Since the subjects of the study were from an inner city, researchers speculated that exposure to the pesticides came from the food they ate.
Several studies over the last few years have associated exposure to organophosphates with learning problems and ADHD in children, and Alzheimer's in adults. Alzheimer's disease is more common in industrialized countries. In the U.S., 5.4 million people have Alzheimer's.
Organophosphates (OP's) were developed originally for chemical warfare by Nazi scientists in the 1930's, although they were never used as such. They are highly toxic and hazardous at low levels of exposure. OP's came into common use in agriculture to replace highly toxic DDT, which degrades more slowly than OP's. OP's, however, persist in the water supply. Malathion and diazinon are two of the more recognizable OP's used in residential lawn care, agriculture, and public parks.
Chloropicrin, a pesticide used in commercial strawberry production, is considered "highly toxic" by the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2005 in Salinas, California three hundred people, including paramedics, were poisoned by chloropicrin when a strawberry field was fumigated.
In addition to strawberries, chloropicrin and related pesticides are used on raspberries, tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms, and other commercial crops.
Chloropicrin was used in World War I as a poison gas.
At the present time, methyl iodide is being considered as a replacement for chloropicrin. Methyl iodide, manufactured by Arista Lifescience, is a highly toxic fumigant. It is carcinogenic and toxic to thyroid and reproductive systems according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Life science?)
Syngenta's organophosphate atrazine is one of the most commonly used food crop pesticides worldwide. Atrazine has been linked to birth defects, infertility, and cancer. It is one of the most commonly detected pesticides in the water supply in the U.S. Recently, atrazine was found in 94% of 309 water samples tested. It is the pesticide that a California researcher discovered turned male frogs into female frogs. It is used on corn and other crops.
Syngenta, maker of atrazine, is a Swiss agribusiness multinational corporation that was formed in 2000 when Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals merged. It is the largest pesticide company in the world, controlling about 1/5th of the global market. Each year in the U.S., 76.5 million pounds of its atrazine is used on corn and other crops, but in its home country, and throughout the European Union, atrazine is banned.
From the website of the Stockholm Convention:
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and have adverse effects to human health or to the environment. Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) can lead to serious health effects including certain cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease and even diminished intelligence. Given their long range transport, no one government acting alone can protect its citizens or its environment from POPs. In response to this global problem, the Stockholm Convention, which was adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004, requires Parties to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the environment. The Convention is administered by the United Nations Environment Programme and is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Treaty was signed in Stockholm, Sweden on May 23, 2001 by 128 parties. As of April 2011 there are 173 parties signed on to the treaty. The United States is one of about a dozen countries in the world that is not a party to the Stockholm Convention Treaty.
Wild Strawberries are the fruit of a perennial plant that grows in many areas of the world. Also, it is the title of a 1950's movie by Swedish film maker Ingemar Bergman. In Swedish, the phrase is used as a metaphor suggesting an overlooked or underrated gem-of-a-place, or a natural and fruitful paradise-lost.
superweeds and the war on drugs
The key ingredient in Monsanto's RoundUp, glyphosphate, is the biggest selling herbicide in the world. It's used on corn, soybeans, and cotton in agriculture, and on golf courses and home gardens. For 30 years it has been called "safe". It is not an organophosphate, but works by disrupting specific plant enzymes needed for growth. The U.S. government sprays glyphosphate on coca fields in Columbia.
In 2010 Monsanto made over $2 billion from sales of its glyphosphate even though its patent expired in 2000. Glyphosphate use in the U.S. doubled between 2001 and 2007. Now scientists and environmentalists are saying that over-use of the stuff since 1974 is causing complex problems in the environment and in human health.
The war-on-weeds has resulted in the emergence of 130 types of herbicide-resistent superweeds in the U.S., more than in any other country. Superweeds are appearing in 40 states; glyphosphate-resistant weeds now infest 11 million acres and threaten crop yields.
Recently, one environmental group called for a global ban on glyphosphate. Some research has shown that glyphosphate causes spontaneous abortion and infertility in livestock and malformations in chick and frog embryos. Other research suggests a link between glyphosphate exposure and cancer in humans.
