Pesticide - Organic and Natural Products

Pesticides - Definition, Meaning, Herbicides, Resistance, In Food, In Water

Bio Pesticides are natural products that helps in the maintenance of gardens and organic food production.

Pesticides - Accidents with CHEMICAL Pesticides

Accidental Pesticide Exposure. Registration of a pesticide - does NOT imply - that the pesticide is safe. In fact, Nearly 100,000 accidental pesticide exposures are reported to poison control centers each year. Many of these exposures involve children, providing clear evidence that current efforts to protect children by manufacturers and others are inadequate.

There has been a 25 percent increase in kids cancer in past 25 years

Each day in the United States more than a million children age 5 and under who eat a normal diet ingest doses of organic phosphate pesticides that exceed the Environmental Protection Agencys adult reference doses, according to a recent analysis of USDA and FDA data

In Food : Twenty million American children age 5 and under eat an average of eight pesticides a day

Pesticides are intentionally toxic substances. Some chemicals commonly used on lawns and gardens have been associated with birth defects, mutations, adverse reproductive effects, and cancer in laboratory animals.

Children, infants, and fetuses may be especially vulnerable to the health effects of pesticides before the age of five, when their cells are normally reproducing most rapidly.

Children may be more susceptible to loss of brain function if exposed to neurotoxins, and may be more susceptible to damage to their reproductive systems.

Lawn-care pesticides are not tested for their chronic health effects, unless they are also licensed for food uses. The third most heavily used herbicide in the U. S., MCPP, has not been fully tested for chronic health effects since it is not allowed for use on foods. MCPP is commonly found in weed and feed products.

EPA has tested only nine of 750 registered pesticides for their effects on the developing nervous system; six of the nine tested were more harmful to young animals than adults.

Many Canadian municipalities have banned or severely restricted the use of lawn-care pesticides. The Province of Quebec recently set the highest standards in North America to decrease exposure to pesticides when it prohibited some commonly used lawn care pesticides (including 2,4-D and MCPP) from use on public lawns. These pesticides will be prohibited from use on private and commercial lawns in 2006.

Pesticides are composed of active ingredients and inert ingredients. Some inert ingredients may be more toxic than active ingredients and can comprise 90 to 95 percent of the product. Some inert ingredients are suspected carcinogens, while others have been linked to central nervous system disorders, liver and kidney damage, birth defects, and some short-term health effects.

Increased odds of childhood leukemia, brain cancer and soft tissue sarcoma have been associated with children living in households where pesticides are used.10 Other childhood malignancies associated with pesticide exposures include neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, Ewings sarcoma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and cancers of the brain, colorectum, and testes.

By-products of the insecticide chlorpyrifos were found in 93 percent of urine samples taken from children ages three to 13. In a separate study, 99 percent of 110 Seattle area children ages two to five had detectable levels of organophosphate residues in their urine

The average apple has four pesticides on it after it has been washed and cored; some apples have as many as 10

There are now more than 7,000 types of pesticides on the market in Canada

All pesticides have one thing in common in common - they are poisons designed to "KILL" things and they have the potential to kill humans if ingested in sufficient amounts.

Many chemicals, that are initially marketed as "TOTALLY SAFE" for humans, are later found to be "HARMFUL."

Since 1996 the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) has targeted a large group of older, riskier pesticides called organophosphates for review because they pose a potential risk to children

Nearly 30 million acres of lawn are routinely treated with lawncare chemicals. Some of these treated lawns may be toxic to birds. Recent Canadian studies found that between three and bird deaths may occur due to pesticides per acre of farmland. It only takes one granule of diazinon to kill a bird. Recent testing of dead birds for the West Nile virus by the State of New York found that birds had commonly died from pesticide poisoning. Lawn-care pesticides were found to be among the most common causes of death among the birds tested.

The U.S. Geological Survey found that 96 percent of all fish analyzed in major rivers and streams contained residues of one or more pesticides at detectable levels.

Pesticides have been identified as a potential cause of amphibian declines and deformities and have been implicated as one of the reasons that wild and managed pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates.

In the 1950s, DDT was hailed as a safe insect control. More than 30 years later it was found to be almost completely non-biodegradable. It remained in the soil and built up in the food chain and could be deposited in the fatty tissue of humans. - DDT was eventually banned, but its off-spring lindane, dieldrin, chlordane and other chlorinated hydrocarbons, remained in use. -

In August of 1999, the EPA announced action against methyl parathion and azinphos methyl to protect children from pesticide residues in food

In 1999 the EPA reached an agreement whereby the manufacture of chlorpyrifos, or Dursban would be halted by December 2000.

On December 5, 2000 the EPA announced the elimination of all indoor uses of the widely used pesticide DIAZINON. Diazinon is used by homeowners on lawns and gardens. More than 15 million pounds of the pesticide is applied in the us annually in the US alone

Most lawn-care chemicals have the potential to contaminate underlying groundwater. The top five selling lawn-care pesticides, 2,4-D, glyphosate, MCPP, dicamba, and diazinon, are all listed by the State of California as having the potential to contaminate groundwater based on their physical and chemical characteristics.

Studies of major rivers and streams have documented that 100 percent of all surface water samples contained one or more pesticides at detectable levels.

Homeowners may unknowingly contaminate their own well water by using pesticides on their lawns. Factors that influence a pesticides potential to contaminate water include physiochemical factors, environmental factors, application methods and other practices associated with the pesticide use.

Only two of the top five lawn-care pesticides, 2,4-D and glyphosate, are regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, despite governmental acknowledgement of the intensity of effects of their release on the environment, and their potential to leach into groundwater supplies.

An EPA study of 1200 "inert" ingredients in pesticides, many which remain un-tested, found 122 that could cause cancer, birth defects, neurological disorders or health problems

Toxicology and Industrial Health published a study showing that the natural mix of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in concentrations mirroring levels found in groundwater can significantly affect immune and endocrine systems as well as neurological health

The Canadian Institute for Child Health has found that children are increasingly at risk of serious diseases from pesticides. The study also found that "pesticides have NOT been evaluated for their potential to affect brain development." The study said cancer rates in children grew 25 percent since 1975.

Mounting evidence indicates that when costs of cleanup of polluted water, replacement of eroded soils and health care costs are factored in, the price of organic foods are probably the same, or less, than foods grown with man-made chemicals...

QUESTIONS TO CONSUMERS: - How can products, that are designed to "KILL", be placed on the market without first undergoing proper tests to determine any potential health risks to the consumer?

EDB Ethylene Dibromide Chemical Pesticide and Fumigant. Regulation. Health Effects.

Pesticide

Herbicide