I attached a few recent references on pesticides. There are many more, but you have to dig deeply into them to see the health risks of pesticides, including the modern epidemics of neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases, and obesity. Every medical toxicologist I have spoken with or listened to their presentations expresses no scientific doubt whatsoever on the ever-increasing health risks of pesticides. Especially disturbing is the political, legal and economic stranglehold by the pesticide industry as documented by the Pesticide Action Network of North America. The industry spends much more on public relations and sabotaging researchers than on bribing politicians in Washington.
Wes Bradford
The pesticide-industrial complex
WG Bradford, March 18, 2017
Parkinson’s Disease: Potential risk factors include environmental toxins, drugs, pesticides, brain microtrauma, focal cerebrovascular damage, and genomic defects.
Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Mar 4;18(3). pii: E551. doi: 10.3390/ijms18030551
[Epidemiology and causes of Parkinson’s disease] [Article in German].
Exposure to pesticides and possibly a history of head trauma represent genuine risk factors.
Nervenarzt. 2017 Mar 13. doi: 10.1007/s00115-017-0288-0.
Pesticide Action Network — North America (www.panna.org/key-issues/gmos-pesticides-profit):
“Just 6 corporations — Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont — dominate the world’s seed, pesticide and biotech industries, and control the fate of food and farming. They have historically unprecedented power over world agriculture, enabling them to control the agricultural research agenda, heavily influence trade and agricultural agreements and subvert market competition. Along the way, the Big 6 intimidate, impoverish and disempower farmers, and undermine food security, all while making historic profits — even as their genetically engineered seeds fail to deliver as promised. Contrary to what Big 6 marketing campaigns say, these corporations are in the game of expanding their market share.”
“Farmers are trapped on a “pesticide treadmill,” with new hazardous chemicals replacing the old as they become problematic.”
“When research by Dr Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley on the herbicide atrazine highlighted its endocrine-disrupting properties, the Syngenta corporation launched a campaign to discredit him, including commissioning a psychological report, planting company reps at speaking engagements, and even targeting his wife for investigation. (Atrazine is found in 94% of U.S. drinking water tested by the USDA.)”
“Industrial farming hides (“externalizes”) a variety of costs stemming from chemical dependence:
- Water: Industrial agriculture uses 70% of the planet’s fresh water. According to the (former) EPA, US agriculture contributes to nearly 75% of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams.
- Climate change: The current food system is responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions; it’s also fully dependent on oil both for transport and because pesticides and fertilizers are petrochemically-derived.
- Biodiversity: Bees, bats, amphibians and other beneficial species are dying off, and their declines are linked to pesticide exposure. Seven in 10 biologists flag today’s biodiversity collapse as an even greater threat than climate change.
- Human health: Pesticide exposure can increase risks of cancer, autoimmune disease (e.g., diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease and more. Children are especially at risk.”
Scientific American, August 1, 2009 (Editors):
“Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research? Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops because user agreements have explicitly forbidden the use of the seeds for any independent research under the threat of litigation. Unfortunately, they have made it impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised. Agritech companies have given themselves veto power over the work of independent researchers.”
US Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov): All scientific environmental research has been scrubbed from the website in January 2017 by its new pesticide-friendly administrator. (Ignorance is bliss.)
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has a proposal (effective January 2018) banning crop dusting and pesticide spraying within a quarter-mile of public schools and day care centers on weekdays, and that growers within this area would need to provide officials with an annual list of pesticides used. — Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2017
A judge has ruled that California can require Monsanto to label its popular weed killer Roundup as a possible cancer threat despite insistence from the agrochemical company that it poses no risk to people. In January, Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan tentatively dismissed a challenge by Monsanto and a citrus growers group. In her final ruling last week, the judge said that none of Monsanto’s objections were viable, the Fresno Bee reported.
The company had sued the nation’s leading agricultural producing state, alleging California officials illegally used recommendations from an international health organization to make its decision to require the warning labels. Monsanto’s attorney, Trenton Norris, told the judge that the warnings would drive some customers away, hurting the company.
California regulators have said they relied on a finding by the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, considered a gold standard for cancer research. Critics take issue with Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, which has no color or smell. Monsanto introduced it in 1974 as an effective way of killing weeds while leaving crops and plants intact. It’s sold in more than 160 countries, and farmers in California use it on 250 types of crops. — LA Times, Mar 15, 2017 (Associated Press)
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