Are Members of Congress Being Poisoned By Pesticides?

Henry I. Miller

Health scares have become big business for activists, attracting adherents and funding. Often the warnings are exaggerated and misleading; sometimes, they’re nothing more than fantasy. Examples include lists of fruits and vegetables you shouldn’t eat because they contain the highest levels of pesticides (even though the amounts are minuscule and pose negligible risk) and the myth that our bodies accumulate “toxins” that need to be removed by enemas, purges or fasting. (That’s already taken care of routinely by an organ called the “liver.”)

Government agencies sometimes get into the act. According to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Cancer Research, coffee, working night shifts and sunlight are all carcinogens. Activists often take such information out of context and use it for their own purposes. A recent claim is that there are potentially dangerous levels of chemical pesticides in food in the congressional cafeterias. And pigs can fly.

There’s a simple game plan to follow if you want to scare people–that is, to stampede them into some sort of action with headline-grabbing, sensational claims about apocalyptic dangers from everyday things that we eat, drink or use. It goes roughly like this:…..To Read More…..