The EPA is reviewing the issue, examining data put together by a research group - a group formed by Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, and BASF. It expects to have reviewed all relevant material by 2015 when it will make a decision. Meanwhile, glyphosphate goes on....
the birds, the bees, and the birds-and-the-bees
Global herbicide sales total over $14 billion with over $5 billion spent in the U.S. alone.There are 17,000 pesticide products on the market in the U.S. Each year, 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the U. S. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that everyone has pesticides in the body. After agriculture, the heaviest pesticide use is found in golf courses, schools, and public parks. In 2002, Florida led all states in pesticide use in applying 25 pounds of pesticides per acre to its land.
We continue to be exposed to pesticides that have been banned for decades and are no longer manufactured. For example, DDT and other highly chlorinated organic pesticides such as chlordane and aldrin were cancelled for use as pesticides in the 1970's due to their recognized toxicity to humans and the environment, but they persist in the soil and leach into waterways. Our exposure to these pesticides is through the food chain, especially in the fish we eat.
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) was a pesticide used on grain seeds such as wheat in the 1940's to about 1980. It is no longer used as a pesticide but it is formed as a by-product in making chemical solvents and other pesticides. HCB crosses the placenta and accumulates in fetal tissue, and it is concentrated in breast milk.
HCB is extremely toxic. In Turkey in the 1950's people who ate wheat sprayed with HCB experienced liver and thyroid disease. Children under the age of 1 year died after exposure to the tainted wheat. Thirty years after initial exposure, HCB levels in breast milk of women in the town in Turkey were over 7 times the average and 150 times what is allowed in cow's milk.
POP's like DDT and HCB bio-magnify, resist breaking-down, and increase in concentration up the food chain. Included in this group with DDT and HCB are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) and toxaphene. POP's are strongly associated with a number of diseases including cancer, endocrine imbalances, neuro-degeneration, and diabetes. The U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs has included Type II diabetes on its list of diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange, a dioxin containing POP's, used as an exfoliant in the Viet Nam war.
Toxaphene is an insecticide that was used on soybean and cotton crops in the U.S. and is still used on pineapples and bananas grown in some Western countries. Before it was banned, the U.S. was the world's largest user. Toxaphene has a half life in the soil of 10 years. Toxaphene is one of the so-called "dirty dozen" - a list of very toxic chemicals identified by the Stockholm Convention. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) and other dioxins also are on the list.
Monsanto knowingly dumped PCB's into rivers and soil contaminating Anniston, Alabama and surrounding areas for 40 years. The company is responsible for over 50 Superfund sites in the U.S. Dow Chemical, from 1930 to 1980, contaminated the Tittabawassee River and flood plain in Michigan with toxic chemicals, including dioxins. Speaking of Michigan, chemical company Velsicol (formerly Michigan Chemical Company) contaminated the Pine River and flood plain near St. Louis, Michigan with DDT and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB's). The company's plant on the Pine river was designated a Superfund site in 1983, but clean-up didn't begin until 1998.
In 1973 Velsicol/Michigan Chemical accidentally sent PBB's to the Michigan Farm Bureau Services instead of the magnesium oxide that it also manufactured as a dietary supplement for food animals. The mix-up wasn't discovered for a year, allowing PBB's to enter the food chain through milk, beef, pork, sheep, chickens, and eggs. Five-hundred Michigan farms had to be quarantined.
PBB's are endocrine disruptors and "probable" carcinogens, and are very similar to PCB's. PBB's were used in making plastics before they were discontinued in 1976. PBB has a half life of about 11 years in the human body.
At the present time, Velsicol, whose manufacturing plant is in Memphis, Tennessee is the only producer of hexachlorocyclopentadiene (HCCPD). In the 1970's, it made 50 million pounds per year. By the latter part of that decade, however, due to regulatory restrictions, production dropped to a mere 15 million pounds per year. HCCPD was used as an intermediary in the production of aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, mirex, and other very toxic POP's. It also is used in making flame retardants, resins, plastics, dyes, and pharmaceutical drugs. Improper disposal by combustion causes the release of toxic phosgene gas, a WWI chemical warfare agent.
Endosulfan, one of the most toxic persistant organic pesticides still in use in the world, was banned in April 2011 by the Stockholm Convention. It has been used on cashews in India and cotton in Africa, among other crops. It contaminates the Arctic and Antarctic food chains. It is so toxic that desperate farmers in developing countries use it to commit suicide. Velsicol's HCCPD is used in the production of endosulfan.
