Abstract: The present report is based on data from the 2010 EFSA Report on pesticide residues in food, the Norwegian monitoring programmes 2007-2012 and data from peer reviewed literature and governmental agencies. It is a challenge to perform quantitative estimates and comparative studies of residue levels due to large variation in the measured levels, and the large number of different pesticides present in the samples. Thus, the focus is on the frequency of observed contaminations in relation to regulatory limits and to present examples to illustrate the variation in residue values and number of detected substances.  Pesticide residues in conventional and organic products: Of the 12,168 samples (plant- and animal products) in the 2010 EU-coordinated programme, 1.6% exceeded the respective maximum residue level (MRL) values, and 47.7% had measurable residues above the limit of quantification (LOQ), but below or at the MRL. Of the 1168 samples analysed in Norway in 2012 (from both imported and domestic products), 1.9% exceeded MRL and 53% contained measurable pesticide residues. Direct comparison of these values is however not possible, since they contain different types of food samples, and are analysed for a different number of pesticides. When organic and conventional samples from fruit, vegetables and other plant products in the 2010 EU-coordinated programme were compared, 4.2% of the conventional and 1.0% of the organic samples exceeded the MRL values, while 43.2% of the conventional and 10.8% of the organic samples had measurable residues below or at the MRL value. Most of the pesticide residues detected in organic samples are not permitted for use in organic farming.  Of the 624 organic samples analysed in Norway 2007 - 2012, 0.2% (one sample) had residues exceeding MRL, while measurable residues were detected in 1.8% of the samples (11 samples). Conventional products were often found to contain different pesticides while most organic samples were found to contain few or only one type of pesticide.   Lack of data on pesticide residue levels of organic samples in the EU-coordinated programme, and few Norwegian samples do not allow for a quantitative comparison of pesticide residue levels in organic and conventional samples. Comparative estimation of pesticide residues faces a number of challenges and uncertainties. However, it seems unquestionable based on available data that organic plant products contain fewer and substantially lower amounts of pesticide residues than conventional products. Health risk associated with pesticide residues: The general level of pesticide residues in both conventional and organic food is low, and well below what is likely to result in adverse health effects. This conclusion is based on the comparison of estimated dietary exposure with toxicological reference values i.e. acceptable daily intake (ADI) for chronic effects, and acute reference dose (ARfD) for acute effects. The finding of pesticide residues that exceeds established regulatory limits in a minority of tested samples is not considered to represent a health risk. When dietary exposure that was estimated in six different food commodities in the 2010 EUcoordinated programme was compared with their relevant reference values, EFSA concluded that for 79 of 18243 conventionally grown fruit and vegetable samples, a short-term acute consumer health risk could not be excluded. The conclusion was based on the exceeding of ARfD. None of these 79 samples were organic. It is important to also consider that the exceeding of the acute reference value only occurred in 0.4% of the samples and that the scenario used for acute intake assessment is conservative, suggesting that the toxicological implications are limited. This is also reflected in the chronic exposure assessment, where none of the samples were found to exceed the toxicological reference value ADI.   Dietary exposure assessments on the basis of Norwegian samples of apples, tomatoes, carrots, strawberries and lettuce did not show an exceeding of any toxicological reference value.  Combined exposure and cumulative risk assessment of pesticide residues: No generally accepted methodology is at present established for cumulative risk assessment of combined exposure to pesticide residues. Available data suggest however that combined exposure is not likely to result in increased human health risk.

