Isn it true that the pesticide testing conducted on laboratory animals is not always applicable to humans?
Because it is ethically unacceptable to test pesticides on humans, animals such as rats and mice are used. The effects on these animals are not always the same as on humans. Sometime they are affected more, sometime less. In the case of the drug thalidomide, test animals were unaffected, whereas humans suffered tragic birth abnormalities. Chemicals causing cancer in animals are not always men, with the possible exception of arsenic, also do so in experimental animals, generally rodents. • What about pesticides and the food we eat? For most of us, the primary exposure is what we eat and drink. Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) and Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) are measures set by governments to assure us that human exposure to pesticides is limited. But there is no fool-proof way to ensure a safe universal ADI, because of the diversity of foods we eat and because some people are more vulnerable than others – especially young children and the malnourished, MRLs and ADIs also do not take into
