Seattle PI: Pesticide Information: No problem here

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Published July 21, 2008

Move right along, people. No pesticide problem here. Everything is under control. We hope that's not really the message from King County. But it's disturbing to see the withdrawal of a consumer card and an online listing of fruits and vegetables with the most and least pesticides. The county's Local Hazardous Waste Management Program pulled the material after hearing complaints from an agricultural industry group, as a Seattle P-I story reported. Officials asserted Monday that objections to the card's design from other county staff, who weren't consulted in advance, were the real factor. Rapid delivery of a promised new guide will be a test of county sincerity. General information about produce pesticide levels is valuable. It can be found on the Environmental Working Group's Web site. You can also find it on perhaps less easily cowed official sites, such as a Washington State University article about eminent scientist John Reganold. There's no proof that avoiding pesticides makes a person healthier, a fact some farm groups stress so much they begin to sound like the tobacco industry of a past era. But people have health, worker safety and environmental reasons to reduce pesticides overall. No official should try to shield them from information on how to do so. © 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer