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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Eat organic, cancer panel urges
  • Date: Fri, 07 May 2010 10:59:29 -0600


Eat organic, cancer panel urges
May 6, 2010
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/05/06/eat-organic-cancel-panel-urges/

A government report claims that the way Americans farm could be putting the
public at risk for cancer and recommends people eat more organic products.

The study was issued today by the President’s Cancer Panel and is a look at
the potential risks from the environment. The cancer panel has two members –
the third seat is vacant – and both were appointees of President George W.
Bush.

The study includes a chapter on agriculture and goes into a number of
potential health hazards, including from pesticides such as the herbicide
atrazine that’s used on corn fields but also from nitrogen fertilizers and
veterinary pharmaceuticals. Fertilizer may increase cancer risk through the
breakdown of the nitrogen during digestion, the study said. Nitrogen from
fields seeps below ground and into drinking water supplies.

Pesticide makers are used to defending their products. The Environmental
Protection Agency is currently taking another look at the possible health
risks of atrazine, a product of Syngenta, (The EPA had previously concluded
that atrazine was safe.)

But The Fertilizer Institute, the trade group that represents fertilizer
manufacturers, expressed surprised at the report.

“We are unaware of any scientific information that warrants fertilizers’
mention in this report, when in fact the nutrients found in fertilizers are
required by all living organisms,” the group said.

The group said that there is evidence that exposure to nitrates actually
enhances the nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables. The report says
that the antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables may protect a person
from getting cancer from the nitrates.

The study recommends consumers buy food grown without the use of pesticides
or chemical fertilizers and to wash conventionally grown produce to remove
residues. The panel also recommends eating “free-range” meat produced without
antibiotics and growth hormones. (Even organic food is produced with the use
of pesticides, though they are not the synthetic versions cited in the study.)

Reaction to the report from cancer organizations was mixed, according to USA
Today. The American Cancer Society said the report was unbalanced, but the
president of the Breast Cancer Fund, an environmental advocacy group, called
the report was “a watershed that could transform federal policy not just on
cancer, but on chemicals.”

Get the report here: PCPReport
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/PCPReport.pdf





  • [Livingontheland] Eat organic, cancer panel urges, Tradingpost, 05/07/2010

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