Cancer Evidence: Exposure to Pesticides

Evidence linking specific cancers with human exposure to agents in the agricultural environment

Bladder Suspected: PAHs Breast Suspected: 2,4-D, chlordane, DDT/DDE, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, malathion, organic solvents, PAHs, triazine herbicides, farm wives living/presence near pesticide applied crops

Brain and other central nervous system Suspected: N-nitroso compounds (fertilizers), parental occupation or occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Colorectal Suspected: alachlor, aldicarb, aldrin, chlorpyrifos, chlordane, dicamba, dieldrin, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Hodgkin’s Disease Suspected: chlorophenols, DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxy herbicides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Kidney Suspected: N-nitroso compounds (fertilizers), parental occupation/occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Leukemia Suspected: aldrin, carbon disulfide, chlordane, DDT/DDE, dieldrin, ethylene dibromide, heptachlor, lindane, mancozeb, methyl bromide, parental occupation/occupation associated with pesticide exposure, phosphine, simazine, toxaphene

Lung Strong: air pollution, arsenic and arsenic compounds, diesel exhaust, wood dust Suspected: carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, DDT/DDE, diazinon, dicamba, dieldrin, metolachlor, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, pendimethalin, phenoxyherbicides and/or dioxin contaminants

Multiple myeloma Suspected: DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides/chlorophenols, glyphosate, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Strong: dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides/chlorophenols Suspected: 2,4-D, carbamate, carbaryl, chlorophenols, dicamba, ethylene dibromide, glyphosate, hexachlorocyclohexane/lindane, MCPA, mecoprop, methyl bromide, organochlorine pesticides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, phosphine, solvents

Pancreatic Suspected: DDT/DDE, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Prostate Suspected: butylate, chlordane, chlorpyrifos, coumaphos, cyanazine, DDT/ DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides, fonofos, hexachlorobenzene, methyl bromide, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, permethrin, phorate

Ovarian Suspected: atrazine, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Soft-tissue sarcoma Suspected: chlorophenols, DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Skin Strong: arsenic and arsenic compounds, PAHs Suspected: DDT/DDE, occupation associated with pesticide exposure Stomach Suspected: atrazine, agricultural work in the citrus industry, chlordane, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, propargite, and trifluralin

Testicular Suspected: occupation associated with pesticide exposure

ATRAZINE = Cancer and Poison

Last night I watched a PBS documentary on “Nature” called “Frogs: The Thin Green Line”. These amphibians survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and are truly remarkable.

A troubling aspect is that frogs are disappearing worldwide. A devastating fungus, Chytrid (Kit-rid) is decimating the numbers of frogs in every corner of the world. In jungles of South America, to the Far East, here in America, silence reigns where before the the song of these creatures filled the air. Scientists are in a race to discover the cause and how to prevent its spread. They’ve even taken some from the wild, replicating as best they can their natural habitat, to ensure their survival.

Another disturbing fact is that frogs and toads from suburban areas have been found to have increasing instances of genetic mutations. Frogs taken from drainage ponds and catch basins where water has flowed from lawns into storm drains possess a frighteningly high rate of abnormalities. Frogs with only front limbs, or with 3 back legs, no back legs and a long tail: these are results of exposure to lawn chemicals, most notably – ATRAZINE. These frogs were found to have THREE TO FOUR TIMES the allowable limit set by the EPA for exposure to ATRAZINE, the most common ingredient in lawn care chemicals.

This chemical is spread on lawns, used on farms all over the world.  The manufacturer, Syngenta, dismisses the fact that this is a dangerous chemical, despite it’s link to a myriad of cancers and birth defects. It has been banned in European countries, which are far, far ahead of the United States regarding the use of toxins.

Read for yourself. Do your own research on the subject, but most of all – do your part. If you own a home, please, for the sake of your children, your pets, neighbors and our Earth – start today to eliminate toxins from your life. Stop using pesticides! This movement is growing and cannot grow fast enough!

It is up to YOU to let your legislators and government officials know how you feel on this.

It is up to ALL of us!

WHY We’re So Messed Up = CHEMICALS

Thank you MONSANTO!  Thank you ORTHO!  Thank you to ALL those wonderful scientists who  thought they were helping this world when some of this stuff was invented.

OK…, OK…, I know about the miracle of plastics and synthetic compounds  and how they have revolutionized life on this planet.

Let’s also remember that as we are finding out, ‘fake’ isn’t better.  Synthetic isn’t necessarily better.  Why?  Because it’s killing us.

Modern science is gathering evidence that artificial ingredients are making us sick.  Decades have passed since this stuff was first introduced into our food.  Look at us now?  We’re fat and sick… some of us are dying from cancer BECAUSE of the stuff.

