 Recently, the diets of California children, ages 2 through 7, were analyzed to determine the cancer and non-cancer health effects from food contaminant exposures. Food may be the primary root of exposure to toxic heavy metals, persistent pollutants, and pesticides. Though food-borne toxic contaminants are concerned for all ages, they are of greatest concern for children who are disproportionately impacted because they're still developing and have greater intake of food and fluids relative to their weight. Pediatric problems that have been linked to preventable environmental toxin exposures include cancer, asthma, lead poisoning, neurobehavioral disorders, learning and developmental disabilities, and birth defects. But the good news is changing one's diet can change one's exposure. A diet high in fish and animal products, for example, results in greater exposure to persistent pollutants, like DDT and dioxins and heavy metals, then does a plant-based diet, because these compounds bioaccumulate up the food chain and plants are at the bottom of the food chain. But this sample of California kids was not eating a plant-based diet. And cancer benchmark levels were exceeded by all 364 children for arsenic, the banned pesticide deeldron, a metabolite of DDT called DDE, and dioxins. Children exceeded safety levels by a greater margin than adults. This is especially of concern for children, because all these compounds are suspected endocrine disruptors and thus may impact normal development. Cancer risk ratios were exceeded by a factor over a factor of 100 for arsenic and dioxins. Which foods were the worst? For preschoolers, the number one food source of arsenic was poultry, though for their parents it was tuna. The number one source of lead was dairy, and for mercury it was seafood. And the number one source of the banned pesticides and dioxins was dairy. They didn't split up the groups by gender, but a similar study in Europe found that men had higher levels of some of these pollutants than women. For example, levels of the banned pesticide Chlordane. But women who never breastfed were right up there closer along with men, with the lowest levels found in women who had breastfed more than 12 months. It is therefore likely that the lactation-related reduction in blood pollutant levels partially explains the lower body burdens among women compared to men. So cows can lower their levels by giving some to us, then we pass it along to our children. What non-cancer effects might some of these pollutants have? They can affect the immune system. Studies clearly demonstrate the ability of dioxins and related compounds to have a long-lasting and deleterious effect on immune function. This manifests as increased incidence of respiratory infections, ear infections, cough, and sore throat. At first, most of the data was for during infancy, but now we have follow-up studies showing that the immunosuppressive effects of some of these toxins may persist into early childhood. So we should try to reduce our exposure as much as possible. How do we do that? Because these pollutants accumulate in animal fat, consuming a plant-based diet, decreasing meat, dairy, and fish consumption, may reduce exposure for children and adults alike.