BAN IS SOUGHT ON 5 PESTICIDES TO PROTECT KIDS

An estimated 1 million preschool kids nationwide—22,000 in Arizona—are exposed each day to five pesticides that environmental groups say should be banned from use on fruits and vegetables.

The banning of five organophosphate pesticides is called for in a new report, "Over Exposed," to be released Thursday by the Environmental Working Group and Arizona Citizen Action. The report is based on 80,000 food samples inspected by the federa l government from 1991 through 1996.

If approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the ban on the five pesticides would be the first enforcement action taken under the federal Food Quality Protection Act. The law was passed in 1996 by a R epublican-controlled Congress that otherwise was criticized by environmentalists for taking anti-environmental stands.

"The EPA must act immediately to eliminate the threat these insecticides pose to children and the rest of us," said Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C.

Young children, infants and pregnant women are especially at risk, according to the report, because organophosphate pesticides have the potential to cause long-term damage to the brain and nervous system. Those organs do not fully develop until adulthood.

As with lead poisoning, the report says the amounts of the pesticides consumed rarely cause acute illness. Instead, exposure to children can cause long-term neurological damage, including learning disabilities.

EPA spokesman Dave Schmidt said he could not comment on the report because he hadn't seen it.

Kenny Evans, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation, said numerous scientific reports in recent years have shown that the amounts of pesticides used on American produce pose no significant health threats to either adults or young children.

The chemicals environmentalists propose banning are methyl parathion, dimethoate, chlorpyrifos, pirimiphos methyl and azinphos methyl.

Evans said some of those chemicals are used in the production of "salad bowl" vegetables like lettuce, carrots and broccoli, as well as numerous fruits, including apples, peaches, plums and a variety of citrus.

"It is a net that captures all the healthful foods that we produce for the American diet that have increased longevity and bettered the health of people for a generation," Evans said.

According to the environmentalists' report, the solution is not to stop eating fruits and vegetables, but to eliminate the chemicals from the food.

Jim Driscoll, director of Arizona Citizen Action, an environmental consumer group, said that until the five organophosphates are banned, consumers should switch to organically grown foods.

Banning those chemicals, Evans said, would not only harm farmers financially but would raise the price of fruits and vegetables. Evans said many people cannot afford organic foods.

Driscoll countered, "The more people buy organic, then the more organic food there will be."

Cook, the head of the environmental working group, said the report was being produced in the face of new laws passed in several states, including Arizona, that make it a crime to defame food.

Such a law in Texas is being used by the cattle industry to prosecute talk-show host Oprah Winfrey for her comments about beef and "mad cow" disease. Ranchers blame her comments for falling beef prices.

"We're not sure if we should send reporters a press release or read them their Miranda rights," Cook said. "We have the right to remain silent about risks in the food supply. Silence would suit many in the agribusiness world just fine."

Mike Shirra, spokesman for the Arizona Farm Bureau, said it is his organization's hope that Arizona's so-called ''veggie hate crimes law" never has to be used.

Evans said that if the environmentalists truly have data that show foods are being sold with unhealthy levels of pesticides, his organization wants to know about it, and he would encourage EPA to act.

But Evans said he suspects that the environmentalists are merely using scare tactics to encourage fund-raising and memberships.

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