Kids, Candy, and Scary Stuff

 

Some of the fun things about Hallowe’en are the kids, the costumes, and the candy.   We have some scary news about the candy.

Health Canada wants to up the levels of pesticides allowed in sugar. Big time. It has proposed to increase allowable levels of two pesticides used on sugar beets – by 200 fold and 10 fold:

Azoxystrobin (AZ) – from 0.5 to 5 ppm (10x)
Fludioxonil (FL)  – from 0.02 to 4 ppm (200x)

Why? So Canada’s levels will match the US levels.

You may recall in 2021 there was a “pause” put on maximum residue limits (MRLs) because of proposed glyphosate (Roundup) increases. In June, 2023 Health Canada lifted the “pause”, and these two chemicals, combined in a Syngenta product, are the first up.  Syngenta made the request.

The problem isn’t just the increases. It’s the lack of scientific backup. The scientific methodology is completely flawed, as stated in the assessment, …Read More