- Robert Louis Stevenson once noted: "The
cruelest lies are often told in silence."
-
-
- Arabian Proverb He who knows not and
knows not that he knows not He is a fool - shun him; He who knows not and
knows he knows not, He is simple - teach him; He who knows and knows not
he knows, He is asleep - wake him; He who knows and knows he knows, He
is wise; follow him
-
-
-
- My mother always used to say "If
you want a helping hand - you will find one at the end of each of your
arms." If you want to protect yourself - you must look to yourself
- not to the poison "industry' or the "regulators" to "protect"
you.
-
-
-
- CHAPTER 14 WHO IS WHO IN THE
POISON "INDUSTRY"
-
- - with malice aforethought...
-
- By Steve Tvedten
-
-
- "They (corporations) cannot commit
treason, nor be outlawed, nor be excommunicate - for they have no souls"
- Sir Edward Coke, Case of Sutton's Hospital
-
- "A nation that is afraid to let
its people judge truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that
is afraid of its people" - John F. Kennedy
-
- First of all - volatile, synthetic pesticide
poisons are the largest group of poisonous substances purposefully being
added or disseminated throughout our environment. All of the major poison
producers are in the "health"/ pharmaceutical business too -
so as you become poisoned/polluted and sicken and begin to die from their
allopathic poisons - they will sell you allopathic drugs to "survive".
These people are not "guardians" of the environment. They are
the destroyers of the environment - they are not in the "chemical
or health" industry - they are in the death or poison "industry"!
-
- Between 1989 and 1995 the poison "industry"
poured $20 million dollars into Congressional campaigns - please read Toxic
Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law,
and Endangers Your Health. The truth is simply not in these producers
of poison; when I started in pest control 30 years ago, Velsicol, the producer
of the cancer-causing chemical chlordane/heptachlor, ran advertisements
- stating these poisons were so safe you did not need gloves or a respirator.
I believed Velsicol and used their poisons and I ended up nearly dying.
Even on 5/17/97 when the Velsicol Chemical Corporation finally announced
it is permanently ceasing production of their cancer-causing chemicals
chlordane and heptachlor and will not make its proprietary technology available
to any other company for manufacture - the company still stated it's products
have been used for protection! "We have always believed in the efficiency
of these products, and the science that supports their continued use, but
the economics no longer support continued manufacture." So, do not
believe any of their lies! It is too bad you cannot put a corporation
in jail or even make it (the Mamzers) tell the truth!
-
- Second - in February, 1997 I noticed
a new web site by Frank Altomonte <alto@earthlink.net and http://home.earthlink.net/~alto/boycott.html#international
contained an interesting article by Jon Rapaport entitled: Revolt Against
the Empire - Welcome to the Great Boycott. I have basically included his
entire article with some other comments and additions as this chapter.
-
- We are truly facing the "Banksters"
of the Evil Empire, but unless you know the names of at least some of the
players you will never realize the size and scale of your real enemy.
Look into the face of the beast...
-
- PANUPS noted on 4/30/97 that the top
ten agrochemical companies all showed an increase in both dollar and national
currency sales in 1996. Monsanto had the highest rate of growth, with
a 22.8% increase over 1995 sales. Zeneca also showed double digit growth
-- an 11.3% increase in dollar sales with a 9% increase in volume. Bayer
had the smallest growth in sales (1.2%) and fell from third place in 1995
to sixth. After last year's merger of the Ciba Geigy and Sandoz, the newly
formed multinational corporation Novartis entered the ranking in first
place.
-
- 1996 Agrochemical Sales of Top Ten Companies
-
- Company Sales (US$ mill.)
% change vs.
- 1995
- 1. Novartis 4,527
+ 4.5
- 2. Monsanto 2,997
+ 22.8
- 3. Zeneca 2,630
+ 11.3
- 4. AgrEvo 2,493
+ 6.4
- 5. Du Pont 2,472
+ 6.5
- 6. Bayer 2,360
+ 1.2
- 7. Rhone-Poulenc 2,210
+ 5.7
- 8. DowElanco 2,000
+ 1.9
- 9. Cyanamid 1,989
+ 4.1
- 10. BASF 1,541
+ 8.4
- Rhone-Poulenc and Du Pont both reported
strong sales in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Rhone-Poulenc's sales
were boosted by high sales of its new maize insecticide, Regent (fipronil),
due to be launched in the U. S. next year. Much of the company's U.S.
agrochemical business is based on the older carbamate insecticides such
as Sevin (carbaryl), Temik (aldicarb) and Larvin (thiodicarb) which were
acquired when Rhone-Poulenc bought out Union Carbide. The company is currently
restructuring its U. S. operations to create two new business units which
will focus on "new" and "mature" products.
-
- Monsanto's increased sales were due in
part to sales of Roundup (glyphosate) which were allowed for use on transgenic
herbicide-tolerant crops for the first time in 1996. Roundup Ready (glyphosate
tolerant) soybeans were planted on over one million acres in the U. S.
in 1996, and Monsanto predicts an eight to ten million acre crop this year.
In addition, approximately 250,000 to 300,000 acres of Roundup Ready soybeans
were planted in Argentina for the 1996/97 season. Since 1995, Monsanto
has invested over US$200 million in glyphosate manufacturing technology,
and plans to invest another US$180 million for 1997.
-
- While glyphosate-tolerant crops offer
potential for expanded sales of Roundup, in the next few years most of
the increase is expected to come from increasing adoption of "conservation
tillage" practices in countries around the world. Monsanto estimates
that the practice could be extended to more than 240 million acres worldwide
by 2000, up from the 185 million acres at present. More than 40% of the
volume growth of Roundup in recent years has come from expanded use of
"conservation tillage" practices.
-
- The Danish Environmental Protection Agency
is currently investigating claims that residues (contamination) of glyphosate
have been detected in Copenhagen's drinking water at levels exceeding European
Union limits of 0.1 milligrams per liter. According to the head of the
Copenhagen food safety agency, residues of up to 0.18 milligrams per liter
have been found.
-
- Jack Doyle wrote most of his Altered
Harvest in 1983 and 1984 on agriculture, genetics, and the fate of the
world's food supply - even back then he noted the beginning of our problems
with the poison "industry" - get a copy of his book and Silent
Spring and read - please read!
