Overview
- EWG commissioned lab tests of 14 popular oat-based cereals, granola and other everyday products and found concerning amounts of the chemical chlormequat.
- Chlormequat exposure in animal studies has caused a host of reproductive and other health problems, suggesting the potential for harm to human health.
- Unless and until federal regulators act to get chlormequat out of our food, buying organic can help reduce your potential exposure to the chemical.
A new EWG investigation finds for the first time troubling concentrations of the toxic agricultural chemical chlormequat in oat-based products sold in the U.S., including everyday brands marketed to adults and children. The chemical may be harmful to human health.
Chlormequat was discovered in all but one of 13 non-organic oat-based cereals, granola and other products in EWG-commissioned tests conducted by an independent laboratory. Eleven products contained chlormequat levels higher than the amount we think is safe for children’s health, and one sample contained exactly that amount.
This level – EWG’s health benchmark – is 30 parts per billion, or ppb, equivalent to a blade of grass on a football field. It’s the most chlormequat we think someone can eat every day without facing potential health risks. The benchmark is based on a typical serving size.
This EWG standard derives from studies in animals that showed chlormequat exposure during pregnancy altered growth and development in early life. We translate that health-protective level to a safe level in food using typical serving sizes of oat-based foods and average weights for children. (See Appendix 2.)
Health benchmarks are based on the latest science, solely with the goal of protecting public health. They’re needed because of the large discrepancy between what is legally allowed in food and what is actually safe to consume.
Chlormequat is a type of chemical that alters plant growth in a variety of ways. It’s applied to oat and grain crops while they’re growing to stop them from bending over, since that can make harvesting difficult.
Studies of animals exposed to the chemical show it can disrupt fetal growth and harm the reproductive system. These harms raise concerns about how chlormequat might pose dangers for human health, especially for children, because exposures during early life can lead to health harms later on.
Chlormequat is approved for agricultural commercial use on ornamental plants only – not on oats or any other food products grown in the U.S. But imported oats can have chlormequat residue in them, which is how they end up in the food we eat.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently permitted traces of chlormequat in U.S. food, including oats, wheat and barley. This change took place during the Trump administration, first in 2018, when it said food could be sold in the U.S., even if it had traces of chlormequat. Then, in 2020, the Trump EPA increased permitted levels of the chemical for oats.
Allowing chlormequat to contaminate U.S. food was just one in a string of misguided Trump EPA decisions that promoted agricultural interests in the use of harmful chemicals and ignored the science on the risks of those substances. The Trump EPA failed to protect human health with chlorpyrifos and glyphosate – and now chlormequat.
Table 1. Chlormequat levels in conventional oat-based products
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