REPORT #255 May 2000
BANNED CHEMICALS HAVE STAYED IN THE SOIL FOR YEARS AND STILL INVADE THE FOOD SUPPLY!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

When one considers the limited nature of tropical agriculture in Belize and the application of fertilizers and pesticides, one should take into account the research studies, that show many banned chemicals of many decades ago are still in the farm soils in the USA and are still showing up in the food supply.

Some pesticides, including chlordane and DDT are still showing up in the food supply. Chemicals banned several decades ago are still showing up in 12 vegetables planted used in tests. Plants included lettuce, zuchini and root crops like potatoes and carrots. This study was published in the May 15th, issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Chlordane is a chemical often used to control termites in olden times around wood houses. Even organic food production is showing these chemicals are still coming out of the soil into the foods.

Chemicals can be accumulative in body tissue over time and cause genetic and birth defects. Some are cancer causing.

We have a reference to chemicals on the Belize Electronic Resource and Development Library at: https://ambergriscaye.com/BzLibrary.

There are public policy issues here, worth considering.

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Maintained by Ray Auxillou, Silvia Pinzon, MLS, and Marty Casado. Please email with suggestions or additions for this Electronic Library of Belize.