DDT Should it be used?

[Darnok]

I just read 'silent spring' its scary

i did a wee bit of homework, but still am undecided

i have a couple David Suzuki books to chomp too

i'll have a more thorough read in the forum tommorow day

 

;)

[Michaelangelica]

I just read 'silent spring' its scary

 

 

There was another book written some 20 years after Carson's Silent Spring. It was called "Since Silent Spring" The first half details the methods big, amoral chemical companies used (and are still using) to discredit her. The second half of the book takes up where she left off. A good read, probably outdated now unless it has been revised.

 

Suzuki usually gives you some good news stories too; to cheer you up. His calm sane outlining of environmental problems is more effective and scary than hysteria. Check out his website.

 

I didn't buy some cheap apples today as they had traces of white powder on them. (paranoia?)

[Michaelangelica]

Celebrating Rachel Carson

 

May 18, 2007

 

USFWS

Author and biologist Rachel L. Carson.

 

By Bernard Unti

 

With the publication of "Silent Spring" (1962), an impassioned warning about the dangers posed by biocidal chemicals to the natural world, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) transformed the modern environmental movement. It is less well known that Carson, born one hundred years ago on May 27, was an animal welfare advocate who participated in efforts to improve the lives of animals in agriculture, laboratories and the wild. At ease and well-regarded within the fields of wildlife biology, conservation and humane work, Carson transcended the largely separate spheres of environmentalism and the animal welfare movement of her day.

. . .

 

"The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized," Carson wrote. "These insecticides are not selective poisons; they do not single out the one species of which we desire to be rid. Each of them is used for the simple reason that it is a deadly poison. It therefore poisons all life with which it comes in contact; the cat beloved of some family, the farmer's cattle, the rabbit in the field and the horned lark out of the sky. … By acquiescing in an act that can cause such suffering to a living creature, who among us is not diminished as a human being?"

Celebrating Rachel Carson | The Humane Society of the United States

As important as Einstein in the way we changed our view of life.

 

Amazing just listening to the radio (ABC Asia Pacific) now about Chinese pollution of foods with pesticides (killing some pets with melamine in pet food)

greenpeace is on their case

Food and Agriculture

Pesticide Usage

Greenpeace volunteers gathering vegetables from a supermarket for ... In 2004 China had the fifth largest pesticide market in the world worth almost US$2000 ...

Pesticide Usage

The global business in pesticide sales gained momentum in the second half of the twentieth century. The number of active ingredients approved for use has increased from some dozens in the late 1950s to around eight hundred in the 1990s, and those active ingredients may be formulated in thousands of different products. As a rule of thumb, pesticide use has doubled every ten years since the early 1950s.

Pesticide Usage

[Michaelangelica]

15 May 2007

Pesticide Contamination Ubiquitous In Pregnant Women

 

A study from the University of Granada in Spain that analyzed the presence of organochlorine pesticides in pregnant women found that all the participants showed placental traces of at least one pesticide. More alarmingly, on average, the women were contaminated with eight different pesticides.

 

Organochlorine pesticides fall into a group of chemical compounds known as persistent organic pollutants. They are present in the environment in food, biomass, soil and water. They cannot be assimilated and tend accumulate in the fatty parts of the body.

 

Exposure to organochlorine pesticides has been linked to various malformations in the genitals and urinary systems of offspring. The most common effects of exposure in the womb are cryptorchidism (undescended testicles) and hypospadias (a total fusion of the urethral folds) in male infants.

Pesticide Contamination Ubiquitous In Pregnant Women

[Michaelangelica]

natural Oz pest control firm

Pest Control Sydney - Cockroaches - Cockroach Control

[Michaelangelica]

DDT, tobacco and the parallel universe

 

By jquiggin | May 30, 2007

 

The piles of documents released as a result of litigation against Phillip Morris and Exxon are gifts that keep on giving for those of us interested in the process by which the Republican parallel universe has been constructed. Previous research has shown that the core proponents of global warming delusionism including Stephen Milloy, Fred Singer and Fred Seitz got their start as shills for PM, denying the risks of passive smoking. A string of rightwing thinktanks including Cato, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute helped to promote these hacks and the lies they were paid to peddle.

