Transcript Environmental Issues in Food Science

Environmental Issues in
Food Science
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Environmental Regulation
Silent Spring (Rachel
Carson)
 Early regulation
 NEPA
Clean Water
 Clean Air
 Hazardous Waste
 Food Quality Protection Act
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Environmental Regulation and Foods
Raw Product Contaminants
 Environmental Protection Agency
 Pesticides
 Organic Foods
 Food Sanitation
 Food Production and Waste
Disposal
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Relevant Inquiry:
Can we grow enough food without
using pesticides or other
environmental contaminants?
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Global Food Supplies
Current global food supply, evenly
distributed, is estimated to be sufficient
for an adequate diet for the world’s nearly
six billion people
 Earth’s carrying capacity is finite
 Animal agriculture provides, in the form
of meat, milk, and eggs, approximately
one-sixth of all human food energy
and more than one-third of human food
protein
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Global Food Supplies
Food demand will rise significantly
 Expanding populations will make a
doubling of food output imperative in the
next 30 years
 250,000 people added to population each
day
 1.2. billion hectares - equivalent to
combined area of China and India, have
been impaired as a consequence of
human activity
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Global Food Supplies
 Erosion
and overuse of agricultural
land are dramatically increasing water
shortages in densely populated
regions
 17 million hectares of forests,
converted to unsustainable
agricultural purposes
 Last remaining food reservoir, is
nearing exhaustion. Fish catches in
international waters have reached
their limits
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Global Food Supplies
 Feed
grains = grains fed to
animals as opposed to grain directly
consumed by humans
 Animals produce food from large
quantities of plant materials that
humans cannot eat
 Nutritional value of animal products
high at low intakes
 Soylent Green?
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Raw Product Contaminants
 Pesticides
– Atrazine
 Metals
– Lead, Mercury
 Chemical
Contaminants
– Dioxins, PCBs
 Microbiological
Contaminants
– Bacteria, Fungi, Molds
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 Responsible
for a number of
activities that contribute to food
security within the United States
 Food safety, water quality, and
pesticide applicator training
 Primary contribution to food security
is through its program to regulate
the use of pesticide
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 Responsible
for registration of new
pesticides before they can be
marketed and the re-registration of
older pesticides to ensure that they
meet current scientific standards
 1996, President Clinton signed Food
Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of
1996
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Food Quality and Protection Act 1966
 Amended
the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA) and the Federal Food Drug,
and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)
 Changed the way EPA regulates
pesticides.
 Proposed new safety standard
“reasonable certainty of no harm”
that must be applied to all pesticides
used on food
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FQPA
EPA must review the safety of all existing
tolerances (maximum residue limits) that
were in effect when FQPA was passed.
 Review of all existing uses of a
pesticide when a new use is proposed
 Highest priority place on tolerance
reassessment on pesticides that appear to
pose the greatest risk
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FQPA
 By
August 1999, EPA must reassess
33 percent of existing tolerances
 Pesticides that were not reassessed
by August 1999 will be completed by
2002
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Raw Products and Pesticides
Agriculture is the major user of
pesticides
 75% of use by volume
 Industrial, commercial, and
governmental users = 18%
 Home and garden users = 7%
 Herbicides for weed control account for
the largest volume of agricultural
pesticide use (59%), primarily on corn
and soybeans
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Raw Products and Pesticides
 smaller
quantities of other pesticides
are used in agriculture
– fungicides
– rodenticides
– fumigants
– Sterilants
 FIFRA
prohibits sale of any pesticide
in the United States unless it is
registered
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Pesticide Exports
 440
million pounds of pesticides
were exported
 29% of all domestic pesticide
production and 10% of world
consumption
 valued at approximately $2 billion
 quarter of U.S. pesticide exports
involve unregistered pesticides
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Pesticides Imports
United States cannot control the use of
unregistered pesticides in other countries
 FDCA prohibits food imports with residues
of unregistered pesticides, or pesticides
that exceed tolerances
 United States imports approximately 15%
of total domestic consumption of
agricultural products
 FDA physically samples only about 2% of
all imports for pesticide residue levels
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Pesticide Residues
 Widely
used in producing food
 Pesticides may remain in small
amounts (called residues) in or on
fruits, vegetables, grains, and other
foods
 EPA regulates the amount of each
pesticide that may remain in and on
foods.
