ABSTRACT
Adequate nutrition in the first years of life is a fundamental requirement for health and affects all life cycles of the individual. Several scientific studies associate exposure to pesticides with adverse effects to health. A total of 312 pesticides residues were evaluated in common foods from children’s diets, selected from the infancy school feeding program menu in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The selection of food was based on the frequency of consumption according to the weekly menus of the municipal school system. Multiresidue pesticide analysis by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to tandem Mass Spectrometry in 145 samples (milk, infant cereal, banana, apple, papaya, orange, beans and rice) identified 426 detections of 53 different pesticides. More than 68% of the samples had multiple pesticide residues. Based on the results, was estimated the exposure of children to residues that were detected, indicating a potential risk to children’s health, which needs to be a priority public health concern. It is necessary to verify the toxicological impacts of the use of pesticides on children’s health, to expand the acquisition of organic foods by the School Feeding National Program, and to strengthen agroecology with incentives and public policies, aiming at the protection and promotion of collective health.
KEYWORDS
Pesticide residues; Food; Public health
Thumbnail
Fonte: Elaboração própria.