A recent study revealed that 80% of Americans have tested positive for a toxic pesticide usually found in foods containing grains, such as Quaker Oats and Cheerios.
Is it the Chlormequat in #Cheerios that make them "heart healthy"?? @American_Heart https://t.co/h62mcI3ieA pic.twitter.com/IHDNRD0XVo
— Ken D Berry MD (@KenDBerryMD) February 16, 2024
The hazardous pesticide, known as chlormequat, is said to delay puberty and infertility while altering fetal growth, according to the Post Millennial.
Such reports come after the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology conducted a study published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
The Post Millennial reported that in North America, the use of a plant growth regulator, chlormequat chloride, is increasing exponentially on grain crops. The study found that exposure to the pesticide at dosages far below recommended daily consumption levels could affect developing babies in a mother’s womb and diminish fertility.
Samples of urine collected from individuals in the U.S. between 2017 and 2022 showed low concentrations of the pesticide, but such results changed in 2023.
In 2023, 90% of individuals tested in the study had high levels of chlormequat in their systems, compared to 74% who tested positive for the pesticide from 2018-2022. The study shows that in 2017, 69% of individuals tested positive for the toxin.
Most of the pesticide was found in oat-based foods.
The EWG wrote that the U.S. government allows other countries to import the “highly toxic agricultural chemical,” which is eventually used on oats and other grain-based foods. The group noted that applying chlormequat to crops containing oats and grains modifies a plant’s development, barring it from harvesting effectively.
In the study, the EWG said, “We detected the chemical in 92 percent of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios.”
In a separate study, the group tested whether chlormequat was in organic oat-based products, finding that just one in seven samples contained low levels of the pesticide.
Considering the findings, the EWG is urging consumers to purchase organic oat products that don’t contain high levels of chlormequat.
“EWG recommendation for shoppers is to buy organic oat products since these oats are grown without the use of toxic pesticides such as chlormequat and glyphosate,” the group’s vice president of science investigations, Olga Naidenko, told the New York Post.
