The Health Council of the Netherlands has just produced a report called ’Pesticides in food: assessing the risk to children’, in which they answer three question:

 Are children more vulnerable to xenobiotic compounds in general and to pesticides in particular?
 What does this mean for the derivation of safe levels for chronic and short (generally a single) exposure to these substances?
 How can the risk assessment take into account the fact that levels of child exposure to pesticides are different from average exposure levels because children have different patterns of food consumption?

The report first looks at exposure patterns of children and concludes that children are more exposed per kilogram of body weight to pesticides and substances that enter via the skin and the respiratory system. They also conculde that foetuses and neonates are invariably more sensitive to pesticides at levels of exposure that are not harmful to adults.

The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) (expressed in ml/kg body weight) is a level calculated by applying uncertainty factors that compensate for the differences between animals (tested in toxicological studies) and humans, and for differences between people. In order to protect consumers against peak exposure, the Acute Reference Dose (ARfD) is used which is the amount of a particular pesticide that consumers can ingest during a single meal or a single day without appreciable risk. In both cases the regulatory body in the Netherlands (Board for the Authorisation of Pesticides) makes a separate estimate of the exposure for children aged between one and six, in addition to the general population.

The Problem.

The toxicological research in neither sufficiently profound nor broad enough in terms of design to identify every single effect on the main organs and organ systems in developing organisms. In particular, effects on the development of the nervous system and the immune system may remain unnoticed. This may also apply to effects resulting from endocrine disruption.

In some cases, protection of the foetus may require stricter standards for acute exposure (ARfDs) than are required for the protection of other age groups.

Recommendations of the Scientific Committee.

Improvements need to be made to existing standard research protocols. In particular studies of reproduction toxicity involving several generations of laboratory animals.....

If, on the basis of all available toxicological data and in the absence of adequate research or follow-up research, there is reasonable cause for supposing that developing organisms are more vulnerable than adult organisms, the Committee believes that an additional uncertainty factor, in addition to the factors traditionally used, is appropriate when calculating the ARfD and ADI. In many cases it will not be feasible to supply scientific justification for the size of any additional uncertainty factor. Where this is the case, a default value of 10 could be chosen. ......

Pesticides policy, including the way in which the risks associated with the substances are assessed, is increasingly determined by the European Union. The Committee therefore urges the Dutch government to put forward its recommendations for discussion within the European Union (including the European Food Safety Authority), where decisions can be taken at the central level.

 English version of the report