The Health of Your Child

Children are at the highest risk from food contamination. They are developing rapidly, and toxic substances can disrupt important processes that help children grow into healthy adults. This makes them more sensitive to toxic effects.

Children eat more than adults do relative to their body size. They also eat fewer different foods, and eat more of some foods that tend to be more contaminated. This means that their relative exposure is higher. Combine higher exposures with higher sensitivities, and you'll see why children are at higher risk.

You can perform our Toxic Tracker's exposure calculation for a child to find out how exposures compare to your own. You will find that by and large children are exposed to higher levels of contamination than adults. You can also search the Toxic Tracker's TDS data for Baby Foods to find out how they are contaminated with various toxins.

For example, the Toxic Tracker's exposure calculation reveals that children may be eating too much lead and cadmium, two well documented toxins to which children are particularly sensitive. Read more

We have also discovered, through our mercury in fish data, that many Canadian waters contain fish that should not be eaten by children or women of child bearing age because of the high mercury content. Read more

There are actions you can take in your day to day life that may help reduce your or your child's exposure to food-borne toxins. There are also actions you can take to help reduce the future release of these toxins into the environment. Read more

Lead and Cadmium Mercury Pesticides What you can do