Pesticide Industry Rocked By Three Recent Alarming Studies
Source:
ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of:
ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
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Finland, MN 55603
Phone: (218)- 226-4164 Fax: (218) 353-7652
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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