 

Now it’s turned out that one of the hardiest of parallel universe beliefs, the claim that Rachel Carson and the US ban on DDT were responsible for millions of deaths in the third world, arises from the same source.

 

One of the great puzzles of the DDT myth has been that it appeared to arise from pure ideological animus against Carson and the environmental movement - DDT is not patented so there were no profits to be obtained from pushing it. It turns out that the DDT campaign was pitched to the tobacco industry as a diversionary attack on the World Health Organization which was playing a leading role in campaigns against smoking. The leading figure in the exercise was Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute and its front organization, Africa Fighting Malaria.

 

So, far from helping to save lives, the bloggers and commentators who’ve pushed the myth of the DDT ban have been the (presumably unwitting) dupes of an industry even deadlier than malaria (CDC estimates that tobacco kills 5 million people a year compared to 1 to 3 million for malaria.

DDT, tobacco and the parallel universe at John Quiggin

 

Maleria

causes disease in approximately 400 million people every year and kills between one and three million people every year, mostly young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

wiki

[Michaelangelica]

Some pesticides can reduce soil fertility

 

04 June 2007

 

Some pesticides developed to boost crop yields could be doing the opposite in the long term, report US researchers.

 

Common pesticides block the chemical signals that allow nitrogen-fixing bacteria to function, report Jennifer Fox and colleagues at Tulane University. Over time, soils surrounding treated plants can become low in nitrogen compounds, so more fertiliser is needed to produce the same yield.

 

Root nodules

Soybean root nodules, each containing billions of Bradyrhizobium bacteria

 

© USDA

Sustainable agricultural practices often use crop rotation: growing a different crop in the same soil each year. Alternating crops that fix nitrogen in the soil - so-called leguminous crops, such as beans or clover - with crops, like wheat, that don't fix nitrogen, enables soils to replenish nitrogen levels routinely. Leguminous plants contain root nodules that use soil bacteria to fix nitrogen, a process that converts atmospheric nitrogen into useful compounds like ammonia.

 

Fox's team tested several common pesticides on leguminous alfalfa plants, relying on the plants' nitrogen-fixing bacteria to provide the nutrients. The insecticides methyl parathion (not used in the UK, but widely used throughout the world, and registered in at least 38 countries) and DDT (which was banned by the World Health Organization for almost 30 years, before being reinstated in 2006 as an effective intervention against malaria) showed a decrease in crop yield of about 20 per cent. Treatment with pentachlorophenol (whose use is restricted in Europe to specialist timber applications), showed a decrease in crop yield of over 80 per cent.

Some pesticides can reduce soil fertility

[Michaelangelica]

Can anyone translate this into English please?

 

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0105-9327%281978%291%3A4%3C326%3AMACHIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage

Abstract

 

The sediments and various organisms in Lake Paijanne were examined for contaminants. The average mercury content of water plants was 9, of plankton 14, of sediment 114, of zoobenthic predators 83, of fish 332-1510 and of birds $240-13685 mu {rm g} {rm kg}^{-1}$ (wet weight). The average PCB content of plants was 3, of plankton 21, of the zoobenthos 44, of fish 36-117 and of birds $219-13490 mu {rm g} {rm kg}^{-1}$. The average SDDT content of plants was 0.5, of plankton 6, of the zoobenthos 14, of fish 7-42 and of birds $144-8262 mu {rm g} {rm kg}^{-1}$. Regional differences in mercury content were most pronounced in sediment and fish. PCB concentration was highest near a town. SDDT was quite evenly distributed. Water plant species did not differ from each other, nor did the plankton fractions. The zoobenthic predators contained more chlorinated hydrocarbons than did the herbivores. There were clear differences between most species of fish and the chlorinated hydrocarbon content was highest in vendace. In adult birds levels of all residues were significantly higher than in juveniles. In most cases PCB content was positively correlated with SDDT and in birds PCB, SDDT and mercury levels were correlated. DDT residues occurred mostly as DDE, but in vendace the proportion of DDT was high. At most trophic levels, SDDT/PCB was 0.15-0.40 but in birds it reached 1-2.

