Engulfed in Pesticides

[Guest guest]

Farmers were 2.8 times as

likely to have PD as the general population. "

 

More than 1 million Americans have Parkinson's

 

" Ninety-nine of the kids had detectable levels of pesticides

in their systems, " says Kegley. " The only participant with no evidence

of exposure ate organic food. "

 

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THIS WEEK'S NEWS 23-Jan-2002

We're Engulfed in Pesticides

23-Jan-2002

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began an ongoing

study in 1999 in an effort to calculate the public's exposures to

environmental contaminants, including mercury, tobacco smoke, and

certain pesticides. By taking blood and urine samples, scientists can

monitor the population's contact with chemicals present in the air,

water, dust, food, and soil over time.

 

" So far, the results of the initial CDC National Report on Human

Exposure to Environmental Chemicals confirm what many people already

suspected, " says Susan Kegley, staff scientist at Pesticide Action

Network North America (PANNA). " The general population has contaminant

levels exceeding those set by the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) as safe. "

 

If you want to limit your exposure to pesticides, you need to become

familiar with the ways you come into contact with them. " Residues on

food and home-and-garden insecticides are well-known ways for people

to be exposed to pesticides, " says Jay Feldman, executive director of

Beyond Pesticides. " But laundry and bathroom products, such as

sanitizers and mildew removers, also contain pesticides. The chemicals

commonly used to keep backyard swimming pools clean and clear are

laced with pesticides. " Institutions and businesses use these products

too.

 

At least 21 neurotoxins are used in schools.

 

People often forget to consider the pesticides not under their direct

control. " Spraying of nearby agricultural fields or monthly

applications

by the neighbor's lawn service cause drift that can be a significant

source of pesticide exposure, " says Kegley.

 

Diet has a huge effect on the amount of pesticides people ingest.

Researchers at the University of Washington analyzed the urine of 100

children. " Ninety-nine of the kids had detectable levels of pesticides

in their systems, " says Kegley. " The only participant with no evidence

of exposure ate organic food. "

 

" Pesticides have become omnipresent in our rain and air, " says Steve

Tvedten, president of Get Set, a company specializing in nontoxic pest

control. " Chemicals used in Africa find their way to Florida in a

short amount of time. And our generation has been exposed to more

than

500 toxins that our grandparents weren't. Even if pesticides were

safe,

they're not always effective. If they were, we wouldn't continue to

need them. And already, more than one-half of the pests are resistant

to

poisons. "

 

The same herbicides and pesticides many people spray on their own

gardens have been linked to the onset of Parkinson's Disease, a

disorder that turns movement into a battle between the brain and the

nerves. The first connection was made in the early 1980s, when young

people illegally taking an impure form of Demerol (MPTP) exhibited

symptoms of an advanced form of Parkinson's. The chemical structure of

MPTP resembles the herbicide paraquat. During the past two decades,

researchers have continued to explore the associations between

pesticides and Parkinson's.

 

" I was surprised at how accurately rats developed the signs of

Parkinson's, " says Dr. J. Timothy Greenamyre, a researcher at Emory

University. The rats in the study were given the pesticide rotenone.

Because it is often labeled as a " natural " pesticide, many home

gardeners

feel safe using it. Rotenone is also used to kill nuisance fish in

lakes

and reservoirs and fleas and ticks on pets. A recent Stanford study

showed

that Parkinson's patients were twice as likely to have been exposed to

in-home insecticides than people without the disease. People exposed

to

herbicides also were more likely to develop it. A study at the Henry

Ford

Health System in Detroit confirmed that people exposed to insecticide

were

3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease than

people

with no history of pesticide exposure. " Contact with herbicides gave

people a four times greater chance of developing Parkinson's, " says

Dr.

Jay M. Gorell, head of the Movement Disorders Clinic in the Neurology

Department. " The study also searched for a relationship between

Parkinson's disease and farming and found it. Farmers were 2.8 times

as

likely to have PD as the general population. "

 

More than 1 million Americans have Parkinson's, and every nine minutes

another person is diagnosed with the disease. It's second only to

Alzheimer's disease as the most common neurodegenerative disorder in

the United States. It was first described by the English physician

James

Parkinson in 1817 and kills the nerve cells in the brain that release

dopamine, a chemical necessary for controlling movements. Normal

everyday tasks, such as buttoning a shirt, rising from a chair, or

writing a letter, eventually become impossible.

 

" .People may or may not be aware of their lifetime history of contact

with

pesticides, " says Gorell. " Experts are searching for ways to quantify

past

exposures. " Heredity is another important factor to gauge when

studying

this disease, although only10 percent of Parkinson's cases are

attributed

directly to heredity. Most researchers agree that a sophisticated

interrelationship between genetic susceptibility and environmental

exposures may cause Parkinson's.

 

For more information,

 

Scientists at Liverpool University in the U.K. have discovered that

more

than one pesticide in food may increase the potential for harm. Many

of

the different items in our weekly diet have been exposed to some form

of

pesticide at some point in their production, and although the

majority of

these chemicals have disappeared by the time the food reaches the

consumer, residues can remain. Government estimates suggest that 40%

of

food contains some kind of pesticide residue. Some scientists blame

increasing pesticide use in modern agriculture for a variety of modern

health problems, such as an increase in particular cancers and a

decrease

in male fertility over recent years. Researchers found that

combinations

of different pesticides were far more toxic to human cells than

similar

quantities applied individually. Unborn babies are vulnerable to brain

damage from pesticides in their mothers' diet.

 

Dr. Vyvyan Howard, who headed the research team, says, " Pesticides are

tested one at a time but virtually nothing is known about taking

pesticide

A and pesticide B, putting them together and seeing what happens

then. If

you consider that each one of us is walking around with hundreds of

chemicals in our bodies, that couldn't have been there 50 or 60 years

ago

because they didn't exist on the planet, you can see the level of

complexity of the problem. "