-
- The biotechnology now owned by and patented
by multinational monopolies is the "creation" of genes that command
the faculty of chlorposts to bottle the sun, to resist insects, disease,
or chemical contamination - the fact that we now either can have contaminated
food or famine depending on the whims of the poison "industry"
- is simply not acceptable nor reasonable.
-
- Look at the history of these agrigenetic
monopolies - these are some of the very corporations that have created
health/environmental contamination problems for us in the past; they have
sold us unsafe drugs, pesticides and/or products that were not adequately
tested or that they tested in fraudulent laboratories, and/or falsified
the health results, they have polluted the earth, given us cancers, nerve
damages, altered our DNA, killed us and the earth, bribed public officials
and/or operated outside of moral law and environmental accountability.
Rev. 13:17.
-
- Dow's partnership with Eli Lilly the
nations' 7th largest drug firm is an example - officials at Eli Lilly knew
its arthritis drug Oraflex had been associated with 29 deaths in Europe
before it was "approved" for sale in this country - but no one
told FDA of the deaths as Oraflex was being reviewed so that it could be
sold in the U.S. The drug is now banned in the U.S.
-
- Nathan Diegelman the S.T.A.T.E. Foundation
b1891@FreeNet. Buffalo. EDU noted in his "Poison in the Grass: - It
is a violation of U. S. federal law to claim pesticides are "safe
when used as directed" since nothing can assure safety. (In spite
of this fact, Agriculture Canada, the federal agency responsible until
recently for licensing pesticides in Canada, routinely used this misleading
health statement, adding for good measure that "most pesticides are
safer than table salt". (Fortunately, pesticides in Canada are now
licensed by Health Canada.) Some pesticides labeled "bio-degradable"
degrade into compounds more dangerous than the original! Examples include
Mancozeb, which degrades into a substance that is an EPA-classified probable
carcinogen. The pesticide industry also implies that "organic' means
safe and natural (for example, "Nature's Lawn"), knowing that
the term legally may be applied to any compound containing carbon and hydrogen.
ChemLawn and other lawn "care" companies and manufacturers have
often been sued for fictitious "safety" claims. Many poison
applicators are just as conniving and deceitful, using statements like
"absolutely cannot harm children or 'pets" and "perfectly
safe for the environment" to mislead the public. The New York State
Attorney General's office sued Dow Elanco chemical company when they claimed
that Dursban shows "no evidence of significant risk to the environment"
when right on the label is stated "this pesticide is toxic to birds
and extremely toxic to fish and aquatic organisms". A few years later
on May 2, 1995, the EPA fined Dow Elanco for "failing to report to
the Agency information on adverse health effect (to humans) over the past
decade involving a number of pesticides, including chlorpyrifos (brand
name Dursban)". Most of the information came from personal injury
claims against Dow Elanco which the company had hidden from the EPA. Now
it is even being found that chlorpyrifos causes multiple sclerosis.
-
- Some applicators and some companies have
even made claims that their poisons "better" the environment.
"Funk" lawn care of New York has coined the phrase "Growing
A Better Environment" in order to fool consumer into believing lawn
chemicals pose no ecological harm. Another states "a 50-by-50 foot
lawn produces enough oxygen to sustain a family of four." But this
is only true with a plot of land that has tall grass and no lawn care.
Synthetic pesticide poisons, lawnmower fumes, and common lawn care practices
actually create a net loss or destruction of oxygen.
-
- The United States General Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has also tried to alert the
public to lawn chemical dangers. GAO's undercover team noted many fictitious
claims by many in the lawn "care" industry. Many included illegal
claims of product "safety". Others were just deceiving, such
as the ChemLawn claim that a child would have to ingest ten cups of treated
grass clippings to equal the toxicity of one baby aspirin. In fact, the
real danger is not that people will be grazing the lawn, but that most
poisonings come from inhaling pesticide residues or absorbing them through
the skin.
-
- Most spray do-it-yourselfers are just
as ignorant when it comes to proper protection and safety precautions.
Studies show most don't even look at the warnings on their toxins. They
don't wear gloves, goggles, or protective clothing to decrease exposure.
Worse, many don't keep people off the contaminated area after chemicals
are applied. Homeowners commonly use up to ten times as much pesticides
per acre as farmers. A Virginia Tech study for the state legislature found
that most homeowners have no idea how much nitrogen they use when fertilizing
and that they routinely apply chemicals in ways that damage water supplies.
-
- Pesticides drift and settle during application.
In the Antarctic ice pack alone there are 2.4 million pounds of DDT and
its metabolites from years past. Lawn pesticides engulf the home and are
easily tracked inside, readily inhaled and absorbed through the skin.
They do harm by attacking the central nervous system and other essential
organs. Symptoms of pesticide poisoning are often deceptively simple,
commonly mis-diagnosed as flu or allergies. They include, but are not
limited to, headaches, nausea, fever, breathing difficulties, seizures,
eye pains, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, sore nose, tongue, or throat; burning
skin, rashes, coughing, muscle pain, tissue swelling, blurred vision, numbness
and tingling in hands or feet, incontinence, anxiety, irritability, sleep
disorders, hyperactivity, fatigue, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, high
blood pressure, spontaneous bleeding, and temporary paralysis. Long-term
consequences include lowered fertility, birth defects, miscarriages, blindness,
liver and kidney dysfunction, neurological damage, heart trouble, stroke,
immune system disorders, menstrual problems, memory loss, suicidal depression,
cancer, and death.
-
- The National Academy of Sciences reports
that at least one out of seven people are significantly harmed by pesticide
exposure each year. Increasingly, reports from many people around the
country are "beginning to link their 'feeling terrible' with the fact
the neighbors had the lawn sprayed the day before", notes Catherine
Karr, a toxicologist for the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.
Unfortunately, except for industrial accidents, tests for pesticide poisoning
are rarely performed, partially because they are expensive. Doctors also
attribute most pesticide poisoning symptoms to stress, allergies, influenza,
or an overactive imagination.
-
- Many Americans are developing Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), a bizarre and extremely disabling condition.
In 1979, the Surgeon General issued a report stating, "There is virtually
no major chronic disease to which environmental factors do not contribute,
directly or indirectly." Indeed, people today are exposed to synthetic
chemicals at levels unmatched at any time throughout human history. Washington
Post staff writer Michael Weiskopf noted in a February 10, 1990 article
that "hypersensitivity to low levels of toxic chemicals (MCS) is a
serious and growing medical problem, threatening to cause significant economic
consequences by disabling large numbers of otherwise healthy people."
