From A Wills

A Wills via outbound.mailhop.org	15:43 (32 minutes ago)
to awills

Soil Association “Living Earth” journal.  Winter 2019.  “HOW PESTICIDE MIXTURES MAY BE HARMING HUMAN HEALTH & THE ENVIRONMENT”

Multiple pesticides are found in our food & environment, forming chemical “cocktails.”   Our new report “The Cocktail Effect” shows around a quarter of all food, & over a third of fruit & veg eaten in UK contain pesticide cocktails.  Some food items contain traces of up to 14 different pesticides.  Mixtures of as many at 10 different chemicals were found in UK soil & water.  This has potential to affect wildlife, such as birds & bees.  Because of the overuse of pesticides in UK agriculture, we are constantly exposed to a wide array of different chemicals which interact to become more toxic.  Yet the authorities continue to assess the safety of just one pesticide at a time.  Govt. testing data for 2018 shows residues of 157 different pesticides on food.  63 are known possible/probable carcinogens (cancer-causers).   41 are suspected endocrine disruptors.   Environmental evidence is equally concerning.  67% of soil samples contained pesticide cocktails, as did two thirds of samples from 7 river catchments.  Another study found 43% of bumblebees contained 2 or more pesticides, with up to 7 pesticides in one bumblebee.   The report shows pesticide cocktails can be harmful even when an individual chemical on its own may be at a safe level.   Health effects include impaired liver function, obesity, creation of cancer cells & endocrine system disruption.  Despite being acknowledged as a significant problem 20 years ago, the UK regulatory system fails to monitor, let alone protect us from the cocktail effect.  UK Govts fails to assess or limit the pesticides that our environment & wildlife are exposed to.   The UK Govt has committed to reducing pesticide use, but the support farmers need to make the change isn’t in place.  The Govt urgently needs to support farmers to adopt nature-friendly farming, such as organic. 

(My comment:  authorities ignore the synergistic effect, where chemicals work together to become more powerful.  Officials now state that 1 in 2 people in UK will get cancer during their life, so something is clearly wrong.)

Ann