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Comment by NeuroCoder | Hacker News Reader

I'm not saying any of this is alright but can't you just wash this stuff off produce as a consumer? In which case the real health issue is for those interacting with produce before they get to consumers.

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Herbicides are generally absorbed into plants and can't be washed off. This is a non-selective herbicide, so it usually wouldn't intentionally be used on produce, since it would kill the crop. However, sometimes herbicides are used right before harvest as a desiccant to kill and dry crops in the field. You probably wouldn't use this herbicide for that though. It is true that someone working with the pesticide is a lot more likely to get exposed.

Sadly that's still a lot of people. Sadder still is that it includes people already treated as subhuman and not worthy of labor protections.

BTW do you want to accept the risk that everyone who prepares your food takes this step? If you found out post diagnosis, how satisfied would you be with punishing the restaurants/processors/grocers? it's already too late for you. Maybe it's just simplest to regulate environmental toxins so that they cannot get into the food supply.

I totally agree with your point here. I was just curious if I understood this issue properly. From other comments it sounds like an issue that may affect everyone despite our best efforts. Like you said, regulation is probably the only way this can be effectively fixed

Through the process of phytoremediation, plants will absorb the chemicals and pass those onto whatever ingests them (us)

Not sure how is it in this case - but I remember when fungicide 'Alginure' was removed from 'bio' category in EU. One reason was that it leaves residues.

There is definitely a much larger health issue for farm workers!

One way to minimize your exposure to this kind of chemical is to buy organic produce.

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