[Michaelangelica]

A generation after Rachel Carson, you still get uniformed rants like this

In the NY Times no less.

 

From the school of Rachel Carson was at best misinformed at worst an idiot.

and

All chemicals are the same.

 

The fact that she and others have continued to document (see "Since Silent Spring" F Graham?) the fact that these post WW2 chemicals are qualitatively different from anything "natural" that had come before.

They are plastic with half lives of years not weeks.

They bio-accumulate and stay with us for generations

We may never really quantify their adverse health effects on mammals.

 

Ms. Carson presented DDT as a dangerous human carcinogen, but Dr. Baldwin said the question was open and noted that most scientists “feel that the danger of damage is slight.” He acknowledged that pesticides were sometimes badly misused, but he also quoted an adage: “There are no harmless chemicals, only harmless use of chemicals.”

 

Ms. Carson, though, considered new chemicals to be inherently different. “For the first time in the history of the world,” she wrote, “every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.”

Rachel Carson - Silent Spring - Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Out Real Science - New York Times

 

Rachel's Environment & Health News

#486 - Our Stolen Future -- Part 1

March 20, 1996

The NEW YORK TIMES this week declared war on the theory and

evidence that synthetic chemicals, such as dioxin, interfere with

hormones, causing harm in wildlife and humans--a story we have

been following since 1991.[1] Under a banner headline in Tuesday's

Science Times section,[2] TIMES writer Gina Kolata reviewed the

new book by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson

("Pete") Myers, OUR STOLEN

FUTURE. OUR STOLEN FUTURE is based on a review of literally thousands of scientific studies going back 60 years.[3]

The main idea in the book is that

synthetic (human-created) chemicals may be interfering with the

hormones that control and regulate growth, health and behavior in

wildlife and humans, leading to birth defects, problems of sexual

development, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and even mental

problems like attention deficit disorder, reduced IQ, and violent

behavior. Both Colborn and Myers hold Ph.D. degrees in zoology

and are fully-qualified scientists, yet Ms. Kolata's review begins

this way:

"In a warning supported by allies who include Robert Redford and

Vice President Al Gore, some environmentalists are asserting that

humans and wildlife are facing a new and serious threat from

synthetic chemicals."

Thus in her opening paragraph, Ms. Kolata managed to trivialize the

issue and discredit the authors by giving the impression that (a)

"some environmentalists" are the source of the data; ( perhaps. . .

#486 - Our Stolen Future -- Part 1

Tirney quotes theThe Carcinogenic Potency Database ((CPDB), published as a CRC handbook, analyzes results of 6000 chronic, long-term cancer tests on 1,400 chemicals.) to support his claim that we are ingesting more natural pesticides than man-made ones.(None of the links he gives work)

Plants, we know, make essential oils and other chemicals that protect them from fungi and bactera and other pests.

Sometimes it is why we grow and use them. Herbs such as thyme or oregano or lavender. I agree, drinking large amounts of these compounds may not be good for your health ( There would be an LD50 for most)

With over 40,000 man made chemicals in the environment.

I dispute his claim. It is just not relevant.

It is not that I am eating a plant derived toxin that worries me; it is the man-made chemical that I cannot digest or eliminate and builds up daily in my body. In particular chlorinated hydrocarbons and organo-phosphates. These are a major worry and is the reason most are restricted in use, or banned in most western countries.

 

I remember Rachel Carson had trouble too, did she not, getting coverage for her book in the NY Times?

Wiki on the NY Times

In their book Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky analyze a variety of major U.S. media outlets, with an emphasis on the Times.

