Pesticides in the Diets of infants and Children

Pubhc concerns about pesticides in the diet of infants and children resulted in an expert committee convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences which devoted four years to the review of all available data. A consensus report was issued in 1993 (80). A number of recommendations for further work to more precisely define what constitutes the diet of infants and children were made. No risk could be estimated. The residue data reviewed by the panel were mainly from monitoring studies conducted by the PDA using multiresidue methods to analyze fresh produce and market basket samples collected from various geographic areas (81,82). These and other rehable scientific studies have demonstrated that relatively few food samples contain detectable residues. Most residues are far below estabhshed tolerances which are set above the maximum residue found in treated raw agricultural... 

Pesticides in the Diet of Infants and Children, Report of Board on Agriculture and Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on Life Sciences, U.S. National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1993, 386 pp. 

Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washiagton, D.C., 1993. 

NRC. 1993. National Research Council. Pesticides in the diets of infants and children. Washington, DC National Academy Press. 

TEFs were also used by the NRC Committee on Pesticides in the Diet of Infants and Children to estimate the aggregate risk to children from dietary exposure to a mixture of pesticides (NRC 1993). 

The importance of timing in making judgments about potential hazards from chemicals was underscored by publication in 1993 of the landmark National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children (NAS, 1993). The NAS report found both quantitative and qualitative differences in the toxicity of pesticides between children and adults. The report noted special windows of vulnerability - brief periods early in development when exposure to a toxicant can permanently alter the structure or function of an organ system (NAS, 1993). 

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