MCS is a result of the destruction of the body's ability to tolerate and
synthesize chemicals after exposure to toxic substances. Victims develop
extreme reactions now not only to lawn pesticides, but also hair sprays,
perfumes, soaps, formaldehyde, and many other common household products.
Many victims include former (lawn) pesticide applicators and users, their
families, and children.
-
- Sharon Malhorta, a registered nurse from
Pittsburgh, would get so sick from lawn and tree spraying that she had
to leave her home every spring. Otherwise she would suffer headaches,
paralysis in her hands and feet, and muscle seizures. Repeated exposure
caused blurred vision, speech difficulties, and severe stomach cramps.
Her husband, a doctor, suspected early on her symptoms were the result
of nerve damage from organophosphates, which are widely used nerve-gas
type insecticides, like Diazinon. After questioning lawn companies about
their poisons he was told they were "practically non-toxic",
registered by the EPA, and not harmful to people or pets. He later discovered
that the poisons his wife was exposed to were in fact neurotoxins, and
was shocked to discover there were surprisingly few EPA studies on their
health effects.
-
- Karen James, a Michigan postal worker,
successfully sued ChemLawn in 1988. While walking past one of their trucks,
a hose ruptured and she was drenched with chemicals. The employee told
her not to worry, that only fertilizers were in the spray. But soon after
she became seriously ill, and her eyes and skin burned. When her symptoms
of fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and reduced vision didn't clear up, her
Doctor called ChemLawn to find out what chemicals she had been exposed
to. He also was told nopesticides had been involved, but after tests on
Karen's body tissue detected high levels of Dursban, ChemLawn finally admitted
the truck contained pesticides. Many other suits against lawn companies
are settled out of court. Frequently the settlement restrains the victim
from talking about the incident, so the public is not informed.
-
- For the price of green lawns, our children
are also being poisoned. In 1985 a married couple in Sarasota, Florida,
felt pressured by their neighbors to get their lawn treated. They hired
a Company, never thinking their 2-year-old daughter would be jeopardized.
The Company declared the yard would be safe about an hour after the toxic
chemicals were applied. However, soon after playing barefoot on the grass,
the couple's Daughter developed a rash all over her body, her urine turned
dark brown, and she ran a high fever. Her Doctor prescribed antibiotics,
but her condition grew steadily worse. Her hands and feet swelled to twice
normal size, blistered, and peeled. Her lips turned black and bled. Years
later she is still permanently prone to headaches and has 40% hearing loss
in her right ear.
-
- Barry and Jackie Veysey believe lawn
chemicals were responsible for the death of their baby son. Barry was
a professional turf master, and the chemicals he worked with may have mutated
his sperm or poisoned the infant in utero. Every time Jackie washed her
husband's uniforms, the chemicals may have been absorbed through her skin
and permeated the placenta. The child was born with a severe and fatal
type of dwarfism. Jackie held her son only once before he died due to
massive failure of his underdeveloped organs.
-
- Kevin Ryan from Arlington Heights, Illinois,
feels like a prisoner in his home. "I can't even play in my own yard
because the neighbors spray their lawns and trees", he says. Kevin
suffered routine chemical exposure as a toddler from lawn spraying, and
now suffers nausea, irritability, fatigue, and loss of memory whenever
pesticides are nearby. His family moves to Colorado every spring and fall,
the peak spraying times of the year, to keep him safe.
-
- In 1986 Robin Dudek of Hamburg, New
York pulled the garden hose off her lawn and used it to fill a wading pool
for her daughters Amanda, 3, and Kristen,. Earlier her lawn had been sprayed
with these safe lawn chemicals. When Amanda started drinking from the
hose, she began to scream that the water was burning her. Then Kristen
began crying and screaming as well. Robin took the children inside and
noticed burn marks on both of them, as well as the smell of chemicals on
Amanda's breath. The girls later suffered from fevers, swollen eyes, and
blisters the size of grapes clustered around their necks.
-
- Christina Locek was a professional ice
skater and pianist before her health was destroyed in 1985, when her neighbor's
lawn was sprayed with pesticides. Her cat and dog died that same day,
and she suffers headaches, partial paralysis, vision loss, and blood disorders.
-
- Former Navy Lieutenant George Prior developed
a fever, headache and nausea after playing on a golf course treated with
Daconil. It was later discovered he was suffering from toxicepidermal necrolysis,
which causes skin to fall off in sheets and massive organ failure. Prior
died soon after . . ..
-
- According to the EPA, 95% of the pesticides
used on residential lawns are possible or probable carcinogens. In 1989
the National Cancer Institute reported children develop leukemia six times
more often when pesticides are used around their homes. The American Journal
of Epidemiology found that more children with brain tumors and other cancers
had been exposed to insecticides than children without. Studies by the
National Cancer Society and other cancers had been exposed to insecticides
than discovered a definite link between fatal non-hodgkins lymphoma (NHL)
and exposure to triazine herbicides (like Atrazine), phenoxyacetic herbicides
(2,4-D), organophosphate insecticides (diazinon, Dursban, etc.), fungicides,
and fumigants; all of which have uses as lawn chemicals. This is an important
contributing factor to the 50% rise in NHL over the past ten years in the
American population. Studies of farmers who once used these pesticides
also found alarmingly high numbers of NHL, especially in those who didn't
wear protective clothing. This latest finding also proves the theory that
most danger from pesticides comes through dermal absorption, not ingestion.
A University of Iowa study of golf course superintendents found abnormally
high rates of death due to cancer of the brain, large intestine, and prostate.
Other experts are beginning to link golfers, and non-golfers who live
near fairways, with these same health problems.
-
- Documented cases of pesticides in groundwater
wells are suspect for cancer clusters showing in many towns. In 1989,
drinking water in at least 38 states was known to be contaminated. After
the herbicide Dacthal was applied to Long Island golf courses, it was detected
in drinking water wells at levels twenty times the State's safety limits.
The water also contained a dioxin that is a highly toxic by-product of
Dacthal. The New York State Attorney General sued the manufacturer in
1989 to investigate he contamination and develop a treatment program, since
ground water is the main source of drinking water for Long Island. Twenty-two
other synthetic pesticide poisons have been found in the water so far.