They conclude that a bias exists which is neither liberal nor conservative in nature, but aligned towards the interests of corporate conglomerates, which own most of these media outlets and also provide the majority of their advertising revenue. The authors explain that this bias functions in all sorts of ways:[42]

 

"...by selection of topics, by distribution of concerns, by emphasis and framing of issues, by filtering of information, by bounding of debate within certain limits. They determine, they select, they shape, they control, they restrict — in order to serve the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society."[43]

 

Chomsky and Herman also touch on the specific importance this perceived bias has in the Times, saying:

 

"...history is what appears in The New York Times archives; the place where people will go to find out what happened is The New York Times. Therefore it's extremely important if history is going to be shaped in an appropriate way, that certain things appear, certain things not appear, certain questions be asked, other questions be ignored, and that issues be framed in a particular fashion."[43]

[DougF]

First: I would like to thank you for all of this research you've done.:(

very impressive.

I remember the DDT trucks driving around spraying everything in sight, back then we thought hay the government wouldn't do it if it were bad for you.:D (now we know better) well to tell the Truth I thought that DDT was not in use anymore and in my way of thinking should not be used at all, I think there is too much at stake, there is to much poison in the oceans now!

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks for the thanks,.

But I do this for me & my children.

All my life I have fought against these persistent, plastic chemicals (chlorinated hydrocarbons & orthophosphates) and cannot understand why we are so foolish to allow them to pollute our planet again.

 

Big Yellow Taxi

by Joni Mitchell

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique

And a swinging hot spot

 

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

They took all the trees

Put 'em in a tree museum

And they charged the people

A dollar and a half just to see 'em

 

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

Hey farmer farmer

Put away that DDT now

Give me spots on my apples

But leave me the birds and the bees

Please!

 

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

Late last night

I heard the screen door slam

And a big yellow taxi

Took away my old man

 

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

Copyright © Siquomb Publishing Company

jonimitchell.com - Lyrics: Big Yellow Taxi

Tip O' the Day: Learn the Words to Big Yellow Taxi

"Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don't care about spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees, please." "Big Yellow Taxi" is worth your time to learn the words (and if you have children, teach them).

[DougF]

I thought you might like this site. :D Lot's of links.

Our Stolen Future: Home

 

Tip O' the Day: Learn the Words to Big Yellow Taxi

"Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don't care about spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees, please." "Big Yellow Taxi" is worth your time to learn the words (and if you have children, teach them).

 

:doh: speaking of bees, I wounder if this has anything to with the missing bees?

High Country News -- March 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees

I've been following this for the last month or two, if we lose the Bees we'll be in big trouble (I think it's all the pollution if we don't stop polluting the planet we'll only succeed in killing everything.) :naughty:

 

Question: Do you know if there has any testing on the beached whales for DDT, or other poisons?

 

Death on the Sand: Whales beach on Cape Cod all the time. What made this pod different? FREDERIC GOLDEN / Time v.160, n.7, 12aug02

 

mindfully.org note:

The author of this Time article calls runoff pollution of farming with pesticides and fertilizers an "inadvertent fertilization of coastal waters."

 

How can this be called "inadvertent" when they know very well what they are doing and continue to do so?

 

The blame rests squarely upon the shoulders of the masters of industry--those who disinform, those whose greed empowers them to do anything in spite of the fact that many life-sustaining systems are crashing all around the globe.

 

The death of these whales is much more than a mere warning sign.

[Michaelangelica]

I thought you might like this site. :D Lot's of links.

 

 

:doh: speaking of bees, I wounder if this has anything to with the missing bees?

 

 

Question: Do you know if there has any testing on the beached whales for DDT, or other poisons?

The death of these whales is much more than a mere warning sign

). Cetaceans lack or

have inactive CYP 2B isozymes, which are needed to detoxify more bulky,

globular xenobiotics, such as DDT and PCBs 153 and 180, causing these

chemicals to persist and accumulate in cetacean tissues (Boon et al., 1994).

. . .

