Pesticides on Food Carry Risk of Cancer, Say Researchers

Babies and young children may be at risk of developing cancer through exposure to pesticides on food, scientists warned yesterday. Low levels of chemicals found in pesticides and plastics are more influential in causing cancer than previously thought, the University of Liverpool experts said.

They claim these chemicals pass to humans from eating meat and dairy products and can be transferred from a mother to her baby via breast milk.

Jamie Page, chairman of the Cancer Prevention and Education Society, said, ‘This research is very important and suggests that there are links between chemicals and cancer.

‘It is our opinion that if progress is to be made in the fight against cancer, far more attention and effort must be made to reduce human exposure to harmful chemicals.’

Professor Vyvyan Howard and John Newby claim their research contradicts past studies into the links between chemicals in pesticides and cancer.

Most previous investigations concluded that the chemicals occurred at concentrations too low to be considered a major factor.