PANUPS: Two New Warnings on Pesticides & Chemicals

[Guest guest]

PANUPS

 

PANUPS: Two New Warnings on Pesticides & Chemicals

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:05:18 -0700

 

===========================================

P A N U P S

Pesticide Action Network Updates Service

===========================================

 

Two New Warnings on Pesticides & Chemicals

June 15, 2004

 

In April, Canadian family physicians issued a strong warning on the risks of

exposure to pesticides, noting the number of studies linking cancer,

reproductive problems and neurological diseases with commonly used pesticides.

The following month in Paris, medical specialists from Europe, Canada and the

U.S. released an International Declaration on Diseases Due to Chemical

Pollution, calling the number of untested chemicals in the environment " a

serious threat to children and to Man's survival. "

 

The April report by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) on the

chronic effects of exposure to pesticides contained sweeping recommendations to

cut pesticide exposures, including curtailing pesticide use wherever possible,

using personal protective equipment including respirators for home and

occupational exposures, and urging physicians to advocate for pesticide

reduction and screen their patients for pesticide exposure.

 

OCFP, a voluntary, not-for-profit association that promotes family medicine,

reviewed 250 peer-reviewed studies published between 1992 and 2003 on the human

health effects of pesticides. The researchers found compelling evidence of links

between pesticide exposure and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the incidence of which

continues to rise in Canada at the rate of 1 - 1.5% per year. Other findings

included associations between pesticide exposures and solid tumors, including

brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer.

 

The family physicians emphasized the special vulnerability of children to

pesticide exposure, and reported both elevated risks of kidney cancer and

associations of pesticide exposure with brain cancer among children with

paternal exposure to agricultural pesticides. The study noted that some children

had an overall increased risk of acute leukemia if exposed to pesticides in

utero or during childhood, especially if those exposures included pesticides

used on lawns, fruit trees, gardens, or indoor insecticides.

 

The Canadian physicians' review also noted a " remarkable consistency " of study

findings on nervous system effects of pesticide exposure and on links between

occupational exposure to pesticides and reproductive effects, such as birth

defects, fetal death and intrauterine growth retardation.

 

The Paris declaration, in addressing the vast multitude of chemicals in the

environment , noted several alarming health trends as well including the

increase in chronic diseases, the rise in the global incidence of cancers at all

ages, the progressive increase since 1950 in non-smoking related cancers in

industrialized countries, the European annual increase of 0.8% in childhood

cancers, and rising rates of sterility, with 15% of European couples now

infertile.

 

Signed by 80 medical experts, including two winners of the Nobel Prize for

medicine, Jean Dausset and Francois Jacob, the declaration was endorsed by

cancer specialists, pediatricians, epidemiologists and toxicologists. Noting the

combination of chemicals in the environment made it " extremely difficult to

establish, on a epidemiological level " a definitive and causal link between

individual chemicals and subsequent health problems, the Declaration called for

implementation of the Precautionary Principle to protect public health. " The EU

2001 REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) initiative

details unprecedented, and overdue legislative proposals for the regulation of

industrial chemicals, based on the Precautionary Principle; this initiative

should be strengthened, rather than weakened following strong opposition by EU

and U.S. chemical industries. "

 

Sources: Ontario College of Family Physicians Pesticides Paper,

http://www.ocfp.on.ca/English/OCFP/Communications/CurrentIssues/Pesticides/defau\

lt.asp?s=1; News Release, April 23, 2004, Comprehensive Review of Pesticide

Research Confirms Dangers,

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2004/23/c4416.html?view=Print;

International Declaration on diseases due to chemical pollution, in English,

http://appel.artac.info/anglais.htm; Specialists issue alert on chemicals and

health, ENDS Environment Daily, May 11, 2004,

http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article & ref=16651.

 

Contact: PANNA

 

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on

pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream media. It's

produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and

non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to

pesticides worldwide.

 

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all

contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit

http://www.panna.org/donate.

 

===========================================

Back issues of PANUPS are available online at:

http://www.panna.org/resources/panups.html

 

Please note: responses to this message will not be read.

To comment, send an email to:

panna

 

To , send a blank email to:

PANUPS-

 

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)

49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA

Phone: (415) 981-1771

Fax: (415) 981-1991

Email: panna

Web: http://www.panna.org

 

====================================================================