CONCLUSION

Consumption of some of the whale meat products investigated in this

study at a rate of 30 g/d, can lead to EDIs of mercury, PCBs and dieldrin

that exceed respective TDIs for these chemicals, raising questions on their

safety for human consumption.

Although the use of TDIs as benchmarks is

not ideal, they are internationally accepted and offer standardization to the

process of assessing potential health effects for consumers. It should be

borne in mind that the EDIs calculated in this study do not account for

additional sources of organochlorine and mercury exposure such as other

foods.

In this respect, the use of EDIs and TDIs is not representative of daily

exposure to these contaminants.

HUMAN HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF ORGANOCHLORINE AND MERCURY CONTAMINANTS IN JAPANESE WHALE MEAT

 

 

Abstract: During recent international debates concerning the potential resumption of commercial whaling, whale meat has frequently been promoted as a good food. Recent research into the diet of Faroe Islanders and Inuit Indians has revealed that consumption of marine mammal tissues can cause them to exceed recommended intake levels for various pollutants.

Emerald: Article Request

Recently, four scientists reported that contaminant levels are dangerously high in whale and dolphin meat, blubber, and organ meats eaten in Japan. From these findings, they claim there is a "substantial human health risk" associated with eating whale and dolphin, and they call on the government to immediately "ban the sale of contaminated products"

. . .

Pollutants such as DDT, PCBs, HCH, dieldrin, and chlordane, also detected in Japanese whale products, are found in the most remote parts of the Canadian north and in arctic residents' blood, milk, and bodies. In addition, high levels of various heavy metals (such as mercury and cadmium) occur in high levels in arctic animals', and peoples', bodies.

Is Eating Whale Meat in Japan A Risk to Consumers' Health?

bstract

The concentrations of total mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides ( b.SigmaDDT, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene [HCB], and b.SigmaHCH) were determined in 61 whale meat products (bacon, blubber, red meat, liver, intestine, and tongue) purchased from retail outlets across Japan.

Mean (range) concentrations of contaminants in all samples were: total mercury 4.17 (0.01-204); b.SigmaPCB 1.14 (0-8.94); b.SigmaDDT 0.98 (0-7.46); dieldrin 0.07 (0-0.35); HCB 0.06 (0-0.22); and b.SigmaHCH 0.07 (0-0.19) µg/g (wet weight).

The data were used to calculate estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of contaminants at two hypothetical levels of whale meat consumption.

These EDIs were compared with FAO/WHO "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) values for each chemical. EDIs calculated for higher levels of whale meat consumption were in some cases exceptionally high and for many products exceeded FAO/ WHO-TDIs for total mercury, PCBs, and dieldrin, with exceedance factor values (EDI/TDI) for total mercury, PCBs, and dieldrin reaching maxima of 175, 5.36, and 2.1, respectively.

For sensitive consumers and those with high-level consumption (e.g., whaling communities), exposure to mercury and to a lesser extent PCBs from certain whale blubber and bacon and striped dolphin liver products could lead to chronic health effects.

The Japanese community should therefore exercise a precautionary approach to the consumption of such foods in excess, particularly by high-risk members of the population.

HUMAN HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF ORGANOCHLORINE AND MERCURY CONTAMINANTS IN JAPANESE WHALE MEAT - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A: Current Issues

Pumpkin anyone?

Pumpkins Can Clean Up Toxic Soils

WASHINGTON, DC, October 21, 2004 (ENS) - Pumpkins and zucchinis have the ability to remove DDT from soil, a chemist at the Royal Military College of Canada has found.

We still don't know hoew they work?

The mode of action of chlorinated hydrocarbons is still a subject of active research. They are classified as neuroactive agents which block the transmission of nerve impulses. Specifically, for example, DDT prevents the normal sodium-potassium exchange in the sheath of the nerve fiber-this exchange being the means by which a message is transmitted along the nerve.

AmeriScan: October 21, 2004

On BEES

Who knows?

Pesticides are often found in honey samples. But they are found in many things.

What do American spray mosquitoes with in summer in regional eradication programes?