However, there is still no requirement or systematic program designed
to test for drinking water contamination. As Michael Surgan, Ph.D., Chief
Environmental Scientist for the New York State Attorney General, and an
advocate for responsible pesticide use, puts it, "If you buy the notion
that we have to accept a certain amount of risk from pesticides to safeguard
the food supply, that's one thing, he notes. But with lawns, people are
applying (nerve gases and) carcinogens simply for the sake of aesthetics.
That's got to change".
-
- Synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers
are becoming some of the worst water pollutants in America. Discharges
into San Francisco Bay from the central valley of California are estimated
at almost two tons per year. Phosphorous levels in some Maryland streams
have doubled since 1986. And an EPA study found potentially harmful levels
of nitrate from chemical fertilizers in drinking water wells nationwide.
This can cause blue-baby syndrome, an oxygen-depriving condition in infants
that can be fatal. Environmental impacts are also devastating. Ward Stone,
a DEC wildlife pathologist, has long studied bird kills from pesticides
that were used according to label regulation. Documented cases of owls,
mourning doves, sparrows, blue birds, and many other songbirds killed by
lawn chemicals are on the rise. Waterfowl like Canadian geese, mallards,
wood ducks, and others have suffered even worse. In 1984 there were 700
brant found dead on a Long Island country club after it was sprayed with
Diazinon. Pesticide exposure causes shivering, excessive salivating, grand
mal seizures, wild flapping, and sometimes screaming according to U. S.
Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer Diana Conger. Ward Stone likens these
birds to miners' canaries, foreshadowing serious harm to humans from chemical
build-up in the environment.
-
- Frank Clifford, Times Environmental Writer,
noted on 3/26/97: In a partial settlement of the nation's largest case
of offshore chemical contamination, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
and 155 other municipalities agreed Tuesday, 3/25/97 to pay $45.7 million
to help clean up the world's largest known deposit of DDT, off the Palos
Verdes Peninsula. The amount, which represents about 20% of the estimated
cost of cleanup, would also help restore damaged fish and wildlife populations.
-
- Filed in U. S. District Court in Los
Angeles, the settlement reinstates an agreement that was struck down by
the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals two years ago on grounds of "insufficient
evidence".
-
- The federal government sought damages
from local municipalities in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties for
operating sewage lines and treatment plants that processed DDT and dumped
it (unchanged) into the ocean.
-
- But the settlement leaves pending the
federal government's much larger claim against the Montrose Chemical Corp.,
the now-defunct company that manufactured the DDT in Torrance. Montrose
representatives contend that the government lacks sufficient proof linking
the Company to any damage to natural resources.
-
- Environmental groups hailed the settlement
as a major milestone in the seven-year-old case.
-
- "We're ecstatic about the settlement
and we hope it sends a strong message to Montrose to...start working on
issues of protecting the natural resources of Santa Monica Bay," said
Marc Gold, executive director of HEAL the Bay and a member of the EPA's
advisory committee on the Palos Verdes site.
-
- In July, the U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency declared the 27 miles of contaminated ocean floor a Superfund site.
Over a 24-year period ending in 1970, several million pounds of DDT seeped
through county sewer lines from the Montrose chemical plant into the ocean
off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
-
- In 1971, the county cut off the plant's
access to the sewer system because of growing concerns about ocean pollution.
-
- Federal investigators found that wildlife
around Catalina and the other Channel Islands still remains contaminated
by high DDT concentrations.
-
- Most people seriously overestimate the
amount of "protection" given them by governments regarding pesticide
"safety". Congress found that 90% of the pesticides on the market
lack even the minimal required safety screening. Of the 34 most used lawn
pesticides, 33 have not been fully tested for human health hazards. If
any tests are done, they are performed by the chemical manufacturers, not
the EPA. "If a chemical company wanted to, they could start with
a desired conclusion, and skew the data, and the EPA would never know",
notes David Welch, and entomologist with the EPA's Office of Pesticide
Programs. Welch did a random sampling of 15 pesticide files and found
13 without proper reviews. One third of the most commonly used lawn pesticides
were illegally registered for use.
-
- Despite the fact executives of Industrial
Bio- Test labs were given jail terms for faking pesticides tests, the chemicals
are still on the market. Shortages in funding, personnel, and interference
from business has slowed re-evaluation of these chemicals. Even when the
EPA does refuse a pesticide registration, the manufacturer often files
a lawsuit, which keeps their poison on the market. Jay Feldman, coordinator
of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, is well aware
of this. "The EPA should by called the IPA- the Industry Protection
Agency", he charges. The chemical industry is extremely powerful,
and wraps the EPA in red tape. It is also essential to understand that
by law synthetic pesticide poison registration in the U.S.A. is not a consumer
safety program. According to Congress, the EPA does not require testing
and assessment guidelines specifically for lawn or home use. EPA has admitted
in court that pesticide registration does not ensure product safety. Rather,
it is a balancing act of costs and risks. Most lawn pesticides were registered
before 1972, when more stringent restrictions took effect under the revised
Federal Rodenticide and Fungicide Act. They were never tested for many
human health hazards like carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity, and environmental
dangers. Most, as previously stated, have yet to be re-evaluated, yet
remain on the market . . . to poison you and yours.
-
- Read the labels on many lawn pesticide
products, sprayed by lawn companies or sold in stores, and you will find
one or more of the following: 2,4-D, Captan, Diazinon, Dursban, Dacthal,
Dicamba, and Mecocrop. Each was registered without full safety screening.
2,4-D is an artificial hormone that has become a synonym for "dangerous
pesticide", but dermal absorption of mecocrop is far more dangerous,
and dicamba is much more persistent in the environment - a mixture of these
three is usually used, not 2,4-D alone. Diazinon has been banned for use
on golf courses and sod farms due to massive waterfowl deaths but is still
widely and routinely used on home lawns and gardens. It is an organophosphate
which disables the nervous system by blocking enzymes essential for nerve
impulse transmission.
-
- In April, 1983, the public learned that
Dow Chemical officials had scientific information on dioxin (a substance
found in herbicides such as 2,4,5-T and the Viet Nam defoliant Agent Orange
as early as 1965 that raised questions about its safety to humans but withheld
this information from the federal government for more than fifteen years.
-
- What does the poison industry continue
to say?
