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Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS)
A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives
See PANUPS archive for complete information.
May 21, 2010
- Dietary pesticide exposure linked to ADHD in kids
- New York to Protect Kids from Pesticides
- Superweeds in U.S. South, Superbugs in China
- Corporate stranglehold on GE research
Dietary pesticide exposure linked to ADHD in kids
A new study out of Harvard shows that even tiny, allowable amounts of a common pesticide class can have dramatic effects on brain chemistry, reports the Associated Press. Organophosphates (OP’s) are among the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. They work by interfering with brain signaling in insects. OPs have long been understood to be particularly toxic for children, but this is the first study to examine their effects across a representative population with average levels of exposure. Children are at particular risk for two reasons: they are exposed to higher levels of chemicals, and their bodies are biochemically less adept at detoxification. Dr. Susan Kegley, consulting scientist with Pesticide Action Network, explains: “When it comes to pesticides, children are among the most vulnerable – pound for pound, they drink 2.5 times more water, eat 3-4 times more food, and breathe twice as much air as adults. They also face exposure in the womb and via breast milk. Add to this the fact that children are unable to detoxify some chemicals and you begin to understand just how vulnerable early childhood development is.”
94% of children tested in the study showed detectable levels of OP pesticide metabolites in their urine. Of these, children with the highest levels were nearly twice as likely to have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study was designed to get an accurate picture of the average child’s exposure and risk scenario. Where previous studies looked primarily at populations like farmworkers, who face especially high exposure rates, this one is based on a representative sample of the U.S. population taken from the government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. “We’ve known for a long time that OP’s poison farmworkers at higher doses, now we have a window into their lower-dose effects on the broader population,” comments Kegley.
The study garnered national media coverage with most outlets directing audiences to “buy organic.” But according to PAN senior scientist Dr. Margaret Reeves, “We can’t shop our way out of this. Buying organics helps to reduce exposure – especially in critical developmental windows. But this is a public health issue, and a good governance issue – not a consumer choice issue. By saying the solution here is to ‘buy organic’ we are, in effect, saying that people on a tight food budget have no right to feed their children safe food and that farmworkers have no right to a non-toxic workplace. We know how to farm without OPs, but farmers need us as citizens to support policy approaches that will fund the shift to sustainable farming and safe food production. What this study indicates is that our children need a safe and sustainable food system most of all.” Take Action >> Urge EPA to ban the OP pesticide chlorpyrifos.
shareMORE PAN’s pesticide residue database :: What’sOnMyFood.org | Digg This<>
New York to protect kids from pesticides
shareMORE Canadian Provinces ban cosmetic pesticide use |
Superweeds in U.S. South, superbugs in China
According to the UK Guardian, genetically engineered Bt cotton has transformed a formerly benign type of insect known as mirid bugs into a major pest for Chinese farmers. The Bt trait, introduced by Monsanto in 1996, causes plants to produce their own insecticide so that in theory, farmers can reduce the amount of pesticides used. The trait is present in nearly half the cotton cultivated worldwide. A ten-year study recently completed by two major Chinese research institutions showed that levels mirid bug infestations (and levels of pesticides used to kill them) have risen as Bt cotton has been increasingly adopted. Researchers predict that the situation will only get worse because mirid bugs will develop insecticide resistance, pesticide levels will soon be back where they were before, and farmers won’t be receiving any added benefit from the extra expense of Bt seeds. Supporting this prediction is a 2004 Cornell study showing that Bt cotton farmers use more pesticides than their conventional counterparts.
shareMORE Anna Lappé essay :: “Don’t Panic, Go Organic,” Foreign Policy in Focus |
Corporate stranglehold on GE research
Anyone who buys patented GE seeds is bound by the terms of a “Technology Stewardship Agreement” that dictates where the seeds can be sold or planted, which herbicides can be used on them, where the resulting crop can be sold, and prohibits their being used for research purposes. This means that a scientist who wants to compare, for instance, the yields of GE crops versus non-GE crops has to get special permission from the gene patent holders (i.e. the seed companies) to carry out the research — permission the companies are disinclined to give when the results may not bode well for their product. The GE seed industry, which was unprepared for the scientists’ public critique and the press that followed it, agreed to meet with the scientists in June 2009. Several months later, representatives from the major seed companies consented to a new type of blanket research agreement between companies and public research institutions that would allow independent scientists more freedom to investigate the effects of GE crops on soil, pests, and pesticide use. Research on actual plants containing patented genes, however, is still barred. Experts, including Center for Food Safety’s Senior Policy Analyst Bill Freese, are still skeptical that the new agreements signify any real change. Freese pointed out to e360 that even if they are implemented, the new “Academic Research Licenses” only govern research on seeds that have already been approved for commercial use; since it’s nearly impossible to get a product removed from the market once approved, it is important to be able to investigate GE varieties prior to their approval.
shareMORE PANUPS :: “Scientific American urges integrity, free inquiry in GE research” |
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