This month's issue of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports a new study showing pregnant women and children exposed to pesticides and insect sprays run double the risk of developing childhood leukemia. Researchers carried out detailed interviews with 280 mothers of children with acute leukemia and found disturbing connections between fungicides/insecticides and leukemia. Describing the results as "significant", the authors said that preventive action should be considered to reduce health risks to children.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/leukaemia012006.cfm

 

A new study in the January 2006 issue of the journal Epidemiology. has found that a that a pesticide byproduct found in the blood of 90% of U.S. men could be causing male sterility or other adverse effects in men. Researchers with the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took urine samples from 268 males undergoing treatment for low sperm counts. Researchers measured by-products of a pesticide, chlorpyrifos, and found that men with the lowest testosterone levels also had the most pesticide by-product in their systems. http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/testosterone011706.cfm
----------------

Scientists at UC Berkeley conducted a study published in this week's issue of the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives wherein they found extremely low levels of pesticides kill frogs. The bulk of safety research is typically done on individual pesticides, but this study created a low level mix of pesticides comparable to what frogs would experience near an average farm in the Midwest and found that it killed 35% of the frogs in the study. "Given these adverse effects and the continued increase and use of pesticides in agriculture over the past 50 years, it is likely that pesticides have played and will continue to play a role in amphibian declines," wrote the study's authors. And of course humans are ingesting these same toxic pesticides in non-organic food and in their drinking water. http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/062501.cfm

Tumeric with some types of vegetables can actually help prevent and treat prostate cancer, says a new Rutgers study in the January 15 issue of the journal "Cancer Research." Study authors say tumeric demonstrates "significant cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice." When the seasoning is combined with phenethyl isothiocyanate, a naturally occurring substance in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi turnips, and watercress, the combination of the two "could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," say researchers. http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/tumeric011706.cfm
 
ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of:
ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
6771 South Silver Hill Drive
Finland, MN 55603
Phone: (218)- 226-4164 Fax: (218) 353-7652