Current Agriculture, Food & Resource Issues
S.B. Cash et al.
The authors are among those who, everything being equal, would prefer to consume
fewer pesticide residues in their own diets. Yet too narrow of a regulatory focus that
ignores economic responses and countervailing health risks is misguided, as the net effect
on public health could be negative. This point is especially pertinent when one considers
that certain pesticide uses have been canceled by the EPA on the basis of consumer risks
that were less than one in a million over a lifetime of exposure. In many cases, other less
costly interventions such as labeling requirements and food preparation education
campaigns may prove to be more effective means of achieving consumer safety with
regard to agricultural chemical use.
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