CHICAGO __ As scientists learn more about chemical and food-borne health threats to children, parents are facing new challenges to prevent disease, a scientist reported Wednesday.
"Knowledge is growing, and parents can do a lot to maximize safety for their kids," says Lynn Goldman (ex-EPA official), a pediatric environmental health expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She spoke at the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting here.
On the food front, there's good news and bad news, she says.
The large baby-food makers recently imposed restrictions on pesticide use by their suppliers. "They've moved out ahead of the regulatory process, voluntarily," Goldman says.
A 1996 federal law requires the Environmental Protection Agency to consider children's eating patterns and buildup of risk over time in revising standards for allowable pesticides. But the EPA was given 10 years to do that, Goldman adds. So prudent parents should thoroughly wash all produce.
As foods from all over the globe are increasingly landing on Americans' plates, parents must be more vigilant than ever, she says.
"Now we have strawberries and raspberries imported from places like Guatemala. The sanitation in developing countries can be bad, and the food contaminated with dangerous organisms." Children and the elderly are at particular risk of falling ill from these pathogens, Goldman says.
With the newly global food supply, "we're encountering parasites and bacteria that we probably hadn't encountered before when we just ate local foods," says Ruth Etzel, a George Washington University specialist in environmental health.
The federal tracking system on food-borne illness has improved, Goldman says, and researchers are moving way beyond the "cook eggs and refrigerate poultry" advice. "We're seeing some surprising things -- E. coli in alfalfa sprouts, listeria from hot dogs."
In the chemical pollutant area, there's some evidence that children may be harmed by exposure to plastics in some toys and food storage containers often used for microwaving, Goldman says.
The chemicals involved act in the body like weak estrogens against androgens, the male sex hormone. Heavy exposure may interfere with normal sexual development, she says.
"We don't want to have children mouthing plastic toys, and it's best to microwave in glass rather than plastic dishes. If you cover food with plastic wrap in the microwave, it shouldn't touch the food."
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