Why choosing organic is even more important for our children’s sake.

According to nationally renowned pediatrician William Sears M.D. pesticides cause more harm to children than adults. Here is a summary of his comments on the specific reasons kids and pest-killers don’t mix:

Kids ingest more pesticides than adults.  The "maximum acceptable levels" allowed by government agencies are based upon estimates of the harm in adults, using adult eating habits and adult weights. Children's eating habits are different from those of adults. They eat proportionally more contaminated food on a volume-per-weight basis than adults. Infants and children consume much more fruit and juice than adults. They also do not eat the variety of foods that adults do, often bingeing on applesauce, for example, three days in a row.

Increased risk of cancer. Cancer researchers believe that prolonged exposure to a toxic chemical may have a cumulative effect. You don't all of a sudden "get cancer." You get cancer one pesticide- polluted cell at a time. Today's children will be exposed to toxic chemicals over a longer time, so they face greater health risks as adults. Another cancer fact is that rapidly dividing cells (like those of growing infants and children) are more susceptible to damage from carcinogens, such as pesticides.

Pesticides can hurt the brain. Some pesticides have been implicated as being neurotoxic, or brain damaging. It's possible that the brain is most susceptible to damage when it is growing the fastest, that is, during the first year of life.

Kids store more pesticides in their bodies. Pesticides are stored in fat. Children, especially infants, have proportionally more body fat than adults do. The liver has the job of breaking down chemical toxins so that they can be eliminated from the body. An infant's liver is less mature and may have less capacity to detoxify chemicals.

Again, we go back to the drawing board of common sense: any chemical that kills a pest, can't be good for the brain of a child.

Read Dr. Sear’s full comments

Listen to Kathleen’s interview with Dr. William Sears