The pesticide enforcement news today is surreal. Reuters reports on February 15, 2018 that Amazon is paying a $1.2 million fine, because a third-party vendor offering pesticides on Amazon slipped in some foreign-made products not registered by the U.S. EPA. Clearly illegal, clearly a slip up, which Amazon corrected immediately, and forcefully, as clear in […]
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The German media outlet Deutsche Welle, or DW, has produced a compelling video report called “Glyphosate – The Sick Children of Argentina” about the rise of childhood cancers in Argentina, a country where 300 million liters of glyphosate is applied on GMO crops each year, in particular tobacco, cotton, and soybeans. Over the last decade in […]
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The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Environmental Working Group submitted a letter this week to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt condemning the Agency’s decision not to restrict use on the pesticide chlorpyrifos. As this Hygeia’s Blog describes, this decision went against the EPA’s own scientists, who had previously concluded that chlorpyrifos was linked to neurological […]
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Virtually all Americans who enjoy at least a few servings of fresh fruits and vegetables are exposed on a daily basis to one to four residues of neonicotinoid (nicotinyl for short) insecticides. That’s why they are in me and you most every day, except of course for the days we purchase and consume organic produce. […]
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The February 2017 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives contains an important open access research paper on the human health effects of neonicotinoid insecticides (nicotinyls for short). The work was carried out by a team led by Dr. Melissa Perry of George Washington University. The issue also includes an accompanying news report by Nate Seltenrich. Dr. […]
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A team based at the University of Washington in Seattle has published an important study showing that in school-age children, a diet composed of predominantly organic food “…provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to organophosphorous (OP) pesticides.” Twenty-three children were enrolled in the study, which included three phases of testing for OP […]
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The National Institute of Health’s Agricultural Health Study has been underway for over a decade. It has produced valuable data on the impacts of pesticides on human health, and established linkages between pesticide use and cancer and neurological disorders. In an important paper in “Diabetes Care,” a team of government scientists found that pregnant women […]
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Some pesticides can disrupt the development of the brain and nervous system at extremely low doses. A study published in October 2006 provides key new insights into how and why (Slotkin et al., 2006). The organophosphate (OP) class of insecticides includes some of the most dangerous pesticides still in widespread use. This family of chemistry […]
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Latino farmworkers and their children face the highest levels of pesticide exposure of any population group, with the possible exception of certain types of pesticide applicators. In 2004 a team of scientists measured the levels of urinary metabolites in 60 farmworker children ages 1 to 6 in North Carolina (Arcury et al., 2007). The testing […]
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This study reports some remarkable numbers quantifying the economic impact of exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals. Pesticides cause the second largest impact — some $44 billion — right behind flame retardants. While worrisome enough, the huge increases now occurring in herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide use on farms growing the three major genetically engineered (GE, or GMO) crops (corn, soybeans, cotton) is bound to markedly increase exposures, reproductive problems, birth defects, and a host of life-long health problems. Hopefully sooner rather than later, the agricultural commodity groups and farmers will rediscover prevention-based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and start to reduce their…
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