-
- The poison industry public relations
group, RISE ("Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment"),
advocates in their ad in Pest Control, May, 1997 that PCO's (poison applicators)
"Communicate with your customers. Your customers expect you and your
employees to be credible and knowledgeable sources of information about
your products (poisons). Take time to talk with them about your safe and
responsible use of pesticides (poisons). Studies show that most people
don't know that pesticide products are among the most highly tested products
sold. the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registers only those
uses of pesticide products (poisons) that pose minimal risks.
-
- Emphasize that pesticide products (poisons)
must (now) undergo stringent government-monitored testing before they can
be sold. It is a long and costly process. For example: - It takes a chemical
manufacturer 8 to 10 years to test and register a product, at an average
cost of $30 million to $50 million. - As many as 120 tests or more
are performed, many specific to health, safety and the environment. - Only
one potential pesticide in 20,000 makes it from the research lab to the
market.
-
- Assure customers of the benefits pesticides
provide for turf, trees and ornamentals, and in the home.
-
- Discuss your safe and responsible use
of pesticides as a professional applicator.
-
- Advise your customers that you closely
follow label instructions.
-
- Outline the extensive training that is
mandatory for professional applicators in order to apply specialty pesticides.
(Forget they are not the ones who normally apply these toxins.)
-
- Explain what happens to pesticide containers
once a job has been completed.
-
- The thing that amazes me the most is
that it is supposedly against the federal law to say any pesticide poisons
(not products) are safe.
-
- Other news accounts focus on incidents
of corporate falsification and misrepresentation, some of which have jeopardized
national public health and safety, or others that have intentionally misled
stockholders and the general public. In October, 1983, a nation increasingly
concerned with contamination from toxic chemicals learned a tale of pesticide
data manipulation at the Illinois-based Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories,
a lab used by the poison industry to test hundreds of pesticides and other
chemical products now on the market.
-
- In one of the largest financial fraud
cases in American history, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) found that the Stauffer Chemical Company - a company now heavily
involved in the American seed industry, agricultural chemicals, and plant
biotechnology - used improper accounting methods to inflate its profit
by $31.1 million in 1982, a fraudulent 25 percent increase. Stauffer agreed
to issue new financial reports for 1982 and 1983, showing sharply reduced
profits, and the company signed a consent degree in federal court agreeing
not to violate SEC regulations in the future. SEC spokesman Chiles Larson
said of the Stauffer finding, "This is one of the more significant
financial fraud accounting cases the commission has brought in recent years.
These numbers are pretty gross, both in terms of the size and in terms
of the offense . . .. When people start cooking the books, it's pretty
serious stuff. Those numbers are something that people rely upon."
-
- In a similar case, the Baltimore spice-manufacturing
firm of McCormick & Company - a company involved in biotechnology research
of spice plants - admitted to falsifying records and using fictitious accounting
practices to inflate sales and profits between 1977 and 1980, amounting
to more than $46 million in phony sales and $4 million in phantom profits.
-
- In 1981, Cargill, the multinational grain
merchant that is also in the seed business, pleaded guilty to filing false
United States corporate income tax returns for 1975 and 1976. Cargill
has also settled, out of court, a few not-so-flattering lawsuits - one
alleging price fixing for paint resins and another alleging that the company
sold contaminated feed to a beef processor.
-
- Still further news accounts implicate
the federal government as an accomplice in questionable corporate activities.
"U. S. is Aiding Drug Companies in Bangladesh," reported an
August 19, 1982 front-page story in the Washington Post, which explained
that the U. S. State Department had asked Bangladesh to reconsider a new
national policy designed to ban hundreds of ineffective and dangerous drugs,
including some that were known to cause serious health problems.
-
- Companies such as Ciba-Geigy, Hoechst,
Squibb, Syntex, Dow, and Upjohn have been accused of inadequate labeling
and side-effect warnings on drugs sold in the Third World, or of dumping
drugs in Third World countries. (I have found outdated drugs for sale
in Mexico when I pointed out the expiration date the pharmacy told me that
was the date the drug was actually manufactured on.) Cliquinol - a powerful
anti-diarrheal drug banned in Japan and withdrawn from American markets
in the early 1970's after it was linked to abdominal pain, brain damage,
and blindness - can today be bought at roadside stands in Indonesia, or
purchased without prescription or a label warning in the Philippines.
-
- A similar pattern can be found with pesticides.
Allied, American Cyanamid, BASF, Bayer, Chevron, Ciba-Geigy, Dow, Du Pont,
FMC, W.R. Grace, Occidental Petroleum (Hooker), Monsanto, Rohm & Haas,
Schering-Plough, Shell, Stauffer, Union Carbide, and Velsicol produce or
sell in Third World countries pesticides that are either banned, heavily
restricted, or under review in the United States. Moreover, Chevron, Monsanto,
ICI, Ciba-Geigy, Castle & Cooke, Velsicol and Amvac have been identified
as "pesticide dumpers" in the Third World.
-
- At home the pesticide record hasn't been
much better. An Allied Corporation subsidiary unleashed the pesticide
Kepone into Virginia's James River in the mid-1970's where it is now sinking
into the river's silt; Occidental Petroleum's Hooker Chemical division
poisoned the Love Canal; Eli Lilly is responsible for the still festering
problem of DES. And there are dozens of other examples - both large and
small - involving other companies now venturing into, or fully involved
in, agricultural biotechnology.
-
- In 1991 and 1992, the EPA offered "amnesty"
from large fines to any (poison) manufacturer that turned in unpublished
scientific papers that should have been submitted earlier. Chemical (poison)
companies then sent in more than 10,000 studies showing that "products"
already on the market could (now) pose "substantial" risk of
injury to health or the environment.
-
- Due to the action of both wind and water,
toxic pollutants can now be found almost everywhere, even contaminating
the most remote areas of the globe. And thanks to the accumulative exposure
to thousands of these toxic contaminants, all living beings are imperiled.
We can no longer hide from the stark reality that the air we breath, the
water we drink, the rain that falls on us, the food we eat, and the places
where we work may all be profoundly contaminated. Obviously, as the contamination
increases so will our cancer statistics and other health problems.
-
- Our drinking water In regard to herbicides,
"every spring, farmers across the Farm Belt apply 150 million pounds
of five herbicides. . . . Drinking water contaminated with these herbicides
is a serious public health issue; the manufacturer's own laboratory studies
show that these five herbicides cause nine different types of cancer, various
birth defects, and heritable genetic mutations. None of these herbicides
is removed by the conventional water treatment technologies that are used
by more than 90 percent of the water treatment utilities in the U. S.
