PAN UK has produced a new updated poster illustrating how much of our food is contaminated with pesticides. For example, 93% of the (non-organic) oranges in one study had residues, and 78% of apples. Even staple foods, such as bread, have traces of toxins. These are not occasional findings: they are routine. The health effects of chronic exposures to these chemicals can be serious: disorders found in studies to be associated with pesticides include Parkinson’s disease, cancer, suppression of endocrine function, kidney damage and neurobehavioural deficits in children. The poster displays current PAN UK campaign targets, and easy-to-understand explanations of key issues. It is supported and designed by The Sheepdrove Trust.  References to the poster are below.

The poster is available to download as a pdf or hard copies are available: for A3 copies send an A4 stamped addressed envelope to PAN UK, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4JX; for an A2 copy we suggest a donation of £5 or £10 for up to five copies and £1 for each additional copy. 

References to Poster facts and figures:
Percentage of individual produce samples containing residues:

Soft citrus, lettuce, wheat grain, potatoes, farmed fish, apples, strawberries and bread obtained by averaging over all data in the Pesticide Residues Monitoring Reports for 2003 and first three quarters of 2004:
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/prc.asp?id=959

Chocolate, from industry data for 2004 published by the Pesticides Residues Committee
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/uploadedfiles/Web_Assets/PRC/2004_industry_data.pdf

Crisps, from industry data for 2002 (not 2004 as on the poster) published by the Pesticides Residues Committee
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/uploadedfiles/Web_Assets/PRC/PRC_industrydata2002a.pdf

Endocrine Disruption PAN UK list of lists, based on EU category 1 (Evidence of endocrine disruption); there are also 49 category 2 pesticides (Potential for endocrine disruption)
http://www.pan-uk.org/Publications/briefing/list%20of%20lists%202005.pdf

Aldicarb

Commonly used on potatoes:
Weight of active substance applied = 29,679 kg, Pesticide Usage Survey http://pusstats.csl.gov.uk/index.cfm

One of the most toxic pesticides: subject to Poisons Rules 1982 and Poisons Act 1972; Toxicity class: WHO (a.i.) Ia; EPA (formulation) I.

Less than 1 gram enough to  kill a dog: 
The acute LD50 for rats is 0.93 mg/kg - this is the amount ingested per kg of body weight to kill half a test population of rats (The Pesticide Manual 2003). Assuming an average dog weighs 5kg a dose of  4.65 mg will kill one in two dogs.

Sulphuric acid
Latest figures (2004) suggest this has reduced to 10,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid are used each year on potatoes http://pusstats.csl.gov.uk/index.cfm

Toxic Water
European Environment Agency, Europe’s Water, Topic Report 1/2003, p.71: Pesticide and metal contamination of drinking water supplies identified as a problem in many European countries. Document [PDF 8614 KB]

Lindane has been found in rainwater in Spain: 
Pesticides in Water: Costs to health and the environment, PAN UK briefing 1,  October 2000, page 3. Document [PDF 188 KB]

31,000 tonnes of pesticides are sprayed on UK land every year: Pesticide Usage Survey . http://pusstats.csl.gov.uk/index.cfm

Long-term effects of regular exposure to pesticides ... 772,000 new cases of disease each year
Public Health Impact of Pesticides Used in Agriculture, WHO in collaboration with UN Environment Programme, WHO, Geneva, 1990.

Safety testing of pesticides assume health adults. No testing is done on  vulnerable groups: foetuses, babies, adolescents, old and infirm, when hormonal systems are rapidly changing
Toxicology is based on the old idea that 'dose makes the poison'. New science is showing that the timing of exposure makes the poison as much or more than the dose.  We enter windows of vulnerability over our life span. The current model of regulation does not sufficiently protect embryonic and foetal life, the very young, teenagers and the elderly. Sandra Steingraber, PAN UK Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture, reported in Pesticides news 63, March 2004, and based on 'Having Faith', the Perseus Press, Oxford, 2001. Document [PDF 346 KB]

Children's exposures to pesticides
S. Kegley, A. Katten, M. Moses, Secondhand pesticides: airborne pesticide drift in California, PAN North America, Californian Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Pesticide Education Center, 2003.

Symptoms of chronic toxicity
The PEGs Guide to Pesticides Exposure, Poster, 1996

150 pesticides identified as potential human carcinogens
PAN UK, The Lists of lists, http://www.pan-uk.org/Publications/briefing/list%20of%20lists%202005.pdf
U.S. EPA, Office of Pesticide Programs List of Chemicals Evaluated for Carcinogenic Potential

One teaspoon of agricultural pesticide poured down the drain, could contaminate the drinking water of 200’000 people for a day
1 teaspoon = 5 grammes of pesticide. This diluted in 400,000 litres (the water supply consumed by 200,000 people a day based on intake of 2 litres per person) results in a concentration of 125 times the EC Drinking Water standard.

• EC Drinking Water Directive standard is 0.1 μg/l

Agricultural workers' risk
An estimated 25 million agricultural workers may suffer at least one incident of pesticide poisoning each year J. Jeyaratnam. Acute pesticide poisoning: a major global health problem. World Health Statistics Quarterly, 1990 43(3):139-44.
In Brazil alone, the Ministry of Health suggests there are 300,000 poisonings a year and 5,000 deaths  Bensusan NR, Agrotóxicos: situação  extremamente grave pode piorar ainda mais, Notícias Sócioambientais, Brazil, 16 November 2000 www.socioambiental.org/website/noticias/brasil/20001116a.htm

While more than 80 percent of pesticides are applied in developed countries, 99 percent of all poisoning cases occur in developing countries where regulatory, health and education systems are weakest FAO, press release, New Code on Pesticides Adopted, 4 November 2002.

Banned  
The full list of banned and non-authorised pesticides under various Council Directives are given in PAN UK List of Lists:
http://www.pan-uk.org/Publications/briefing/list%20of%20lists%202005.pdf
. 
Frogs change sex with atrazine
Atrazine water menace, Pesticides News 58, December 2002, page 19, http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Issue/pn58/pn58p19.htm;

From silent spring to silent night: endocrine disruption, amphibian declines and environmental justice, Pesticides News 70, December 2005 p 12

Cocktail effect 
PAN 2002, Cocktail of denial, Pesticide News 58, p. 18 

Axelrad J. et al. 2002, Interactions between pesticides and components of pesticide formulations in an in vitro neurotoxicity test, Toxicology 173, 259-268

Porter W.P et al 1999, Endocrine, immune and behavioural effects of Aldicarb (carbamate), Atrazine (triazine) and nitrate (fertilizer) mixtures at groundwater concentrations, Toxicology and Industrial Health vol. 15 (1-2), pp. 133-50.

Roundup ... very low doses of glyphosate were toxic on either human embryonic cells, foetal cells or placental cells
Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, Glyphosate disruption of human hormones, Pesticides News No. 63, March 2003, page 4 http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Issue/pn63/pn63p4.htm

Seals and cod: residues
La Roe E.T. et al.1995, Our living resources, National Biological Service, Washington D.C.

DDT found in 67% samples of  feta cheese
Annual report of the Working Party on Pesticide Residues 1999, page 25, (now Pesticide Residues Committee), published 2000.

The Ontario College of Family Physicians
www.ocfp.on.ca

The British Medical Association '... there is no epidemiological evidence available for many pesticides ...
The BMA Guide to Pesticides, Chemicals and Health, 1990, 1992, British Medical Association, page 172.

Parkinson’s disease
Pesticides and Parkinson’s disease – a review. MRC Institute for Environment and Health, University of Leicester, Defra Final Report PS2601, 2003