By ＼MedPartner America's Best Friend
Do you have the habit of eating cereal for breakfast?
Cereal is rich in dietary fiber and nutrients, and is one of the breakfast choices for many people. However, there is a recent report circulating on the Internet that says, "It's a big deal! The newest addition to the list is a new one, which will be available on the website. The breakfast you eat is so harmful!
This article is about the cancer-causing cereal.
The report describes an American man, Dewayne Johnson, who suffered from cancer after eating oatmeal containing the pesticide Carbofuran (commonly known as Nyanchon) for breakfast.
This story was republished and caused a lot of panic. But is this really the case? Is it really true that you can't find any safe cereal on the market? Don't worry, let the MedPartner team of healthcare experts give you the full picture from 3 perspectives!
1. Carbaryl is a water-soluble pesticide that is rapidly excreted in the urine and feces after being ingested, and is unlikely to accumulate in the human body over time.
2. The regulations for GFPs are non-detectable, and the results of the FDA's sampling of oatmeal at the border have not detected any cases of GFPs, so the domestic public can basically rest assured.
3. The main reason for the controversy is that the EWG has set a much stricter standard than the scientifically recognized standard, and there is a lawsuit in the US related to this pesticide, which triggered the controversy. But the lawsuit has nothing to do with cereal...
Is it true that the people in the news got cancer from eating cereal?
Dewayne Johnson, who has worked as a school gardener in San Francisco since 2012, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2014. According to California court documents, Johnson himself believed that the cancer was caused by his work's long-term use of a pesticide whose main ingredient is Carfentrazone for weed control, and therefore filed a tell-all against pesticide manufacturer Monsanto. The case was finally settled on October 22, 2018 for $78 million.
Smart enough to see this, you should realize that even Johnson himself didn't say that his cancer was caused by his longtime eating of cereal, but rather that he thought his weeding job was caused by exposure to excessive amounts of pesticides.
Is there really an excess of pesticides in cereal? First, understand the basis on which the EWG determines that pesticides are over the limit
The EWG did announce that it had conducted testing for Carphosate levels in oatmeal on two occasions during 2018, with the results of August's testing noting that 31 out of 45 commercially available oatmeal products contained excessive levels of Carphosate, and the results of October's testing noting that 26 out of 28 commercially available oatmeal products contained excessive levels of Carphosate.
Before we can talk about exceeding the standard, we need to know what the standard is: EWG's safety standard for Gamma Phosphorus plugs is set at 160 ppb, which is actually a very low value, but how is this value actually calculated?
In fact, when the organization set the standard, it referred to the data presented by The States's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Asses *** ent (OEHHA) in 2017, which is part of the California Environmental Protection Agency. data that the No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) for 70 kilogram adults is 1.1 mg/day.
The EWG felt that this standard was not rigorous enough for children, so they chose to use approximately one percent of the NSRL for adults (0.01 mg/day) as the NSRL for children. The EWG next assumed that each child would consume 60g of cereal per day, and finally calculated a safe daily exposure for children of 160ppb. The EWG did not publish the baseline for how they decided on a non-significant risk for children, which is a point of contention.
What the EWG's test results do represent is that the oatmeal the organization tested contained more than 160 ppb of Carbofuran. So the statements in the article about "exceeding the limit by a lot", "containing dangerous doses", and "excessive amounts" are actually based on the EWG's own standards, which are still scientifically controversial.
Recommended reading: "Citrus bubbles are scary?" Really! What's the truth?
Can ingesting katphos really cause cancer?
Carbofuran is an organophosphate pesticide, which is a broad-spectrum herbicide that enters plants through their leaves and stems and affects protein synthesis, which in turn affects plant growth. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Gamma phosgene binds quickly and easily to soil aggregates, is not easily washed into groundwater by rain, and can be broken down by microorganisms, with low toxicity to mammals, birds, and fish.
According to the U.S. National Pesticide Information Center (National Pesticide Information Center), about 30?36% of Carfentrazone ingested by experimental animals is absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, and the rest is excreted. In humans, gefosfamide undergoes very few metabolic steps and is quickly excreted in urine and feces without changing its chemical structure, making it less likely to accumulate in the human body over long periods of time.
Is Carbofuran carcinogenic or not? There are different opinions in the international community. Currently, Carbofuran is classified as a grade 2A carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), meaning that there is insufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans, but there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animal studies. The report states that experimental animals exposed to Carbofuran can develop tumors, and there is limited evidence that exposure to Carbofuran is associated with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL).
The FAO and the Joint Meeting of Residue Experts of the World Health Organization (JMRIWHO) stated that the available data and the current use of Carbaryl should not pose a carcinogenic risk to humans through diet. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also considers Gamma Phosphate to have a carcinogenicity rating of E, meaning it is not a human carcinogen.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a consumer risk assessment of Gamma Phosphorus last year, and the results indicated that consumers did not exceed the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) and Acute Reference Dose (ARfD) for Gamma Phosphorus in the process of ingesting traditional agricultural products or base-altered products proposed by the organization in 2015. Reference Dose (ARfD). These dietary intakes will not cause chronic and acute health hazards. However, the organization also noted that this risk assessment is indicative only, as there are still many uncertainties in the available information.
Therefore, based on current research, more studies and assessments are needed to determine whether eating food with residues of Carbofuran can cause cancer, but the risk is not considered to be particularly high internationally.
Recommended Reading: Antioxidant Foods to Fight Free Radical Damage and Prevent Cancer and Inflammation
Are there any imported Gamma Phosphorothionate-containing cereals in China? Is it regulated?
According to FDA's previous information, Taiwan is not a producer of oats, so most of the products on sale are imported. According to the current domestic standards for pesticide residue tolerance, no residues of carnosine can be detected in oatmeal. From January to November of last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a border inspection of oats and cereal-related products, in which 49 batches of Carbamazepine were tested and all of them were found to be qualified, which means that the chances of Carbamazepine exceeding the standard for oats in our country are extremely low.
In the future, the FDA will continue to monitor pesticide residues in agricultural products on the market and at the border, and if there is a violation of the standards, the industry will be fined, and not included in the destruction or repatriation of unqualified products, so the public do not have to worry too much.
See this, there is no feeling temporarily relieved? Many of these news, often the public panic, do not know what to do, I hope this article complete analysis, can let everyone have the right idea, no longer panic.