. . . 3.1 million individuals in 23 cities with populations over 100,000
are exposed to cancer risks from herbicide-contaminated drinking water
that exceed federal cancer standards by a factor of 10 or more. (Springfield,
Illinois leads the list with the highest life-time risk.)".
-
- Our Deformed Frogs or are you ready to
croak? There have been reports of unusually high numbers of deformed frogs
in Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin and Quebec. Clusters of deformed frogs
have also been found in California, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi,
Montana and Ohio.
-
- At the April 1997 conference in Shenandoah
National Park, scientists ranging from molecular biologists to herpetologists
examined theories that link the frog deformities to chemicals or parasites.
"My best guess is that it has more to do with pesticides,"
Martin Ouellet of McGill University in Montreal said. Ouellet and four
other scientists have been studying deformed and normal frogs found in
more than 100 ponds in the St. Lawrence River Valley during the past four
years. Normally, less than 1% of frogs are deformed, and that's about
what Ouellet found in frogs taken from pristine ponds. But in ponds where
pesticides are used on surrounding land, as many as 69% of the frogs were
deformed, he said. David Gardiner, a molecular biologists from the University
of California at Irvine, believes that the deformities may be linked to
a new generation of chemicals that mimic growth hormones.
-
- Frogs have permeable skin and no hair
or scales as shields, so they are ultrasensitive to changes in the environment.
Marla Cone, the Los Angeles Times' environmental writer said: "When
nature sends out such a powerful messages as seven-legged frogs, biologists
say people should listen because it signals that our environment is so
out of whack that it cannot support normal life."
-
- CNN special investigative unit recently
discovered that several of the corporations accused in the outbreak of
deformed babies in Brownsville (1988-1992) had, in fact, been dumping toxic
material along the border. The companies paid $17 million to the families
of the deformed babies but denied that they had caused the epidemic of
birth defects. The companies claimed they had followed U.S. environmental
laws, even while operating across the Mexican border. Said CNN: "Internal
corporate documents and previously unreported pretrial testimony obtained
by CNN suggest that these corporations were using Mexico's border region
as a private dumping ground."
-
- John Parks Trowbridge, M.D. & Morton
Walker, D.P.M. in their Chelation Therapy note that even the chemical industry
admits that over 60,000 man-made pollutants have been added to our environment.
Plus, Federal estimates suggest that we are exposed to 5,000 substances
intentionally added to our foods and to some 10,000 more that are unintentionally
included as a result of production or packaging. Indeed, probably 10,000
pollutants attack your body process everyday.
-
- Traces of long-lasting pesticides and
industrial chemicals that didn't exist before the 1920s can now be found
virtually everywhere. Scientists have detected the man-made compounds
in the meat of Arctic seals, in fish from New England's rivers, in drinking
water, in far fields in almost every nation- even in mother's milk. Everyone
carries measurable traces of chemicals in their bodies, having ingested
the like of PCBs in fish or DDT and dioxin in other foods. But do those
traces, some of which build up in the body and remain, pose a threat to
humans? "Some biologists say yes, pointing to what they consider
ominous clues among the offsprings of dozens of animal species exhibiting
weird physical, behavioral and reproductive problems." -Hartford Courant,
Dec. 3, 1996.
-
- "New evidence connects environmental
toxins with birth defects, researchers reported at the annual meeting
of the American Public Health Association last week." -Los Angeles
Daily News, Dec. 2, 1996.
-
- "Silt on the bottom of the Quinnipiac
River in Plantsville is contaminated with massive levels of a cancer-causing
causing compound, state Department of Environmental Protection officials
said Thursday." -Hartford Courant, May 15, 1997.
-
- "Some common commercial cleaners
used to clean clothes and household surfaces contain chemicals that cause
cancer and birth defects, a leading environmental group says." -Calgary
Herald (Canada), Feb. 12, 1997.
-
- There are hundreds of individual stories
each year - all of them indicating that as we pump more and more poisons,
chemicals and toxins into the environment, normal life is in fact threatened.
Help! We are being destroyed by invisible poisons! As the evidence continues
to mount that this stuff will kill us, the political environment is increasingly
callous - will we have to croak like frogs before 'our' regulators do anything
about it?
-
- Dioxins The tremendous amount of information
that Liane Clorfene-Custen and others have gathered about the toxic environmental
impingements on our health should be publicized widely but isn't. Liane's
book Breast Cancer: Poisons, Profits, and Preventions carefully spells
out numerous cases where industry and our government have suppressed information
for years and often decades. For example, in regard to the dioxins, which
are exceedingly toxic even in parts per trillion and less and which contaminate
chlorinated pesticides, incinerator discharges, and hundreds of industrial
processes. Dow Chemical "knew about dioxin's toxicity for decades."
During the Vietnam War, they knew that dioxin was a toxic contaminant
of the herbicide "Agent Orange." Nevertheless, they continued
to aggressively sell it, both during the war and afterward for home and
farm use. "Dow's own studies showed extreme toxic reactions in animals
and humans . . . including liver damage, nervous system disorders, peripheral
neuropathy, and so on. And the medical director along with major administrators,
admitted that if chloracne (the nasty tell-tale body and face skin eruptions)
shows up, the damage to the body was systemic.
-
- "However, when challenged in public
about the effects of Agent Orange. Dow's public relations engine revved
up. Spokespersons went on record stating that, 'Beyond a case of chloracne,
there are no other reported health effects due to the exposure to Agent
Orange.' And the company began to attack the veterans who had come home
with the predicted Agent Orange exposure symptoms, calling them drugheads.
Thus, Dow did three terrible things as part of its corporate policy on
herbicides: discussed the problems of their very toxic product internally
and secretly; allowed a contaminated and faulty product to be used on innocent
victims; and then attacked the victims for claiming they were harmed by
the very problems the company knew would occur . . . "
-
- "For years, the toxicity of dioxin
has been downplayed in the media. Some newspapers, specifically the New
York Times and the Chicago Tribune, have had financial interests in pulp
and paper mills that bleach with chlorine - a process which spews out dioxin.
. . . For a significant period in their history these two major dailies,
along with most of the print media, played variations on a recurring theme:
'Dioxin isn't as toxic as we thought.' And the public, uneducated and
unaware, continually bought the line . . .."
