While manufacturers contend that fear of lawsuits keeps them honest, this argument hardly holds water for long term, chronic consequences of pesticide exposure such as cancer or decreased sperm counts, which show up years after exposure. The federal government prohibits use of pesticides known to cause cancer. Four frequently used pesticides have been associated with increased risk of cancer for exposed humans in epidemiological studies. 190 million pounds of these four pesticides are used annually in the U.S., including 120 million household applications every year. The EPA takes the necessary precautions to ensure pesticide levels are safe for infants and children.
Children consume more calories of food.
Current testing protocols do not, for the most part, adequately address the toxicity and metabolism of pesticides in neonates and adolescent animals or the effects of exposure during early developmental stages and their sequelae in later life. The Council recommended a 10-fold additional safety factor in setting pesticide tolerances to protect children. The 1996 federal Food Quality Protection Act mandates revision of tolerances to accomplish this, but the process of review is just beginning, and is not required to be completed for ten years. When juice is included in the calculations, the number rises to 143,500 children. Although the 1996 federal Food Quality Protection Act was intended to address this problem, it has not yet been implemented for organophosphates, and complete implementation will take ten years.