DuPont invented chloroflurocarbon refrigerants, CFC's, and was the world's leading producer until the chemicals were banned for their activity in depleting the earth's ozone layer. An environmental research group called DuPont the U.S.'s largest producer of air pollution. DuPont also is known for its textiles, which business it sold to Koch Industries in 2004, and Teflon, the brand of DuPont's non-stick cooking surface material.
The DuPont family immigrated to the U.S. in 1800 to escape the French Revolution in their home country. Its original product was gunpowder - the company eventually supplied 4 million barrels to the Union army during the American Civil War. DuPont's connection to the U.S. military initially was through Thomas Jefferson who became friends with a DuPont patriarch who helped Jefferson and the U.S. buy the French-owned Louisiana Territory. To repay the favor, Jefferson convinced the then Secretary of War to buy gunpowder from the DuPont mill in Delaware. The relationship between the military and industry, apparently a nice match, has continued.
Interestingly, Dupont originally made gunpowder and eventually made bullet-resistant vests.
Teflon, polytetrafluoroetheylene, PTFE, breaks down under heat releasing several very toxic gases. According to one environmental group, DuPont had been aware of Teflon's toxic decomposition products for 50 years without saying anything to anybody about it. In 2004, the EPA sued DuPont $16.5 million for covering up studies the company had done for a period of 20 years showing that its products had contaminated drinking water and was responsible for contaminating newborn babies. Dupont was sued by a group of people who lived near the company's Parkersburg, West Virginia plant for contaminating their water supply.
Dozens of incidental reports of the deaths of birds attest to the fatal toxicity of PTFE breakdown products. In fact, a condition called "teflon toxicosis" was identified by a Chicago area veteranarian who said that it was "a leading cause of death among birds". Chicks, ducklings, quail, parakeets, cockatiels, other pet birds, and lab rats die within hours of exposure to PTFE breakdown gases.
Perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA, C8, is the backbone chemical of many of DuPont's products, as well as a toxic breakdown product of Teflon. PFOA is the most persistent chemical known. It is not found in nature, and never breaks down. Once it's in the body, it doesn't come out for a long time. PFOA raises cholesterol, causes cancer, may cause strokes, compromises immune/reproductive/thyroid systems, and causes infertility and ADHD. Ninety-five percent of Americans have PFOA in their blood. These chemicals are used in food packaging and stain-resistant fabrics and carpets. Scotchguard and Stainmaster are brands that use these chemicals in their preparations.
True to form, DuPont also manufactures in-home water purification systems.
DuPont's genetically engineered soy is in many food products. Solae is the soy-product line created and marketed by DuPont with another company, Bunge, a huge agribusiness multinational with soy and seed-oil processing facilities located around the world.
Speaking of West Virginia, in 2008 a Bayer Chemical plant exploded killing 2 people. Chemicals released into the environment included those used in the production of thiodicarb, a pesticide banned in the European Union. Bayer is the company that makes the pesticide that is alleged to have killed 90 million bees in France over a period of years. In 2008 a group in Germany sued Bayer for marketing pesticides it knew were toxic to honey bees.
things go better with chema-cola
Not a pesticide but definitely a persistent environmental toxin is bisphenol A, BPA. A recent study showed that pregnant women exposed to BPA gave birth to children with a higher risk of respiratory illness. The study was presented at a meeting of the Pediatric Academy Society - not exactly an extremist environmental group - which subsequently called for tighter governmental regulation of such chemicals. Another study found that women with polycystic ovary disease had higher levels of BPA in their blood than women who did not have PCOS. Many studies have shown harmful effects of BPA on thyroid and reproductive systems in both males and females, animal studies and humans.
The official word from FDA's Health and Human Services, however, is that BPA has not been proven to cause harm. Still in January 2010 FDA told parents not to pour hot liquids into plastic baby bottles. This year Coca-Cola had an opportunity to stop lining their soda cans with BPA-containing material but decided to take the official statement of FDA regarding the toxin as a nod to continue to use it. "A little BPA with aspartame in that diet Coke won't hurt anyone."