-
- "Others who have known about dioxin's
toxicity are Monsanto scientists, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency],
the CDC [Centers for Disease Control], and the National Institutes for
Environmental Health Services. It takes very little effort for a good
reporter to uncover these documents (Clorfene-Casten, The Nation, November
30, 1992)." Liane Chlorfene-Casten's book Breast Cancer: Poisons,
Profits, and Prevention is full of many detailed cases of cover-up and
deception, including harassment of "whistle blowers." Liane
also demonstrates "the revolving door" between government regulators
and the major polluting industries.
-
- St. Peter and the Clocks
-
- A guy dies and goes to heaven, It's a
slow day for St. Peter; so, upon passing the entrance test, St. Peter says,
"I'm not very busy today; why don't you let me show you around?"
The guy thinks this is a great idea and accepts the offer. St. Peter show
him all the sights, the golf course, the reading room and library, the
observation room, the cafeteria and finally, they come to a huge room full
of clocks. The guy asks, "What's up with these clocks?" St. Peter
explains, "Everyone on earth has a clock that shows how much time
he has left on earth. When a clock runs out of time, the person dies and
comes to the Gates to be judged." The guy thinks this makes sense,
but notices that some of the clocks are going faster than others. He asks,
"Why is that?" St. Peter explains, "Every time a living
person tells a lie, it speeds up his clock." This also makes sense,
so the guy takes one last look around the room before leaving and notices
one clock in the center of the ceiling. On this clock, both hands are
spinning at an unbelievable rate. So he asks, "What's the story with
that clock?" "Oh that", St. Peter replies, "That's
the clock of Monsanto's Chairman. We decided to use it as a fan."
-
- Note: You may substitute anyone in the
poison "industry' for Monsanto's Chairman when you tell this story
about the clock/fan - as Jonathan Swift so aptly noted, "You can't
make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
-
- HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANOPHOSPHATE
POISONS
-
- J.E. DuBois Jr. in The Devil's Chemists
noted that the organophosphate pesticides (OPO4) were developed in Hitler's
Germany during World War II. These toxic poisons included TEPP (tetraethyl
pyrophosphate, developed as a nicotine substitute), followed by Tabun (dimethyl
phosphoroamidocyanidate) and Sarin (isopropyl methylphosphono fluoridate)
- the chemical "nerve agents" that have been employed in warfare.
The developer I.G. Farben, not content with tests on monkeys, confirmed
lethality by testing Tabun on prisoners at Aushwitz. Thus, the OPO4 poisons
such as chlorpyrifos and Diazinon became direct descendants of these nerve
gas agents.
-
- In "Pesticides and Neurological
Diseases" it was noted that in 1932, Lange in Berlin synthesized some
compounds containing a phosphorus-flouride bond (esters of monofluorophosphoric
acid from silver salts and alkyl halides). During the synthesis of dimethyl-
and diethylphosphorofluoridate, Lange and his graduate student, Gerda von
Krueger, noted toxic effects of the vapors on themselves, the pertinent
observations being included in a published chemical paper. Lange was unable
to convince the chemical industry and I.G. Farbenindustrie, in particular,
that the alkyl esters synthesized might be useful insecticides. In 1934,
Gerhard Schrader was appointed by Otto Bayer to pursue the development
of synthetic insecticides for I.G. Farbenindustrie, but it was not until
1936 that Schrader began working on phosphorus and sulfur acid fluorides
in search of aphicidal and acaricidal compounds, initially discovering
methane sulfonyl fluoride which was used as a fumigant. From 1938 to 1944,
Schrader developed a series of fluorine-containing esters including DFP
(di-isopropylfluorophosphate) and Sarin (l-methylethyl methylphosphonofluoridate),
pyrophosphate esters including TEPP and OMPA (octamethylpyrophosphortetramide)
and thio- and thionophosphorus esters including parathion and its oxygen
analog paraxon. He was aware of the toxic signs produced by these esters
and, while the potency of some of these chemicals prevented their development
and use as "insecticides", they were of immediate interest to
the German Ministry of Defense which recognized their value as chemical
warfare agents. Production of stocks of Tabun and Sarin were carried out
in a factory outside of Duhernfurt, near Breslau. Soman (1,2,2-trimethylpropyl
methylphosphonofluoridate), another nerve gas was also synthesized at this
factory. The pharmacological and toxicological studies of these compounds
were carried out in a number of industrial and military laboratories.
-
- British scientists had taken note of
the comments of Lange and Krueger concerning the toxicity of acyl phosphorofluoridates,
and during World War II they were paying particular attention to fluorine-containing
compounds. With this lead, it is interesting to note that studies conducted
by these two protagonists were almost parallel, DFP and other alkyl phosphorofluoridates
being the prime test chemicals. A similar line of investigation was being
followed at Edgewood Arsenal in the U. S., again DFP being a compound of
choice in such studies. Scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were
well aware of the potent, irreversible, anticholinesterase properties of
these esters. When the structures and properties of the German nerve gases
Tabun and Soman became known, it was realized that they were more potent
than DFP by an order of two of magnitude.
-
- With the cessation of hostilities and
the exchange of information in the post-war period, the chemistry of organophosphorus
insecticides developed at a rapid rate. The decade from 1950 to 1960 can
well be said to have been the era of the organophosphates. Malathion [diethyl(dimethoxyphosphinothioyl)
thiobutanedioate] was introduced by the American Cyanamid Company in 1950;
this ester contains carboxy ester groups. In 1951, G. Schrader continued
developing new insecticides including Systoxr (demeton or mercaptophos,
a mixture of the thiono- and thioloisomers of O,O-diethyl-2-ethylmercaptoethyl
phosphorothioate), thereby introducing a new class of insecticides having
a thioether group. In 1952, the Perkow reaction was first described in
which alpha-halogen carbonyl compounds were reacted with triethyl phosphite,
resulting in the synthesis of a number of new dialkylvinyl phosphate esters
such as dichlorvos (2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate) and trichlorfon
(O,O-dimethyl [2,2,2-trichloro-1-hydroxyethyl] phosphate. The thio- and
thionophosphorus esters arising from parathion and containing substituted
aryl and heterocyclic groups have also been synthesized. Today, a wide
range of organophosphorus esters having a variety of biological properties
are available for such equally diversified range of uses as insecticides,
nemotocides, acaricides, fungicides, etc.
