Ahh.. yeah, 'The New Internationalist' would not qualify as a reliable source. They do not carry any scientific research, nor are they impartial in the slightest sense. In general, try to avoid advocacy groups when conduction research.
There have been hundreds of studies done on pesticide and cancer. Some of these included tens of thousands of people. I’ll quote one by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), since they’re the authority on this subject and the consensus is summed up in a short paragraph:
Quote:
”There is no convincing evidence that any food contaminant [including pesticides] modifies the risk of any cancer, nor is there evidence of any probable causal relationship. Indeed, there is currently little epidemiological evidence that chemical contamination [pesticides] of food and drink, resulting from properly regulated use, significantly affects cancer risk.” -1
Also, from your post I could not understand your question about basil. I think it should be noted that most of the pesticides, by far, that we consume are the naturally occurring ones. As for coffee, it contains about 1000 chemicals, of which only 30 have been tested for cancer. Out of this research, the prominent danger arose from coffee’s content of caffeic acid. Caffeic acid is also present in a variety of vegetables, like lettuce. They in themselves rate higher than pesticide on the HERP index (Compares relative cancer risks)-2, with coffee at .01% and Lettuce is at .004%. A synthetic pesticide such as Toxaphene is at 0.0002%.
The number of cancer-related deaths in the US (around 563,00 in 1999); Using the high end of the estimates of food-related cancer-deaths (at 35%) and further break them down by FDA’s (Food and Drug Administration) research into food-related cancers, the number of pesticide-induced deaths will come to 20 people. To put this number into perspective, about 150 kids die each year from drowning in the bathtub. About 20 die from drowning in the toilet. But that’s some irrelevant humor. Really, about 98% of all food-related cancer deaths come from traditional foods (red meat, poultry, grains, potatoes, sugar, cocoa, salt...etc), about 1% from spices and natural flavorings (mustard, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, etc.), .2% from packaging (surface residues, packaging). Also, this is not to say that if you eat salt once in your lifetime you’ll get this chance of dying from cancer. No, these are estimates on the percentages of risk of developing cancer should the foods be consumed in extra-ordinary quantities – say 2 kg of salt, but you’ll probably die from intoxications before cancer.
In conclusion, I think it’s simply more prudent to watch the intake of your red meat or coffee than pesticides. And more so than food, mind that Tobacco is attributed to a whopping 30% in causes of cancer. Or that Alcohol is 3%, Sex is 7%, Infection is 10%, Sun is 3%. But, if we, ya know, worried about all the consequences of the decisions we make, we’d never go outside.
-1. WCRF 1997:475
-2. Human exposure/rodent potency ratio - University of California
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