{"id":47181,"date":"2019-06-17T00:02:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T22:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edu.danwatch.dk\/undersoegelse\/on-your-dinner-plate-and-in-your-body-the-most-dangerous-pesticide-youve-never-heard-of\/"},"modified":"2019-08-05T22:20:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T20:20:38","slug":"on-your-dinner-plate-and-in-your-body-the-most-dangerous-pesticide-youve-never-heard-of","status":"publish","type":"undersgelse","link":"https:\/\/edu.danwatch.dk\/en\/undersoegelse\/on-your-dinner-plate-and-in-your-body-the-most-dangerous-pesticide-youve-never-heard-of\/","title":{"rendered":"On your dinner plate and in your body: the most dangerous pesticide you\u2019ve never heard of"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A Danwatch investigation<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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On your dinner plate and in your body: the most dangerous pesticide you\u2019ve never heard of<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA child\u2019s risk of brain damage increases if its mother had been exposed to the pesticide by living nearby sprayed fields, a recent study in California finds\u200b.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The name is chlorpyrifos. Here is why the chemical and its risks are almost unknown to the public.<\/p>

Chlorpyrifos kills insects on growing vegetables and fruit.<\/p>

Thomas Backhaus, professor for ecotoxicology and environmental science at the University of Gothenburg, says that the substance took a long time to be recognised as one of the \u201dnasty\u201d ones.<\/p>

\u201dIn comparison with glyphosate, the active substance in Roundup, chlorpyrifos has been flying under the radar. When we talk of herbicides like glyphosate that kill weed humans can cope because we don\u2019t have chlorophyll and don\u2019t get directly affected. When we talk about insecticides, you have the problem that they affect all developing animals, including humans,\u201d he says.<\/p>

Thomas Backhaus\u2019 concerns are well known in academic circles and shared by other researchers. Philippe Grandjean, professor in environmental medicine at the University of Southern Denmark and Harvard School of Public Health in the USA, notes that brain damages connected to chlorpyrifos have been found at the lowest detectable dose.<\/p>

\u201dThat means by definition that you can\u2019t define a dose tolerable for consumption \u2013 that dose must be zero,\u201d he says.<\/p>

The poisonous effect of chlorpyrifos on insects is not disputed. The unresolved question is to what extent the usage of chlorpyrifos is dangerous to all living organisms like fish in nearby waters or farm workers in the fields, or to anybody eating the treated products.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The spread<\/h4>

Tests of food samples in all EU-countries in 2016 show chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl in 5,5 percent of the 76,200 samples, as recorded by EU-institution EFSA (European Food Safety Agency). If we look only on randomly sampled unprocessed plant based food products in EU, the percentage is 6,2 according to Pesticide Action Network Europe.<\/p>

In the samples recorded by EFSA 374 contained chlorpyrifos or chlorpyrifos-methyl above the Maixmal Residue Limit (MRL).<\/p>

However environmental scientists believe residue levels for chlorpyrifos should be zero.<\/p>

In 2013 Swedish researchers reported findings<\/a> of chlorpyrifos and other pesticides in urine from middle-aged women, a group with a high intake of fruits and vegetables. Chlorpyrifos has never been registered for agricultural use in Sweden. In countries where the use of chlorpyrifos is banned the pesticide never the less reaches consumers through the free movement of goods on the internal market.<\/p>

In 2016 studies<\/a> for the Danish Ministry of Environment found chlorpyrifos in the urine from nine out of ten children and their mothers. The researchers suggested a possible connection between chlorpyrifos and development of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).<\/p>

In Wallonia, the French speaking part of Belgium, the Public Service Scientific Institutein 2018 found residues<\/a> of chlorpyrifos in 100 percent of urine samples from 258 schoolchildren aged 9-12.<\/p>

A recent study<\/a> in California connect autism and early brain damage in children with prenatal and infant exposure of chlorpyrifos. A child\u2019s risk of brain damage increases if its mother had been exposed to the pesticide by living nearby sprayed fields, the study found.<\/p>

The Californian study published in March 2019 has triggered a ban of chlorpyrifos in the US\u2019 largest agricultural state. Five other US-states; Hawaii, Oregon, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have announced or decided similar bans.<\/p>

On a federal level a ban on chlorpyrifos has been blocked by the Trump administration since 2017. In April 2019 a court ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> to decide by mid-July if it will permanently ban the chemical.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe producers\u2019 role is obvious and well known to the scientific community. The present EU-assessment of chlorpyrifos is to a large extent based on hundreds of studies financed and submitted by Dow\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Axel\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAxel Mie<\/span>Associate professor at Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Science and Education Stockholm<\/span><\/cite>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The European confusion<\/h4>

In Europe the scientific debate over chlorpyrifos is hardly known outside expert circles and the decision process about allowing or banning pesticides is difficult to track and to follow.<\/p>

EU countries follow common decisions on whether to approve a substance like chlorpyrifos or not. Chlorpyrifos has been approved on an EU-level since 2006 while decisions to allow products with the active substance, and the use of them, are up to the member states.<\/p>

Eight member states have banned, or never authorised the use of chlorpyrifos products: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden. United Kingdom banned the use of chlorpyrifos with one exception in 2016. Chlorpyrios is not authorised in Norway, nor in Iceland. The Swiss government decided to withdraw permissions for 12 chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl products 12 June, according to newspaper Tagblatt.<\/p>

As goods within the EU are supposed to move freely across national borders treated food gets spread around. That\u2019s why consumers might find vegetables and fruit treated with chlorpyrifos in their grocery stores even if such treatment has never been allowed in the country.<\/p>

A pan-European alert system has been set up for national authorities to notify other authorities on findings of hazardous food. These alerts often come after suspicious products have been sold \u2013 and consumed.<\/p>

How companies have a say<\/h4>

Evaluation of possible health and environmental hazards are primarily based on studies paid for by the producers. In the case of chlorpyrifos the main producer has been Dow Chemicals, now Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division of DowDuPont. Corteva Agriscience turned into a standalone company 1 June 2019.<\/p>

\u201dThe producers\u2019 role is obvious and well known to the scientific community. The present EU-assessment of chlorpyrifos is to a large extent based on hundreds of studies financed and submitted by Dow,\u201d says Axel Mie, associate professor at Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Science and Education Stockholm.<\/p>

With colleagues Christina Rud\u00e9n and Philippe Grandjean, Axel Mie has initiated a scientific debate. The three environmental scientists claim that data from Dow Chemicals\u2019 own research back in 2000 actually showed that chlorpyrifos has an impact of the development of cerebellum (\u201dlittle brain\u201d) in rats. These findings<\/a> had however not been recorded in the conclusions filed to the EU-authorities.<\/p>

Scientists behind the criticised studies reject these claims. They argue<\/a> the loss of brain weight in rats can be explained by the brains\u2019 fixation in formaldehyde before being measured, and that no pesticide control product has been more thoroughly evaluated.<\/p>

In the debate published by scientific journal Environmental Health, where Philippe Grandjean is one of the editors-in-chief, the defenders of chlorpyrifos first stated they had no competing interests. In a correction<\/a> posted in May 2019, they declared that at the time of their submission to the journal, they were employed by Dow Chemicals, the primary registrant and manufacturer of chlorpyrifos.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201dMore than five decades of experience\u201d<\/h4>

We have asked Corteva Agriscience for comments on the allegations above specified in the following questions:<\/p>