BPA has been banned in Japan since 1999. In Canada it is recognized as toxic and is banned in some applications. A 1997 research study concerning the low-dose exposure of BPA found changes in the reproductive systems of male mice. In immediate response, a chemical industry "task force" did the research but mysteriously found no ill effects. Researchers at Shell, Dow, General Electric, and Bayer - all producers of BPA - also could not replicate the positive results of the 1997 research. This lack of replication, according to the chemical industry, re-affirmed the "safety" of BPA.
At low doses, BPA is an endocrine disruptor and neurotoxin. Even so, in November 2010 chemical company lobby group, the American Chemical Council, managed to prevent a bi-partisan effort in the U.S. Congress to ban BPA in baby bottles and drinking cups. Somehow the Council twisted some Republican arms and, subsequently, some Republicans decided not to support the bill - a bill whose purpose was to minimize exposure of newborns and infants to a recognized toxin....
The American Chemical Council boasts a very long list of members including Dow, DuPont, Bayer, BASF, Chevron, Exxon, Merck, Eli Lilly, Solutia.... Recall that Solutia is the company created by Monsanto to handle problems caused by its PCB contamination in Alabama and around the country.
BPA is found in plastic toys, polycarbonate bottles, cash register tape, lipstick, and many other consumer goods. Originally, it was used as a fungiside. Every year, 4 billion pounds of BPA is put into products. A compound in soy, genistein, enhances the toxicity of BPA. Feeding your baby soy-based formula in a polycarbonate bottle, therefore, though good for the industry, may not be the best for baby.
weapons of mass extinction
Dow Chemical, with Monsanto, supplied the U.S. military with the herbicide/exfoliant Agent Orange during the Viet Nam war. Dow makes or has made Saran Wrap, styrofoam, Ziploc Bags, the pesticide Lorsban, silicon breast implants, and BPA among many other products. Their biotech branch genetically modifies corn, soy, cotton, wheat, and alfalfa.
In the early 1940's Dow made napalm for the U.S. military which used it in WWII, Korean War, and Viet Nam War. Napalm is an incendiary weapon, like jelled gasoline, that burns at very high temperatures, and was used originally as an exfoliant.
In the 1940's Dow developed a process for extracting magnesium from seawater and attracted the attention of the U.S. military which needed the light weight metal to build aircraft. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. government asked Dow to increase its production of magnesium. Dow built another plant and, with the help of the government, built a small city around the plant to house workers.
When the U.S. government decided to make hydrogen bombs and other nuclear weapons in the 1950's the Atomic Energy Commission appointed Dow to manage the Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility near Denver, Colorado where the stuff would be made. For 25 years, until Dow was replaced by Rockwell, the facility contaminated the air and the ground near the site with radioactive waste and plutonium-contaminated solvents such as carbon tetrachloride and dioxin. By 1969 it had become the most costly environmental "accident" in U.S. history.
In 2008 Dow and Rockwell were ordered to pay $925 million to residents around the Rocky Flats site who claimed that their health problems and property devaluations were a result of negligence on the part of the companies. A Dow representative commenting on the court order said that Dow had done nothing wrong and that it would appeal the decision. The federal government spent $7 billion cleaning-up Rocky Flats, which now is a wildlife refuge.
In 1961 president John F. Kennedy and vice-president Lyndon Johnson participated in a ceremony honoring Dow's brine-mining de-salination operation in Texas. Johnson was from Texas.
Dow's pesticide 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane, DBCP, was used on 40 different crops until it was banned in 1979 by the EPA. Until 1985, though, it was used on pineapples in Hawaii. It was banned because it caused sterility in males exposed to the stuff. But Dow knew as early as 1960 of its toxicity without reporting it and continued to make it even after it was banned.
DBCP is carcinogenic, an endocrine disruptor, and it persists in ground water. In 1989 a farming area in California still showed contamination with DBCP, causing water wells to be closed, though the pesticide had not been used there since 1970.
Dow sold DBCP around the world without warnings about its toxicity or instruction on safe use. In one banana plantation area in Costa Rica about 1/4th of the male workers became sterile from contact with DBCP which they mixed by hand.
In 2008 Dow filed a lawsuit against the Quebec government for the government's ban on Dow's herbicide 2,4-D. In 2006 Quebec banned 2,4-D and other chemicals used for cosmetic purposes on lawns and golf courses. Quebec said that it took this action on behalf of the health and welfare of its people. Dow said that the Quebec government had no scientific basis for the ban.
