Exposure to pesticides can cause birth defects and childhood cancers, new research in America and Germany has found. It claims that women exposed to agricultural pesticides were more than twice as likely to have children born without one or more limbs. German researchers studied nearly 1,200 children with leukaemia, 200 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and more than 900 with other forms of cancer. They concluded that exposure to pesticides increased chances of developing the disease by around half. They also found that the use of insecticides in the home more than doubled the chance of cancers in children under 15.
The use of pesticides on farms was linked to the occurrence of childhood leukaemia with a 50 per cent increase in diagnoses recorded. Another study, conducted by researchers, mainly from the University of Washington in Seattle, studied 4,500 children born to mothers who worked on farms and found that they had a 2.6 times higher chance of a serious limb defect.
The findings follow a British Government report revealing that 43 per cent of fruit and vegetables in shops show traces of pesticides - a significant increase on last year. David Buffin, of the Pesticide Action Network, said: 'This research underlines the need to seriously reduce pesticide use as much and as soon as possible.'
Another study found that people regularly exposed to pesticides were more prone to mild cognitive dysfunction (MCD), particularly memory loss, in later life. Dutch researchers found that 18 per cent of 838 people exposed to pesticides developed MCD, compared with 5 per cent of the unexposed.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food says that only 1.6 per cent of food tested actually shows traces that are above the legal limits which they call 'ultra-cautious'.
But Sandra Bell, Real Food Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: 'Although [trace] levels of individual pesticides in food are usually low, this is no guarantee of safety.' She said that a 'cocktail effect' of different chemicals together was very worrying. 'We are exposed to a whole mixture of pesticides in our diet, and some people will be more vulnerable than others - especially babies and pregnant women. The Government and retailers must do more to make sure that the food we eat is free of toxic residues.'
Last week Professor Ian Shaw, chairman of the Government's pesticides watchdog, said that parents should feed their children tinned baby food rather than fresh vegetables if they wished to avoid pesticide residues.
Last night a ministry spokesperson said that it required data to prove that any pesticide was safe to the user before authorising it.
