought from Coles, Woolworths/Safeway and independent fruit shops, a shocking eleven per cent contained pesticide residues above the legal limit; 18 out of 28 samples, or 64 per cent, had residues of more than 1 pesticide; and 4 had 4 different pesticides.

“Strawberries- which you eat the skin of, they do tend to have a higher residue of pesticide on them,” Zinn said.

Jo Immig, of National Toxics Network, said young children especially are at a high category of risk from even low levels of pesticides.

And although no direct evidence, there’s growing proof of links to cancer, Parkinson’s disease and dyslexia.

“The Choice results should alarm consumers. It is very frightening to find out that the everyday fruits and vegetables
we’re eating actually contain pesticide residues,” she said.

“I believe that regular ingesting of these fruits and vege’s from these shops is a form of slow poisoning.

“It’s been measured in our blood samples and also in our breast milk samples.”

Christopher Zin said the tests found the potentially deadly pesticide Endosulfan-beta on some strawberries.

The pesticidee Endosulphin belongs to the class of chemicals such as DDT. They are organochlorines and they build up in our bodies and our tissues and that chemical is being looked at globally for global phase-out.

Endosulphin is banned for use on strawberries for good reason - it accumulates in our tissues and stays permanently.

“It’s no excuse for a government allowing high residues in our produce or allowing those sorts of pesticides that cause residues in food,” Immig said.

The majority of conventionally grown vegetables and fruit are given fertilisers and chemicals to aid their endurance.

Today, About 300 different chemicals are permitted but they must comply with the legal Maximum Residue Limits, MRLs, set by our watchdog, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

The Trouble is, it stopped testing more than 3 years ago.

Martin Clark, of the Australian Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Industries, said consumer companies are calling for a detailed national testing program.

“At present, testing is left to some state governments under their individual laws, but the types of tests are limited and testing isn’t regular,” he said.

“We test produce from all the central markets from around the country but we take samples every week or every two weeks.”

He said testing for pesticides is adequate. The ACFV last year tested almost 4600 veges and fruits for more than one-hundred chemicals.

The verdict - 80 samples had pesticide remenants exceeding the legal limits, by up to 15 per cent.

And 107 samples contained residues of pesticides not allowed on fruit and vegetables. Overall, 3.5 per cent failed the tests.

“It’s certainly a concern. It is certainly something that the industry will address,” Clark said

“The residues should not be above the MRL, it is a legislative requirement.”

So where does all this leave you when next you buy your fruit and vegetable?

“You need to know what fruit and vegetables tend to have the higher pesticide remenants. Then you can take the steps to either switch and experience organic food benefits or wash, peel, or prepare them to reduce exposure,” Christopher Zin claims.