Our bodies cannot metabolize those fake ingredients.  They cause all sorts of havoc in our bodies as they try to deal with them.  The result:  cancer, hormonal disruptions, illness, allergies and mysterious diseases.

Pesticides are endocrine disruptors, carcinogenic and weaken the immune system.  They are also NEUROTOXINS.  How do you think they kill bugs?  The chemical makes their systems shut down – BANG !  Little by little, with enough exposure, humans suffer a different reaction.  These insidious compounds lodge in fat cells and organs and sit there for decades.  By then – there may be other factors, coupled with the weakened immune system and the whole body goes nuts and says “I GIVE UP!”  Result:  cancer.

I heard a story of a woman who worked at a company where she was in contact chemicals on a regular basis.  I don’t know what the extent OF the exposure was; direct, indirect, exposure to fumes,  or what chemical.  I do know that her hair started falling out, she had terrible pain and many other symptoms.  Doctor after doctor dismissed her as a hypochondriac because their standard blood & urine tests revealed nothing.

Finally she went to a doctor who was inquisitive enough to run some different tests which evidenced that this poor woman was slowly being poisoned!

This is how insidious these things can be.  If you or someone you know has been diagnosed as a hypochondriac, tell them to get a different doctor who will do some extensive tests for poisonings.

It could save their life!

Chemical You….

My current list of books includes one by a prominent physician in environmental medicine. “Huh??” you’re probably thinking – “Environmental medicine – what’s that??”  Just what it says:  a physician who studies  how our environment affects our health.  Years ago, Dr. Roberts would have been called a quack.  Today, the evidence she offers in her books are backed up by solid medical research.

She’s beginning to scare me because too much of what I read in her articles and books mirrors what many other naturopathic, holistic and organic based evidence points out:  we are literally surrounded every day by toxins we have no control over.

CANCER

Maybe it’s because way back – cancer wasn’t diagnosed as cancer, or even at all.  Why, then, does it seem like so many people are getting it?  Not only older people, but young ones as well.  I doubt there is one person alive in this country who doesn’t know somebody with cancer.

Why?

Our environment.  Every single aspect of our lives has in it artificial components of plastic, out-gassing (fumes) or toxins of some sort.  The sad part about this is that the entire population of this world had no say – and is totally unaware that manufacturers, food producers, agribusiness and technology has contributed to it every day.

Chemicals surround us.  Our computers are made from plastics which release chemicals into our environment.  If we’ve sworn off caffeine, and drink decaf instead, chances are we’re getting a good dose of chemicals from the decaffeination process. Got that suit back from the cleaners?  Guess what it’s been cleaned with?  Dry cleaning fluid=chemicals.  If your kids play sports like football or soccer they’re probably rolling around on turf treated with herbicides and other toxic lawn chemicals.  Think you’re safe at work?  Your company probably has a contract with an extermination service and sometimes you’re even sitting at your desk when the guy comes through with the little sprayer tank!  Millions of Americans go to work in environments chocked full of chemicals:  manufacturing facilities with dust and fumes from chemicals, heavy metals, plastic compounds, cleaning solutions,  paints, glues and pesticide residues.  Even if your job does not put you in direct or daily contact, you are still at risk.

We take medicines to make us well, right?  We suffer from various diseases which may have been caused by our body’s reaction to the onslaught of chemicals that started in the womb! Every thing our mother ate, drank, breathed, cleaned with, bathed with;  every time she dyed her hair – we got a little dose of it too. The fetal brain is far more delicate and subject to abnormalities from environmental toxins, as well as hormones created by the mother’s body in response to stress and emotion.  (see ‘The New Feminine Brain”  by Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz)

Our modern world is full of things that we have no control over.  Modern science, supposedly our friends, may unknowingly or KNOWINGLY – have been responsible for the drastic rise in a host of maladies.  From ‘the ‘Big C’ to asthma, fibromyalgia, ADHD, depression – all can be traced to chemical imbalances.  Artificial substances which act as hormone disruptors, making our bodies react with symptoms of an inner world gone haywire:  illness.

Another thing that always scared me was hormone replacement therapy.  Why would a woman want to take the stuff when she could go through a natural process the way her body was designed to do?  OK, for some it’s more uncomfortable than others.  We’re a population of people who don’t want to be uncomfortable.  Now, however, modern medicine is finding that it really ISN’T  ‘nice to fool Mother Nature.’  All the women I know who have taken hormone replacement therapy have cancer in some form or another.  What does that tell you?  I’ll pass, thank you!