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Pesticides
 865
active ingredients registered as
pesticides
 350 pesticides are used on the foods
we eat
 Includes insecticides, fungicides,
rodenticides, insect repellants, weed
killers, antimicrobials, and swimming
pool chemicals, which are designed to
prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce
pests of any sort.
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Pesticides
 Food
Quality and Protection Act
 Pesticide Tolerances
 New Safety Standard applied to
all raw products
 “Certainty of no harm”
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EPA Pesticide Safety Assessment
1.
2.
3.
4.
Hazard Identification
Dose-Response Assessment
Exposure Assessment
Risk Characterization
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Hazard Identification
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Identify potential health effects that
may occur from different types of
pesticide exposure
Considers the full spectrum of a
pesticide’s potential health effects
Toxicity studies are conducted on
animals by pesticide companies in
independent laboratories and
evaluated for acceptability by EPA
scientists
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Dose-Response Assessment
 The
amount of a substance a person
is exposed to,
 How toxic the chemical might be,
 Considering the dose levels at which
adverse effects were observed in test
animals, and using these dose levels
to calculate an equal dose in
humans.
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Exposure Assessment
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People can be exposed to pesticides in
three ways:
1. Inhalation exposure,
2. Absorbing pesticides through the skin
3. Oral exposure
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Typical sources of pesticide exposure
include:
 Foods
 Home
and Personal Use
 Pesticides in Drinking Water
 Worker Exposure to Pesticides
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Risk Characterization
 the
process of combining the hazard,
dose-response and exposure
assessments to describe the overall
risk from a pesticide
 explains the assumptions used in
assessing exposure as well as the
uncertainties that are built into the
dose-response assessment
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RISK = TOXICITY x EXPOSURE
 Risk
to human health from
pesticide exposure depends on
both the toxicity of the pesticide
and the likelihood of people
coming into contact with it
 When pesticides are used, there is
some toxicity and exposure, which
results in a potential risk
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Environmental Protection Agency
Responsible for establishing tolerances for
pesticides
 FDA responsible for monitoring pesticide
tolerances on raw agricultural products
 Before allowing the use of a pesticide on
food crops, EPA sets a tolerance, or
maximum residue limit, which is the
amount of pesticide residue allowed to
remain in or on each treated food
commodity
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Other Agencies
FDA tests food produced in the United
States and food imported from other
countries for compliance with these
residue limit
 State enforcement agencies also
check foods produced in this country.
 USDA tests meat and milk
 US Customs Department notifies FDA of
arrival of Food products
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Organic Foods
 Foods
grown and processed using no
synthetic fertilizers or pesticides or
pesticides derived from natural
sources
 Consumers purchase organically
grown and processed foods as a way
to reduce their exposure to synthetic
pesticides and fertilizers
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Regulation of Organic Foods
 Over
forty private organizations and
state agencies (certifiers) currently
certify organic foods
 Organic Foods Production Act passed
in 1990, to assure consumers that
"organic" food meets the same
standards in every state
 1997, USDA published a proposal for
national organic standards
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National Organics Program
Beginning on October 21, 2002, producers
and handlers must be certified by a USDAaccredited certifying agent to sell, label, or
represent their products as "100 percent
organic," "organic," or "made with organic
 USDA, accredited certifying agents, and
approved State Organic Programs will be
responsible for enforcement of the
national regulations.
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National Organics Program
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USDA Organic Seal
may appear on
organic agricultural
products that are
certified 100 percent
organic or products
that are certified as
containing at least 95
percent organic
ingredients.
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