Neato, how do we avoid exposure to that pesticide?
Don't use them on your lawn and garden, eat organic produce as much as you can, and beware of fruits and vegetables that are likely to expose you to pesticides, see
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135239/
Overall I would be much more afraid of occupational exposure than pesticide residues
Potatoes and spinach are two of my dietary staples, so it is alarming to see them on the "dirty dozen" list.
Would scrubbing, washing, peeling, cooking, etc do something to the "pesticide residue" found on these vegetables?
Occupational exposure is real and serious, and shows what might happen with chronic exposure. There are documentaries and videos that show the hands of field workers in California. They bubble and peel and blister and discolor, all from pesticides.
"In summary, findings conclusively demonstrate that consumer exposures to the ten most frequently detected pesticides on EWG's “Dirty Dozen” commodity list are at negligible levels and that the EWG methodology is insufficient to allow any meaningful rankings among commodities."
Farmers generally use less insecticide when they plant Bt corn and Bt cotton. Corn insecticide use by both GE seed adopters and nonadopters has decreased—only 9 percent of all U.S. corn farmers used insecticides in 2010. Insecticide use on corn farms declined from 0.21 pound per planted acre in 1995 to 0.02 pound in 2010. This is consistent with the steady decline in European corn borer populations over the last decade that has been shown to be a direct result of Bt adoption.
--Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, 2006; NRC, 2010
At least spraying puts insecticides on the outside of the plant, which is somewhat washable. Making the kernels of corn that we eat produce insecticides makes it impossible to remove these chemicals from our dinner plates....
We calculate that 99.99% (by weight) of the pesticides in the American diet are chemicals that plants produce to defend themselves. -- Dietary pesticides (99.99% all natural) Vol. 87, pp. 7777-7781, October 1990 Medical Sciences
Note the date. In other words, it's insufficient to say that pesticides are dangerous to humans, since most aren't in the quantities that occur naturally. On the toxicity of organophosphates, it's been well known since the second world war.
> Based on the survey executed among the pesticide users including pesticide applicators, farmers, and pesticide sellers