Less Headaches with French Wine?

The period between spraying and picking is longer for wine than for fruit picked for other purposes. Not for health reasons, but because winemakers don't want the sprays cocking up their fermentations. So unless juices are made with no skin contact I'd expect them, on the whole, to contain more pesticides than wine.

I have no doubt that the most poisenous chemical in wine is alcohol.

The period between spraying and picking is longer for wine than for fruit picked for other purposes. Not for health reasons, but because winemakers don't want the sprays cocking up their fermentation. So unless juices are made with no skin contact I'd expect them, on the whole, to contain more pesticides than wine.

I have no doubt that the most poisenous chemical in wine is alcohol.

Quite the contrary: DDT is readily translocated from soil through the plant. That was one reason it was so effective. Still, like you I doubt most sincerely that DDT residue is responsible for headaches.

Mark Lipton

"Mark Lipton" wrote ...............

I bow to your knowledge, learned one.

Apart from my early years on the farm, I had several years experience, gained while employed by Welcome / ICI, marketing agricultural chemicals and animal remedies.

I was under the impression (conveyed by our technical teams), that while small, but measurable, amounts of DDT had been found in roots, the amount translocating to foliage was minute as to be indeterminable in all but plants with high levels of fat (e.g. rape) - and that zero residues had been found in fruit.

However, also from personal experience, if one wants a *real* headache, try (accidentally) placing systemic organophosphate on one's skin: an error I made only once.

st.helier

Still, like you I