It seems the Bee problem has been getting worse for decades without anyone noticing.

A problem preventing clear identification of CCD is that honey bees are already under threat from manifold foes.

 

Even without CCD, the number of managed hives in the U.S. has dwindled by nearly 50 per cent since the industry's peak in the 1970s. The main culprit for the die-offs is a tiny Asian mite.

Mystery of the dying bees | COSMOS magazine

The exposure of honey bees to pesticides is an ever-changing problem for beekeepers, because each year new pesticides, as well as new formulations of the established ones, appear in the marketplace. The release of just one new chemical or different formulation has, at times, been devasting to honey bees. When Sevin (carbaryl) first was applied in orchards in the Northwestern United States, one beekeeper alone claimed to have lost several thousand colonies in less than a month. The heavy loss of colonies happened unexpectedly and so fast that a huge number of colonies were killed before remedial steps, such as moving the colonies, could be taken.

 

More recently in the same region, the change from the customary spray-form of methyl parathion to the new encapsulated form was blamed for the loss of several thousand colonies. Beekeepers were well aware of the highly toxic nature of methyl parathion, but they were not aware, or prepared, for the increased toxicity due to the greatly extended period over which the encapsulated chemical will kill bees.

 

Unfortunately, much of the information that beekeepers acquire on pesticides and honey bee mortality comes through personal observations when colonies are weakened or killed by new chemicals.

. . .

To protect the cotton, the farmer makes as many as a dozen applications of toxic insecticides to the plants during the summer. With few exceptions, bees cannot survive in this type of an environment (Moffet and others 1977). Another well-documented series of heavy bee losses due to pesticide poisoning comes from California, where beekeepers lost an average of 62,500 colonies a year from 1962 to 1973 (Atkins 1975).

. . .

Due to the extensive measurements of E. L. Atkins, C. Johansen, and others, a large amount of toxicity data has been collected, which allows an assignment of the inherent relative toxicity of the many pesticides now in use. These data are the results of both lab and field tests in which the materials usually were examined in their most common formulations. The organophosphates and carbamates are the most toxic to honey bees, with Furadan (LD50 0.160µ g/bee) and parathion (LD50 0.175µg/bee) high on the list.

. . .

While debate continues on the subject of the relative merits of different formulations for insect control and bee welfare, it is accurate to say that there is no safe formulation where honey bees are concerned, and each formulation has its unique hazards.

A list of insecticide formulations in order of decreasing hazard to bees follows:

 

1. Dust;
   
2. wettable powder;
   
3. flowable,
   
4. emulsifiable concentrate
   
5. r soluble powder
   
6. liquid solution
   
7. granular formulation
   

 

The position of encapsulated insecticides has not yet been well defined, but may be more toxic to bees than are dust formulations.

Because of the rather insidious nature of encapsulated formulations such as Penncap-M, however, beekeepers should be particularly cautious about exposing their foraging bees to such materials.

Biology - Bee Behavior

 

Finally

Reports from the Organic Consumers Association state that bee losses are affecting commercial, and not organic, beekeepers.

More Buzz on the Bees

[DougF]

I thank you, for all of this research you've done. :hihi:

It's as I though,:doh: various levels of pollutants wherever we look, we really need to call on all of the government's of the world to immediately "ban the sale of these pollutants" or I'm afraid there well be no world too live in just a cesspool of pollution. :)

 

What do American spray mosquitoes with in summer in regional eradication programes?

 

Mosquito Information Website - Mosquito Management - Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM)

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks Doug,

As you say, with ecosystems collapsing all around us. . .. . .

 

I am told the USA is also running out of birds?

 

I see also that plastic has now entered the food chain:eek_big:

This article was fascinating. I did not know there were natural tidal concentrations such as this in the sea.

No one else did either? The Hawaii one was recently discovered.

That means that Chlorinated hydrocarbons, that live in the top micron of the water- and interfere with phytoplankton's reproductive ability, will be concentrated too?

