{"id":39927,"date":"2025-10-21T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=39927"},"modified":"2025-10-21T10:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:09:39","slug":"dietary-pesticide-exposure-study-stresses-need-for-more-accurate-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2025\/10\/dietary-pesticide-exposure-study-stresses-need-for-more-accurate-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Dietary Pesticide Exposure Study Stresses Need for More Accurate Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, October 21, 2025) A study, published in International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health<\/em><\/a>, calculates cumulative dietary pesticide exposure and finds a significant positive association between pesticide residues in food and urine when analyzing over 40 produce types. The research uses data for 1,837 individuals from the 2015\u20132016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey<\/a> (NHANES) and compares them to biomonitoring samples of the participants. According to the researchers, \u201cHere we show that consumption of fruits and vegetables, weighted by pesticide load, is associated with increasing levels of urinary pesticide biomarkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

They continue, \u201cWhen excluding potatoes, consumption of fruits and vegetables weighted by pesticide contamination was associated with higher levels of urinary pesticide biomarkers for organophosphate<\/a>, pyrethroid<\/a>, and neonicotinoid insecticides<\/a>.\u201d The NHANES data is derived from a national biomonitoring survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which collects information about consumption of fruits and vegetables as well as urine samples.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the study authors explain: \u201cHundreds of millions of pounds of synthetic pesticide active ingredients are used every year in the United States, and pesticide exposure can occur through food, drinking water, residential proximity to agricultural spraying, household pesticide use, and occupational use. Pesticide usage to grow and store food often results in contamination of commodities with pesticide residues, particularly fruits and vegetables, that reach store shelves and persist after rinsing produce.\u201d (See study here<\/a>.) With that being said, dietary exposure is a critical route in which the public is subjected to pesticide residues and at risk of subsequent negative health effects, including increased risk of cancer, neurological harm, and reproductive toxicity, among others. (See the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD) here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

A previous report in 1993, entitled Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children<\/a>, set the groundwork for the Food Quality Protection Act<\/em> (FQPA) of 1996 that \u201cestablished the need for pesticide regulations to protect children’s health from cumulative toxicity associated with pesticide mixtures.\u201d However, as the researchers point out, \u201cthe U.S. government pesticide risk assessments and legal limits for pesticides in food, also known as pesticide tolerances, generally continue to be conducted with a focus on individual pesticides and fail to consider cumulative toxic effects from exposure to mixtures of pesticides.\u201d This data gap fails to address the potential additive and synergistic effects<\/a> that can be seen with pesticide mixtures, which more realistically represents how consumers are exposed to combinations of pesticides rather than in isolation.<\/p>\n

Study Methodology and Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we present a methodology to rank fruits and vegetables based on overall pesticide load, including metrics of pesticide number, detection frequency, concentration, and a measure of toxicity,\u201d the authors note. They continue: \u201cThis approach builds on the prior work of Hu et al. (2016)<\/a> by incorporating pesticide toxicity reference values into the pesticide load indicator and using more recent pesticide and biomonitoring data to reflect changes in pesticide use, toxicity, and exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

In ranking the commodities (produce) and their consumption, as obtained through the NHANES questionnaire, the researchers are able to calculate dietary pesticide exposure score for participants that then can be compared to urinary pesticide biomarker levels. This methodology intends to estimate overall dietary pesticide exposure and provide insight into how consuming specific fruits and vegetables might elevate urinary pesticide levels.<\/p>\n

In addition to NHANES data, the study incorporates national pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pesticide Data Program (PDP) to analyze the association between estimated dietary pesticide exposure and measured levels of internal pesticide exposure through the urine sample biomonitoring.<\/p>\n

For each commodity from the PDP, pesticide contamination is calculated based on the detection of 178 unique parent pesticides, with 42 parent pesticides matching biomarkers in the urine samples. For more information on the methodology and statistical analyses, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Biomarker concentrations of various pesticides, including organophosphate insecticides, neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, and herbicides, are detected in the urine samples. When comparing the biomarker data with the pesticide load index for the produce consumed, but with excluding potatoes due to their strong attenuating effect, a significant positive association is noted.<\/p>\n

The researchers report: \u201cPesticide residues, representing 222 analytes corresponding to 178 unique parent pesticides, were detected across 44 food commodities analyzed in our study, and utilized in calculating the pesticide load indices. While pesticide residues varied greatly by commodity, the most commonly detected pesticides (>10% of samples across all commodities) were the fungicides thiabendazole<\/a>, boscalid<\/a>, pyraclostrobin<\/a>, fludioxonil<\/a> and azoxystrobin<\/a>, and the insecticide imidacloprid<\/a>.\u201d The data reveals that consumption of both high and low residue fruits and vegetables is associated with increasing rank for cumulative pesticide exposure, though a single serving of high residue foods presents a greater impact.<\/p>\n

In summary, the authors state. \u201cHere, we developed a method to estimate cumulative dietary pesticide exposure by weighting fruit and vegetable consumption by the pesticide load for 44 different commodities, termed a dietary pesticide exposure score.\u201d They continue, \u201cWe further demonstrated the utility of this method as a pesticide exposure metric, showing that increasing dietary pesticide exposure score, or consumption of produce, excluding potatoes, with higher pesticide load, is associated with pesticide biomarker concentrations in urine, when matching pesticides measured in produce to urinary biomarkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within the study, there are many limitations, some of which the authors address, that could impact the findings and their ability to capture the true level of adverse health impact of dietary pesticide residues. As the researchers reference, these include limited data availability and analytical limitations of the public datasets, which incorporates a lack of data on key pesticides like 2,4-D<\/a> and glyphosate<\/a>. Additionally, deficiencies in regulatory reviews<\/a>, given the lack of complete adverse health data on endocrine disrupting pesticides<\/a> as well as synergistic effects<\/a> of pesticide mixtures, ultimately result in an underestimation of the harm caused by residues in the diet.<\/p>\n

Previous Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

The current study findings are consistent with other research that identifies dietary exposure as a key contributor to measured pesticide concentrations in urine. Relevant scientific literature cited within the study includes:<\/p>\n