-
- At this point let me introduce you to
Jon Rappaport's comments with a few of my own additions: The Revolt against
the Empire, Welcome to The Great Boycott, calls for a boycott against the
eight biggest synthetic pesticide poison producing companies in the world,
but it is much more than that. It's a boycott against THE POWER and against
a way of life represented by all the gigantic multinational corporations,
which every day extend their control over the planet. By the time you
finish reading this material you'll realize how destructive their uncontrolled
power is, in detail. You'll understand more clearly why these simple stark
things need to be done:
-
- (For the complete text: goto http://home.earthlink.net/~alto/boycott.html
)
-
- Sound Advice
-
- A poison industry spokesman goes to Washington,
DC to testify about the safety of his new poison. The night before his
testimony he stands by the Washington Memorial and hears a little voice
say, "Never tell a lie." He shakes his head "no" and
walks to the Jefferson Memorial and hears another little voice say, "Always
tell the truth." He shakes his head "no" and walks to the
Lincoln Memorial where he hears a third little voice tell him, "Go
to the theater."
-
- Dow shalt not . . .
-
- I personally wrote quite a series of
letters to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (that I call the DOA)
regarding my new commandments - copies of these letters and all of my other
research, records, articles, magazines, etc. all burned up in an accidental
fire 11/5/95, but for which the insurance company, AutoOwners, would not
reimburse me and for which they used as an excuse to destroy a 30-year-old
pest control company by canceling my insurance because of this one "accidental"
loss - in so doing - AutoOwners destroyed what the poison "industry"
could not. I do however remember a few of these many new commandments
- "Dow shalt not kill; Dow shalt not pollute; Dow shalt not destroy;
Dow shalt not lie; Dow shalt not B.S.; Dow shalt not poison; Dow shalt
not spray; Dow shalt not drift; Dow shalt not damage; Dow shalt not contaminate,
etc."
-
- Down on Dow - at the annual shareholders
meeting of Dow Chemical Co. held at company headquarters in Midland, Michigan
in May 1997, Dow unfurled to celebrate its 100th anniversary: "Proud
of our past, committed to our future."
-
- INFACT, a corporate watchdog group has
awarded Dow its "Hall of Shame" award for the past two years.
"Our investigation found that Dow is a master at hiding behind trade
associations and corporate front groups to carry out its deregulatory schemes,"
reports Kathryn Mulvey, INFACT's executive director. "With 51 of
its own registered lobbyists, and 50 more at its disposal through the Chemical
Manufacturers Association, Dow has at least 101 paid power brokers representing
its interest in Washington." In the first six months of 1996 alone,
the nation's second largest chemical company reported federal lobbying
expenditures of more than $1 million. That figure doesn't include its
40 registered lobbyists in 13 states, including 7 in Michigan.
-
- Nuns from the Sisters of Mercy religious
order, came to raise concerns about various health problems they say are
related to Dow products. Shareholders also were confronted by members
of the Michigan-based Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination.
That group recently was instrumental in drawing media attention to a
Department of Environmental Quality study that found elevated levels of
cancer-causing dioxin in Midland's (Dow's) parks and playgrounds.
-
- Shunted to a side auditorium, Citizens
Executive Director Ann Hunt was unable to ask Dow directors how it is that
they can maintain the company is committed to transparency regarding environmental
issues while acting as a major force to pass Michigan's audit privilege
legislation, also known as the "polluter secrecy law."
-
- Hunt also pointed out that activists
viewing the proceedings on closed-circuit TV at a nearby library were able
to witness all complimentary presentations, such as those made by the Midland
Chamber of Commerce, but that all critical comments were effectively blacked
out from the telecast.
-
- On November 13, 1996 a report in the
'Folha de Sao Paulo' noted that at least 300 thousand people suffer poisoning
from agro-toxics each year in Brazil according to the Ministry of "Health".
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimations there are
at least 50 cases of poisoning for every case reported!
-
- On December 5, 1984 (in one night), the
Union Carbide Corporation killed an estimated 8,000 residents of Bhopal,
India and injured 300 thousand others, some 50 - 70,000 of those injuries
are permanent disabilities from Carbides' leaking pesticide - manufacturing
plant. Carbide fought their victims with the aid of $50 million in legal
talent - the result? Carbide's "settlement" came to about $300
per victim after fees and bribes were paid, scarcely enough to cover the
medical bills of many claimants. Stock holders of Union Carbide only paid
43 cents per share when the "settlement" was accepted by the
Indian Government, then Carbide's stocks went up $2.00 a share or a "profit"
of $1.57 per share! (Not bad for one night's work!) In December 1987,
India's Central Bureau of Investigation filed criminal charges of culpable
homicide against 10 Carbide officials - a charge just short of murder -
All of Carbide executives remain fugitives from justice and Carbide attorneys
have successfully resisted all efforts to extradite those people responsible
for the Bhopal massacre! What clear message does this crap send to the
rest of the poison industry?
-
- The poison "industry" has always
claimed and still claims and probably will always claim there is no real
scientific data to support claims of a health problem/pesticide relationship.
In some ways they are right - our evidence is only circumstantial or based
on male prisoners or one sleeping, impoverished (brown skinned) community.
There is no definitive human data because we can not and should not expose
people to dangerous poisons and/or contaminants and then analyze the outcomes.
Junk science is what the poison industry calls any research, health or
environmental data it does not generate.
-
- Generally there is a 20-year delay between
the time any product or substance is first discovered to be toxic or hazardous
before there is any regulatory change. Even if their poisons were safe
for us - these "poisons" do not eliminate or even truly control
pests! In New Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture - this book from
World Resources Institute (1996) noted that in Bangladesh, "Farmers
in the IPM pilot program achieved an 11% increase in rice production and
eliminated all pesticide use, while nonparticipating farmers (who used
pesticides) had no increase." John Wargo in "Our Children's
Toxic Legacy" noted that in spite of all the world's pesticide usage,
pests including insects, plant pathogens and weeds annually destroy 37%
of all food and fiber crops in the world! V. E. Gary, et al Environmental
Health Perspectives (1996) book Pesticide Appliers, Biocides and Birth
Defects in Rural Minnesota found the children of the pesticide poison applicators
had "significantly" increased rate of birth defects, including
defects of the central nervous, circulatory, respiratory, gastrointestinal,
urogenital and muscoloskeletal systems! This increased rate was found
to be highest in Western Minnesota, where, by a strange coincidence, the
highest levels of synthetic pesticide poisons were used!
-
|