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Do pesticides from foods cause harm to humans?

post #1 of 18
3/17/10 at 1:48am
Thread Starter 
Is it at all worth avoiding foods made with pesticides/herbicides?
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post #2 of 18
3/17/10 at 1:53am
I always try to buy food with pesticides and just wash it off because all this guilt ridden advertising of eco-friendly this and organic-that is really getting obnoxious.
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post #3 of 18
3/17/10 at 1:55am
Thread Starter 
but most products are washed before they you buy them (fwiw i still wash my produce). wasn't the concern more so that there are pesticides are incorporated into the food and cannot be washed off?
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post #4 of 18
3/17/10 at 2:56am
Yeah, but not all absorb them that well. My friend had a card in his wallet that had a scale for this. I think something like raspberries or blackberries absorbed the most pesticides.
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post #5 of 18
3/17/10 at 4:08pm
there are important environmental and worker safety issues with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc., but i'm not aware of any documented cases of a consumer being harmed by their presence. others might argue that it's the cumulative effect of years of eating them that does the harm, to which i would reply that they've been in common use since WWII and average life expectancy has increased greatly ....
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post #6 of 18
3/17/10 at 6:29pm
Yes. If I remember correctly there are statistically significant links between pesticides exposure and risk for alzheimers and parkinsons. Search pubmed/google scholar to read more.
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post #7 of 18
3/17/10 at 8:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
there are important environmental and worker safety issues with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc., but i'm not aware of any documented cases of a consumer being harmed by their presence. others might argue that it's the cumulative effect of years of eating them that does the harm, to which i would reply that they've been in common use since WWII and average life expectancy has increased greatly ....

Quote:
Originally Posted by cross22 View Post
Yes. If I remember correctly there are statistically significant links between pesticides exposure and risk for alzheimers and parkinsons. Search pubmed/google scholar to read more.

you guys have to be kidding me. are you salers for pesticides?
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post #8 of 18
3/17/10 at 8:24pm
The amount of "chemicals" you consume every day is probably larger than you think, and in many cases your body has already developed mechanisms of coping with the problems they cause. I don't know what you expect to happen if you eat vegetables that had pesticides used on them... Die 10 years younger than you were going to normally? That's patently ridiculous. There are plenty of people who work in environments where they're exposed to much larger amounts of chemicals than you, who aren't just dropping dead left right and centre. People who work in scientific fields are exposed to more dangerous chemicals than you could imagine, everyday. The reason they don't freak out about it? Because they look at their professors and emeritus faculty, who are 60-70+ and still healthy, and used to do everything 10x more dangerously than they did. Connect the dots, "chemicals" aren't great for you, but in most cases they're not going to kill you.
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post #9 of 18
3/17/10 at 9:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listi View Post
The amount of "chemicals" you consume every day is probably larger than you think, and in many cases your body has already developed mechanisms of coping with the problems they cause.

I don't know what you expect to happen if you eat vegetables that had pesticides used on them... Die 10 years younger than you were going to normally? That's patently ridiculous. There are plenty of people who work in environments where they're exposed to much larger amounts of chemicals than you, who aren't just dropping dead left right and centre. People who work in scientific fields are exposed to more dangerous chemicals than you could imagine, everyday. The reason they don't freak out about it? Because they look at their professors and emeritus faculty, who are 60-70+ and still healthy, and used to do everything 10x more dangerously than they did. Connect the dots, "chemicals" aren't great for you, but in most cases they're not going to kill you.

yup, and beyond that, the idea that organic produce is "chemical-free" is baloney (i just saw someone writing that organic was nothing but "dirt, water and sunshine" ...). Fully a quarter of all of the pesticides used in California last year was copper sulfate ... an organic-approved pesticide and fungicide.
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post #10 of 18
3/18/10 at 7:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listi View Post
in many cases your body has already developed mechanisms of coping with the problems they cause.
did you read lamarck or where does this crap come from? just because the body stores many poisons in fat cells the problem isn't solved ..

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Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
Fully a quarter of all of the pesticides used in California last year was copper sulfate ... an organic-approved pesticide and fungicide.
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Copper sulfate is a strong irritant [16]. The usual routes by which humans can receive toxic exposure to copper sulfate are through eye or skin contact, as well as by inhaling powders and dusts [17]. Skin contact may result in itching or eczema [18]. Eye contact with copper sulfate can cause conjunctivitis, inflammation of the eyelid lining, ulceration, and clouding of the cornea [19] Upon acute oral exposure, copper sulfate turns to be only moderately toxic [20]. According to studies, the lowest dose of copper sulfate that had a toxic impact on humans is 11 mg/kg.[21]. Because of its irritating effect on the gastrointestinal tract, vomiting is automatically triggered in case of the ingestion of copper sulfate. However, if copper sulfate is retained in the stomach, the symptoms can be severe. After 1-12 grams of copper sulfate are swallowed, such poisoning signs may occur as a metallic taste in the mouth, burning pain in the chest, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, discontinued urination, which leads to yellowing of the skin. In case of copper sulfate poisoning, injury to the brain, stomach, liver, kidneys may also occur.
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post #11 of 18
3/18/10 at 3:15pm
..

Edited by cross22 - 7/17/11 at 12:26pm
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post #12 of 18
3/18/10 at 6:30pm
Since when were lead and asbestos present in pesticides And if you've read the warning labels on chemicals I splash all around my hands and simply ignore, you'd think I'd be dead right now.
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post #13 of 18
3/18/10 at 6:47pm
My methodologically-sound research has preliminarily found a statistically significant link between pesticides and fucking delicious produce.
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post #14 of 18
3/18/10 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listi View Post
And if you've read the warning labels on chemicals I splash all around my hands and simply ignore, you'd think I'd be dead right now.

there is a basic rule of toxicology that says: The dose makes the poison. In other words, there are deadly compounds that in small amounts won't affect you at all. And there are relatively benign compounds that given sufficient volume can kill you. A perfect example is celery, which naturally contains arsenic. Of course, you'd have to eat a WHOLE lot of celery in order to reach that threshold.
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post #15 of 18
3/18/10 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by coldarchon View Post
did you read lamarck or where does this crap come from? just because the body stores many poisons in fat cells the problem isn't solved[/url]
Ah, no, I've never read any Lamarck. I'm not talking about storing toxic substances in fat cells. I hate biology, but I'm taking a biological chemistry course at the moment that is pretty interesting. It is VERY fundamental. But every class we do asides that are less about the electronic structures in protein and more general information. Your body produces tons of molecules and enzymes which are "sacrificial" which will seek out dangerous materials (such as radicals) and deactivate them. I'm pretty sure I've seen you post about stuff like this before archon, and iirc, you seem to think human bodies are built of dust that will crumble at the slightest disturbance. This is certainly not the case. Heavy metals are a different story altogether, and should be avoided like the plague.
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