Risk Assessment of Pesticides: Risk of Eating

In general, consumers tend to believe that synthetic pesticides and pesticide residues in crop plants are dangerous to our health. On the other hand, less attention has been paid to the naturally-occurring toxic substances in crop plants, which may cause or contribute to illness in humans. In this presentation, scientific findings will be provided in order to make a risk assessment of synthetic pesticides, or pesticide residues, as well as naturally-occurring substances existing in crop plants and in general chemicals surrounding us. The presentation is concerned with the effort made by the Pesticide Science Society of Japan and myself to change consumer's perception about issues concerning the safety of pesticide and pesticide residue. Discussion particularly focuses on the risk of eating crops and foods which may contain pesticide residues, food additives and many different kinds of natural chemicals. Scientists and government administration should fulfill their obligation to continuously conduct risk communication by revealing technical validation results of pesticide and pesticide residue safety and schemes to confirm safety in an easier way to understand, so that general consumers and the media can more fully comprehend them.