M8.3 Blog Pesticides

Last night I ate salmon and zucchini with a side of brown rice. Brown rice contains about 16% of Piperonyl butoxide. This pesticide works with bug killers to "increase their effectiveness." It may sound naive of me to say this, but i guess i never really thought about how many pesticides could be found in rice- I found this to be quite shocking. Salmon was not listed on the website, so I chose catfish, which was the only type of seafood listed on the website. Catfish contains 34 pesticide residues- 34!! 61% of DDE, which is basically a breakdown product of DDT, which we all know caused an immense amount of harm!! This make me reflect on just how much our oceans are impacted by the chemicals/pesticides we choose to use. Zucchini also was not listed, so I chose winter squash. Winter squash has 64 pesticide residues! It contains about 22% of Endosulfan sulfate. 

This exercise was truly mind blowing and eye-opening. I just could not believe what i found on the website- it was so shocking to me! In terms of public health, I think more information and education related to this topic should be of high importance, whether that be posting signs in grocery stores or offering workshops at community centers. Also, I think policies should be put in place to determine how close in proximity harmful pesticides can be used for produce and whether some can be used at all. 

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 5, 2018 at 9:04 PM

    try eating organic! it may be more expensive, and not exactly fool proof but it helps you avoid eating pesticides whenever possible!

    ReplyDelete

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