What do butter, meat loaf, cantaloupe, peanuts, and popcorn have in common? Persistent organic pollutants. Banned in the U.S. since the 1970s, POPs such as the pesticides DDT and deldrin still contaminate 20 percent of the food we eat, according to a report by the San Francisco-based Pesticide Action Network. Based on an analysis of U.S. government data, the group found that adults may be ingesting up to 90 times the acceptable limit of POPs, which are described as “among the most insidiously dangerous compounds ever produced.” The report was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health alongside another study showing that three-quarters of conventionally grown produce and one-quarter of organically grown produce contain chemical residues.