When I worked at Lowe’s in the section with the lawn chemicals, after about a month I developed severe body pain.  Every joint would hurt.  At night it usually was the worst.  Sometimes I’d wake up screaming because it felt like I’d been stabbed!  I hurt so bad I gobbled pain killers just to function.  Looking back now, it probably was from exposure to atrazine (‘Weed-B-Gone’) and triazicide and all the other things I was around.  Sweeping the floors and inhaling the dust probably gave me a good dose of pesticides!  Though I wore gloves when handling bags and bottles, there was so much of it in the atmosphere. This is a frightening thought and just one example of how our environment can affect us.

The only thing we can do is learn more, teach others and try our best to live a clean life.  Fastidious detox routines must become the norm, not only with food, massage, detox baths and saunas to beat back the chemical onslaught.

Maybe we can buy ourselves some time.

We Are All LAB RATS

YOU and I are lab rats.  Your KIDS are lab rats, too. Unless you grow and consume all your food yourself, YOU are held hostage by the food companies.

Think about it.  Everything thing you eat -  e v e n   those so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ foods probably are tainted in some way with something.

I know too much.  I have my roots in the local food movement, but they stretch way back to the environmental movement.  What I do here, and on my website an other blogs, is try to EDUCATE.

For the most part, the average consumer has their head up their butt when it comes to food and the environment.  They think it’s not their problem, that it doesn’t concern them and that it doesn’t affect them.

Do you send your kids to public  school? Do they play sports?  Do they eat school food?  Do you take them to fast food joints?  What do you buy for them at the  grocery store? Do you eat in restaurants? What DO you eat when you eat? What DO you drink when you drink?

What about your home life?  What products do you buy:  laundry detergent, body care products, beauty products, perfumes, lotions, hair dye, nail polish?  What do you paint your walls with?  Where did you get your furniture? Do you use any bug killing preparations?  What about your lawn?  Do you have a lawn care service and do you KNOW what they put on your lawn?  Have you had a pest company assure you their ‘chemicals’ are safe around kids and pets?  Do you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy lawn care products to keep the nasty bugs away?  Do your KIDS PLAY ON YOUR LAWN?

Where do YOU choose to shop?  Is Wally-World your best buddy because you have fallen victim and been brainwashed by their  ‘save money, live better’  catchphrase?

Big business, especially the likes of Wal-Mart, does NOT give a shit about you.  Look at the way they treat their own employees?  They’ve been convicted on a vast array of charges in recent years of labor violations.  Going waaaay back, and I have a copy of the article in my files here…. they even wanted to move a Native American cemetery because they wanted to build a store!  Do you think, in this day of corporate greed, that it’s gotten any better, that they’ve become a kinder, more gentler Wally?

There are numerous links detailing environmental disregard -and- total disregard for human life on this planet BY food companies and agricultural chemical companies.  You and I and this planet are being POISONED by thousands of chemicals a day because the likes of Monsanto and Bayer… those kindly aspirin people.

DO THE RESEARCH.  Do it for your kids, your friends, your family, your friends and if you care enough – our planet.

Pesticide Producers OWN Seed Companies

A recent article on Organic Consumer’s website details how much of the world is owned by the pesticide manufacturers.

THIS IS OUR FOOD, folks!  Companies like Monsanto, a chemical giant, pro-GMO,  is the world’s biggest seed company; fifth largest company in the world.  Bayer, yes the aspirin people, is the largest agrochemical corporation in the world.

One third of all pesticide use is weed killers (herbicides) and 80% of the genetically modified seeds are herbicide resistant.

That means that HERBICIDES CAN and WILL BE USED ON YOUR FOOD because it will not kill the plant, just the weeds.  This is what these companies are all about:  getting their agendas passed and up and running without concern for the human race!  Cross pollination is also possible between GM (genetically modified) and non-GMO plants.  Worldwide, 14 species of weeds have developed resistance to ‘Glyphosphate’, (Roundup) which required farmers to use heavier doses.

More bad news:  Monsanto’s Round-Up which has led the market in herbicides for over 10 years, the  “Roundup Ready” patent expires this year which will make it possible for other manufacturers to market a Round-Up clone.

That being said, the poison producers have the world market cornered on food.

THAT’S NOT a good thing!

Detox: Why It’s Important

We live in a world of toxins, which didn’t exist 50 or 100 years ago.  Since the advent of plastics, that “miracle substance”, we can find few things that aren’t either entirely composed of them or partially so. Consequently, because of things like plastics, pollution, food additives, pesticides, synthetic ingredients in furnishings, personal care items, and cleaning products, we need to help our bodies get rid of toxins.  This is where a good detox bath comes in.

