What does the P stand for in EPA?

(Originally posted August 3, 2006)

If any of you caught my comment on Erin’s question about organics, you may have been holding your breath for my full blog post on the latest collision between science and special interest money. And you may have guessed it...yes, yes, it’s true. Our health and the health of our children and unborn babies has been sold out again.

The Environmental Protection Agency was charged ten years ago by the Food Quality Protection Act to find out if these more than 200 chemicals we were using on fruit, vegetables and grains in countless combinations and sequences had any effect on the health of people, especially children and pregnant women. Deadline: August 3, 2006. I bet some of you thought they had to be tested before they were used! Ahhhh, I guess it’s not only that crazy alternative medicine stuff that is "unregulated."

The official position of the EPA, now that it is ten years later, is that their work is done here, nothing to see, please go about your business feeding your family our marvelous bounty.

Now, I know I may have a, shall we say, mild distrust of the chemical industrial complex. But, I am not a lone voice saying...huh?

There is a shocking and beautifully written letter (pdf) from the local presidents of EPA unions representing scientists and risk managers that say that approving some of these chemicals, including neurotoxins banned in several European countries, would “betray the public trust by violating the intention of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) to protect the Nation’s infants, children, and susceptible population”. The letter implores the EPA to use “sound science” and insists there is “compelling information that these neurotoxic pesticides damage the developing nervous system of fetuses, infants and children (an effect known as “developmental neurotoxicity”).

There are some tinfoil hat inspiring studies on pesticides found in umbilical cord samples and children’s bloodstreams. Proudmama, one of my favorite new posters, mentions one of them on that thread, and she links to a good Consumer Reports articleon the subject.

Top Tin Vol. 1: Fruits and Veggies

Welcome to the first installment of a very exciting ongoing series here atMom's Tinfoil Hat. Drum roll please.....lists! No, wait, don't click away, it's more exciting than that. I will be putting together "Top Tin" lists on various scary plots by mad scientists, the worst food additives, and other exciting stuff.

If I were more organized, I would do this every Friday, or every second Tuesday, but I don't roll like that. When the mood strikes me, when the list gets complete enough, when I have nothing else to blog about, and when the little voices tell me you need it the most, a new "Top Tin" list will appear on this blog, full of tinfoil hat inspiring villains, or websites to research whatever is worrying you at the moment.

Today's "Top Tin" is a double feature. And just to show you how much I think outside the box, each list has a dozen items. (I bet you were expecting ten. I am full of excitement, see?)

One of my "Top Tin" organizations, when that list comes up, will definitely be The Environmental Working Group. When I go to their website, I feel like the mothership is calling me home. They assembled a pesticide report card ranking the fruits and vegetables which have the highest and lowest amounts of pesticide residues. These amounts are averaged from produce washed and prepared for typical eating, and "based on an analysis of over 100,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 1992 - 2001 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration."

I don't know about you, but my local grocery store does not contain a complete selection of organic produce, although it has definitely been getting better. There are other options for me to get organic items, but not everyone has these resources in their area, or can always afford to go organic. It helps to be able to rank the chemicals my children, the environment, and the agricultural workers are exposed to based on my produce choices.

The "Dirty Dozen" the fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues:

Apples

Bell peppers

Celery

Cherries

Grapes (imported)

Nectarines

Peaches

Pears

Potatoes

Red Raspberries

Spinach

Strawberries

The "Not-so-dirty Dozen" the fruits and vegetables with the cleanest scores:

Asparagus

Avocados

Bananas

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Corn (sweet)

Kiwi

Mangos

Onions

Papaya

Pineapples

Peas (sweet)

DEET - repellant or repugnant?

I walked out to my car yesterday, and began to think the zealots warning of the coming apocalypse might be onto something. Insects were swarming around my car, my face, and my kids. The end of times? No, the end of spring.

Summer is in full force here at the edge of the Everglades. Our amazing fauna around our canal front house is increasing exponentially. With summer comes thick gnat storms like the one I was surrounded by yesterday, swarms of dragonflies, lovely monarch butterflies, and of course.....mosquitoes.

My mind started racing. What sort of pestilence control options did we have? Almost all mosquito repellants and bug sprays are full of unpronounceable compounds, with skull and crossbones warnings on the label. "Keep out of reach of children!" But, my children are within reach of these bugs! Visions of the movie Naked Lunch ran through my head. I didn't want my kids inhaling and absorbing these mysterious chemicals and getting a Kafkaesque high, or worse.

But here lies a major dilemma of a true paranoiac. What about the diseases these bugs can carry, and possibly inject into my children? A friend of mine had a mysterious ailment that landed her in the hospital a few years ago. Even after a barrage of tests including a spinal tap, she had no diagnosis for her unusual symptoms. Tinfoil hat firmly on my head, I insisted it was West Nile Virus, which they did not screen her for. Anorexia, headache, fever, fatigue? I knew the symptoms...The news had the first detected case a few weeks later, but I knew better.

So, what is worse? Chemical insect repellants or West Nile Virus? Are there natural repellants that work? I have heard of cinnamon and eucalyptus based ones that have been tested against DEET and work, but I don't know if they are marketed, or what would be comparable. Citronella does not cut it in these studies.

Anyone know where to find these? Do we have to stay inside all summer?