2,4-D is the most widely used pesticide in the world. It was developed in Britain during WWII to improve yields for grain crops. A plant hormone, it kills certain weeds by causing uncontrolled growth. At least 1500 herbicide products contain 2,4-D as an active ingredient. It is a ubiquitous lawn and garden herbicide. Each year, U.S. consumers use 40 million pounds of 2,4-D. Moreso than adults, children have higher concentrations of it in their bodies. It breaks down in the environment but is tracked into homes and onto carpets where it persists. 2,4-D is considered a neurotoxin.
In 2010 the ban on cosmetic pesticide use, which seems to have started in Quebec and is sweeping across Canada, inspired the state legislature in New Hampshire - not to ban - but to create a committee to study what the effects might be of banning only cosmetic pesticide use. We don't want to be too hasty, now, do we, New Hampshire.
The 2008-2009 report of the President's Cancer Panel (current members of which were appointed by George W. Bush) reported the following, among other things:
- a significant number of cancer deaths in the U.S. each year are caused by environmental pollutants, especially in lower income workers
- 58 chemical substances to which people are exposed are known carcinogens and another 188 are "probable" carcinogens
- only 2% of 80,000 chemicals on the market have been tested for carcinogenicity prior to marketing
- in 2009 about 1.5 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer and 562,000 died
- the impact of environmentally caused cancer has been "grossly underestimated"
- children, more than adults, are vulnerable to environmental toxins
- despite its relationship to several diseases including cancer, BPA is still found in consumer products
- "grievous harm" done by environmental toxins "has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program"
- some cancers in children are on the rise
- research is showing that environmental toxins associated with genetic, immune, and endocrine dysfunction can lead to cancer and other diseases
- the entire U.S. population is exposed daily to "numerous agricultural chemicals" many of which are known or suspected carcinogens or endocrine disruptors
- pesticides approved by the EPA contain about 900 active ingredients, many of which are toxic
And more:
The burgeoning number and complexity of known or suspected environmental carcinogens compel us to act to protect public health, even though we lack irrefutable proof of harm.And:
Toxic materials produced for and used by the military have caused widespread air, soil, and water pollution across the United States and beyond our borders....And:
...low levels of exposure [to environmental toxins] at a specific point in the development of an organism... could have really, really significant changes in ways that the classical idea about genetics would not predict.And:
Our science looks at substance-by-substance exposure and doesn't take into account the multitude of exposures we experience in daily life.View the 240-page report at: http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/ADVISORY/pcp/annualReports/index.htm.
Herbert Needleman, the professor and researcher who identified the toxic and harmful effects of lead in children in the early 1970's, was ostracized by a lead industry trade organization and accused of scientific misconduct. Needleman's pioneering work was responsible for lowering blood lead levels in children by 78% from 1976 to 1991.
In 2006 the EPA appointed Deborah Rice to chair a panel of experts to study health risks posed by the flame retardant PBDE. The well-respected researcher submitted her report about a year later, but was fired for her efforts. The American Chemistry Council, aware of how the report would go, wrote a letter to an EPA authority accusing Rice of conflict of interest. The EPA fired Rice and removed her comments from the report without investigating the ACC's charges, but on the ACC's letter alone.
Shortly after First Lady Michelle Obama announced, a couple of years ago, that the White House vegetable garden would be "organic" the Mid America Croplife Association sent the White House a letter saying that it was dissappointed that Ms. Obama had not recognized the important role that conventional agriculture had played in the history of the U.S.
Croplife is an international agricultural biotech industry group who's members include BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta, and a few others. Croplife Foundation is a non-profit "research organization" that has received grants from Croplife America, state Departments of Agriculture, and U.S. EPA.
The CDC's Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, 2009, reports the following:
- flame retardant BDE 47 was found in all participant samples;
- BPA is found in nearly all participant samples;
- PFC's, banned in 1979, were found in most participant samples, though levels have decreased by 80% since 1980;
- PFOA's were found in nearly all participant samples.
Commenting on the U.S.military's use of napalm and its horrible effects in Viet Nam, in 1967 writer Robert Crichton said: "The excessive valuation of American life, over any other life, accounts for the weapons and tactics we feel entitled to use...." Now we may modify Crichton's statement to read "The excessive importance of corporate American profits, over any other consideration...."
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