Harvard Study Hits New Food Regulations

November 24, 1999

A Harvard University analysis of new federal food safety regulations shows that unintended effects of the rule could be more harmful to public health than the compounds they attempt to regulate. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that the analysis says countervailing health risks associated with regulatory implementation of the law were not considered or evaluated.

For example, the study notes, a ban on all organophosphate and carbamate pesticides actually could result in the premature deaths of up to 1,000 Americans a year. The Harvard analysis "raises numerous questions regarding the EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency's) attempt to limit the use of products vital to producing food for Americans," says AFBF Prsident Dean Kleckner. AFBF supported the analysis by Drs. George Gray and James Hammitt of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and the Harvard School of Public Health.

According to the analysis, food safety risks are "small or nonexistent" for the two classes of pesticides that EPA targeted for review under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act. "It is impossible to link consumer exposure (from the two groups of pesticides) to any specific harm," the analysis says. "Any benefit that might come from preventing farmers from using these products will be partially or totally offset by risks induced by (the) ban."

The analysis predicts that banning the two pesticide classes alone would cause up to 1,000 premature deaths annually due to related decreases in disposable incomes.

EPA's failure to consider resulting dietary changes due to higher prices for many crops also was noted by the study. Consumption of many nutrients known to fight disease or promote health will decline, the study says. Some minority groups who already have lower than recommended intake levels of many nutrients would be affected.

The Harvard analysis says EPA "is not paying enough attention to public health side effects" or countervailing risks associated with disease control, pest resistance and other factors when reassessing pesticides under the law.