Since ancient times, one of the most effective detox regimens has been the bath.  Soaking in hot mineral springs or a bath containing aromatic bath salts, oils and herbs, was a favorite past time of the Romans, Chinese and other civilizations. Aromatic bath salts serve a two-fold purpose:  their scent calms and relaxes the body and the salts, be it Dead Sea salts, Himalayan salts, Epsom salts or other natural bath salts, act as a detoxifying agent.  This helps the body rid itself of toxins, stave off illness and muscle strain and fatigue. If you remove dead skin with an exfoliating natural scrub, the results are even better.

Most people don’t realize that when you take a hot detox bath, you can even either prevent or lessen the effects of an oncoming illness.  A hot detox bath does the same thing as a fever does:  kills germs inside the body by raising the overall temperature.  That’s what a fever is for!  It is the body’s defense system against illness.

One of my favorite combinations is  mixing Epsom salts with bath salts. Epsom salts are wonderful!  We think of them only when we’ve sprained or strained something.  They have two other great benefits:  they will help you sleep after their detoxing properties in your bath, and they are a natural skin softener.

So, the next time you get that scratchy feeling in your throat, or have been around too many people who’re sick – and don’t want to come down with something, get in a  hot tub for an hour or two with some bath salts.  Your body will probably thank you!

Toxic Families, Toxic Kids

A recent study was done on children ages 2-5 on chemical exposure.  As parents were leaving a supermarket, or organic food market, they were asked if they would participate in a study.  Participants were asked to write down everything their child ate or drank for 3 days.  The children were separated into two groups. If their diet was over 75% from organic sources, they were considered ”organic’. The ‘conventional’ children ate little or no organic food.

The levels of toxins  in the urine of the organic kids was ONE SIXTH of the conventional diet.    The children on the conventional diets had levels that were more than FOUR TIMES the SAFE LEVELS set by the EPA.

Because of their development, children are far more susceptible to illnesses, learning disabilities and other developmental abnormalities from affects of pesticide exposure.  It was assumed that babies would be far more toxic resulting from hand to mouth exposure  from household chemicals.  Older children, however, were found to have higher levels of toxins from exposure at school, outside sports activities on commercially maintained turf.

For more info, see previous post:  POISONS in your YARD

Go to the referenced websites:

http://www.freewebs.com/thefoodblog

http://www.enviro-mentality-blog.com

http://www.envirolifesource.com/detox

POISONS In Your YARD

Americans spread MILLIONS of tons of toxic lawn chemicals in their yards every year. Obsessed with eliminating every pest, every weed, they ignore the fact that they are exposing their children and pets to POISON.

Advocating non-chemical remedies, I have never put chemicals down,  and never will.  I know too much. I have an  ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude about the lawn.  It’s green, I mow it, and that’s IT.

I worked for Lowe’s in the garden center for 5 years. Each week I’d watch thousands of pounds of poison go out the door in this one store. People were fanatical about their lawns and didn’t even think about what they were doing! A common, and especially toxic product, 2-4-D is found in the popular brand WEED-B-GONE.

Ironically, part of my job was to sell lawn care products.  I hated it.  It went against everything I believe in.  I’m an environmentalist and I joking refer to chemicals as being ‘against my religion.’ I would always opt for pitching the lowest toxicity remedy.  If I thought the customer was receptive, I’ve even tell them about my favorite gardener, Jerry Baker, whom I’ve learned many natural remedies from.

One day a man came in with his three children in tow,  their approximate ages being 7, 5 and 3.  He wanted Diazinon.  I said it’s been banned for almost 10 years now, but the replacement was Triazicide.  We walked over to where the bags were stacked and I answered his questions.

During the conversation, one of the kids started smacking the bag of Triazicide with her hand, like petting a big dog on the head.  The father jumped forward, yanked the kid’s hand away and shouted,

“DON’T TOUCH THAT, it’s POISON!“

I wanted to reply in a calm but sarcastic voice…..

“Yes, it’s POISON and you’re going to take it home, spread it on your lawn and then your kids and dog are going to go out and play in it!”

Children are especially susceptible to illness resulting from pesticide exposure. Instead of rehashing the articles, I’ve included links below.

Not only are these substances dangerous for children, but they are dangerous for adults, pets and the environment.  It’s time to end the love affair with toxins because the health of your family – and the planet – depends on it.

WHAT’S on YOUR LAWN?

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/Summer%2005/children%20lawns.pdf

http://www.foodnews.org/reduce.php

http://www.pesticide.org/hhg/OPSpyrethroids.html

http://www.organicconsumers.org/