Weedkillers in cereals, insecticides in apple juice and a mix of multiple pesticides in spinach and string beans—all in the daily diets of many Americans.
For decades, federal officials have declared tiny traces of these contaminants to be safe. But a new wave of scientific scrutiny is challenging those assertions.
According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) latest report, more than 75 percent of fruits and more than 50 percent of vegetables sampled carried pesticides residues. Even residues of the tightly restricted bug-killing chemical DDT are found in food, along with a range of other pesticides known by scientists to be linked to many illnesses and disease.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb claims that because the residues fall below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tolerances, they pose no risk to consumers.