Probabilistic techniques were used to characterize dietary exposure of consumers to pesticides found in twelve commodities implicated as having the greatest potential for pesticide residue contamination by a United States-based environmental advocacy group. Estimates of exposures were derived for the ten most frequently detected pesticide residues on each of the twelve commodities based upon residue findings from the United States Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Data Program. All pesticide exposure estimates were well below established chronic reference doses (RfDs). Only one of the 120 exposure estimates exceeded 1% of the RfD (methamidophos on bell peppers at 2% of the RfD), and only seven exposure estimates (5.8 percent) exceeded 0.1% of the RfD. Three quarters of the pesticide/commodity combinations demonstrated exposure estimates below 0.01% of the RfD (corresponding to exposures one million times below chronic No Observable Adverse Effect Levels from animal toxicology studies), and 40.8% had exposure estimates below 0.001% of the RfD. It is concluded that (1) exposures to the most commonly detected pesticides on the twelve commodities pose negligible risks to consumers, (2) substitution of organic forms of the twelve commodities for conventional forms does not result in any appreciable reduction of consumer risks, and (3) the methodology used by the environmental advocacy group to rank commodities with respect to pesticide risks lacks scientific credibility.
Vitamin A (VA) deficiency causes disability and mortality. Cassava can be crossbred to
improve its β-carotene (BC) content; typical white cassava contains negligible amounts of
BC. However, cassava contains cyanide and its continued consumption may lead to chronic
disability. Our objective was to estimate the risk–benefit of consuming BC-enhanced
cassava to increase VA intake. A total of ten American women were fed white and
BC-enhanced cassava. BC and cyanide data from the feeding study were combined with African
cassava consumption data to model the potential daily BC, VA and cyanide intakes of
African women. If BC-enhanced cassava replaced white cassava in the diets, it could
theoretically meet recommended VA intakes for the following percentages of individuals
from six African countries that consume cassava as a staple crop: Angola (95 %), Central
African Republic (95 %), Congo (about 100 %), Ghana (99 %), Mozambique (99 %) and Nigeria
(92 %). Cyanide intake after minimal preparation of cassava could be thirteen to
thirty-two times the reference dose (RfD), a toxicological exposure reference, but could
be completely removed by extensive soaking. This study demonstrates that consumption of
BC-enhanced cassava, processed to maintain BC and remove cyanide, theoretically increases
VA intakes for African populations and other areas of the world where cassava is a staple
crop.
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