Abstract: The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety performed the present assessment of the differences between organic and conventional foods and food production on plant health, animal health and welfare and human health at the request of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. The work was divided into five parts: (I) Plant health and plant production, (II) Animal health and welfare, (III) Human health - nutrition and contaminants, (IV) Human health – hygiene and pathogens and (V) Human health - pesticide residues. The assessments are based on review of the scientific literature. Separate literature searches were performed and one or two expert reviewers from the five working groups examined the literature. Detailed descriptions of the searches and the publication selection are included in the five reports. In addition, relevant assessments for the purpose, prepared by international and national scientific bodies, were included. There are few Norwegian studies on organic food production and food products and their impact on plant health, animal health and welfare, and human health. The assessments therefore had to rely on scientific studies from abroad. The relevance of these studies for conditions under which Norwegian food and feed production take place varies. There were large variations in study design, exposure (both type and time of exposure), and the measured outcomes among the studies included. Apart from the Norwegian monitoring program on pesticide residue in food, there is no systematic national surveillance on the content of nutrients and contaminants in food and feed from organic and conventional food production. This preludes any assessment of possible differences on the intake of nutrients and contaminants of Norwegian consumers from food of the two production systems. For plant health and plant production, most studies concluded that crop losses due to plant diseases, plant pests and weeds are higher in organic than in conventional production. Richness and abundance of pollinating insects and natural enemies of harmful insects are higher in organic than in conventional farming. In general, there are small differences in content of nutrients, secondary plant metabolites, and other plant constituents, except for organic berries and fruits where higher levels of dry matter, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity have been found. In conventionally grown wheat, there are higher levels of protein than in organically grown wheat. Contamination of cereals with Fusarium-mycotoxins is widespread. Results from comparison of mycotoxin contamination in organic and conventional cereals vary. While most studies found no difference in DON content, the majority of the remaining studies reported lower levels in organic than in conventional cereals. Most studies showed that organically produced cereals contained lower levels of theT-2 and HT-2 toxins than conventionally grown cereals. Some studies showed higher mycotoxin contamination in organic than in conventional apple products, while other studies reported similar level of contamination. Only few comparative studies of quality in organic and conventional seeds and seed potatoes have been published. Therefore, it is not possible to conclude on quality differences. For animal health and welfare, it was concluded that the differences between animal health and welfare regulations in Norway for organic and conventional animal production are less than in most other countries. The presence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in both organic and conventional production systems is very low in Norway. The difference between the two production systems in proportional rate of antimicrobial resistant bacteria is small and insignificant. There are no differences in disease occurrence between organic and conventional farming except for less clinical mastitis and more milk fever in organic dairy herds. For cattle, the increased access to pasture and outdoor areas, the use of group housing for milk feeding calves and the increased space allowance for growing cattle is positive for animal welfare in organic production. However, grouping of young calf, suckling for three days, as well as pasturing, could have some hygienic challenges due to more exposure for pathogens and parasites. For sheep and goats, the differences in animal health and welfare are small. For pigs, the access to outdoor area and provision of roughage is positive for animal health and welfare in organic production, but prevention and control of parasites and pathogens from wildlife, as well as predators may be a challenge. For poultry, the increased space allowance in organic production for broilers and layers, use of slow growing breeds, the use of roughage and natural light is beneficial for both health and welfare. There are no data to support positive effects on welfare and health of small flock sizes. Access to outdoor areas is positive for animal welfare, but increases the risk of parasites, predators and infectious diseases or subclinical infections with zoonotic agents (example: influenza and Newcastle disease). For honey bees, the ban in organic farming against feeding bee colonies with pollen supplements in periods with low pollen availability, as well as the ban (EU regulation) against the disinfection of equipment with caustic soda, produces welfare challenges compared to conventional honey production. Concerning feed, the nutrient contents, bioactive secondary plant compounds, as well as contaminants such as mycotoxins and pesticide residues may differ between organically and conventionally produced plants for feed. The impact on animal health and welfare is sparsely documented. Keyw:  For human health, the main conclusions are that consistent evidence of clear positive or negative effects on human health as a result of consuming an organic diet, in comparison with a conventional diet has not been presented. There are reported indications of health benefits from organic food on risk of atopic diseases in children and a positive impact of organic diets on general health in animal models. The evidence is not sufficient to draw any conclusion. None of the studies on human health reported negative health effects from organic food consumption compared with conventional foods. There are some differences in concentrations of nutrients and other bioactive compounds in organic, compared with conventional foods. However, differences are mostly small and no differences have been found in e.g. biomarkers of antioxidant status, hence the relevance for health in humans on a well-balanced diet is uncertain. There is currently no firm evidence to conclude that organic products are more or less microbiologically safe than conventionally produced foods, and it may be assumed that any possible differences between organic and conventional productions concerning the prevalence of pathogens or antimicrobial resistance in Norway will be small or insignificant. Organic foods contain lower amounts of pesticides than conventional food, and lower urinary concentrations of pesticide metabolites in children have been observed from abroad. In Norway, the estimated exposure to pesticide residues in conventional food is low, and well below what is likely to result in adverse health effects. The finding of pesticide residues which exceeds established regulatory limits in a minority of tested samples, is not considered to result in adverse health effects. Available data suggest that the combined exposure to multiple pesticide residues is not likely to result in increased human health risk.

Abstract: Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being 1–6 . Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was 〈 1.1 kg m –2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.

Abstract: A rare variant in TREM2 (p.R47H, rs75932628) was recently reported to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and, subsequently, other neurodegenerative diseases, i.e. frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we comprehensively assessed TREM2 rs75932628 for association with these diseases in a total of 19,940 previously untyped subjects of European descent. These data were combined with those from 28 published data sets by meta‐analysis. Furthermore, we tested whether rs75932628 shows association with amyloid beta (Aβ 42 ) and total‐tau protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 828 individuals with AD or mild cognitive impairment. Our data show that rs75932628 is highly significantly associated with the risk of AD across 24,086 AD cases and 148,993 controls of European descent (odds ratio or OR = 2.71, P  = 4.67 × 10 −25 ). No consistent evidence for association was found between this marker and the risk of FTLD (OR = 2.24, P  = .0113 across 2673 cases/9283 controls), PD (OR = 1.36, P  = .0767 across 8311 cases/79,938 controls) and ALS (OR = 1.41, P  = .198 across 5544 cases/7072 controls). Furthermore, carriers of the rs75932628 risk allele showed significantly increased levels of CSF‐total‐tau ( P  = .0110) but not Aβ 42 suggesting that TREM2 's role in AD may involve tau dysfunction.