Drowning in Plastic, environment news

 

What happens do the garbage taken out of NY Harbour on big Garbage Tugs? (Seen in USA movies -the hero is often saved by falling into one from a great height).

 

Dow Corp for one does not seem to get the idea of ecosystem at all.

Have a look at their environmental record (now combined with that of Union Crabide.)

EG

The Guardian

The Guardian 26 April, 2006

 

Sydney Harbour poisoned

Peter Mac

 

The health of people who have been eating fish and shellfish caught in Sydney Harbour, is now known to be under a major threat from industrial pollution.

 

Last week the ABC’s 7.30 Report revealed the results of tests carried out in Germany on tissue samples taken from fishermen who formerly worked in the Harbour. The tests show a tremendously high level of toxic elements present in the body of one elderly fisherman, but also a highly worrying level in his six-year-old grandson, both of whom frequently ate fish and shellfish from the Harbour.

 

Before the 2001 Olympics were held at Sydney’s Homebush Bay, massive earth works were carried out to ensure that people using the Games complex, and its associated housing, were not affected by toxic wastes. (It’s still not clear whether these measures were entirely effective).

 

These wastes included the dioxin TCDD, a component of the defoliant Agent Orange, which was used as a horrific weapon of war by the US in Vietnam during the 1970s, and which is still causing birth defects, immune disorders and cancer within the Vietnamese population.

 

These toxins are known to have entered the ground for decades from Union Carbide’s former industrial complex at Homebush Bay. The toxins also entered the waters of Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River. Fishing from the Harbour was banned last January.

 

Scientific tests have even revealed these chemicals to be present at Rose Bay, 23 kilometres down harbour, where the toxicity level is 1.5 times the estimated safe limit. However, at Silverwater, close to Homebush Bay, the level is a massive eight times the safe limit.

. . .

ut where does the buck stop? To date there has been little public discussion about Union Carbide itself, the corporation whose malfunctioning plant in Bhopal, India, exploded 20years ago, killing and maiming thousands of workers and nearby residents.

That corporation surely carries the major responsibility for pollution arising from its industrial activities at Homebush Bay.

 

But that’s not all. Was Agent Orange itself actually produced at Homebush Bay, for use during the Vietnam War? If so, should not a large measure of responsibility for the looming Homebush Bay horror be accepted by the US Government, which commissioned its use?

And if so, does not some responsibility also rest with the former Liberal/Country Party Government, which never criticised the use of Agent Orange, but enthusiastically endorsed every US war initiative, just as the present Howard Government does?

It's good to have friends like the Yanks.

 

Doug

The site you give has some interesting things to say about pesticides

• 1) Acute and chronic pesticide impacts to humans, wildlife, and other non-target species,
  
• 2) the persistence of certain pesticides in the environment, and
  
• 3) the transport of pesticides outside target areas, which can cause unintended environmental damage.
  

MOSQUITO CONTROL INSECTICIDES: PAST AND PRESENT

 

The synthetic pesticides used for mosquito control over the years have varied greatly in structure, toxicity, persistence, and environmental impact. These chemicals include the following: Organochlorines -- Today, no organochlorine pesticides are used for mosquito control in Florida. However, methoxychlor is still labeled for mosquito control use. Some organochlorines that were formerly used for mosquito control because of their high arthropod toxicity included DDT, BHC, chlordane, heptachlor, aldrin, and dieldrin. Organochlorines are relatively non-soluble in water and very persistent in soils; they bioaccumulate in fat and other lipids (lipophilic). Largely, it was these lipophilic properties that resulted in organochlorines no longer being labeled for use in the U.S. Organochlorines continue to be used for agricultural and mosquito control in developing countries. Many soils and rivers are still contaminated with residues of the most persistent of these compounds (i.e., DDT, endrin, dieldrin) (White & Krynitsky 1986), and they continued to be detected in wildlife a decade ago (Risebrough 1986).

. . .

Insect Growth Regulators (IGR) -- IGRs interfere with insect development typically resulting in larval or pupal mortality. For more than 20 years, the insect growth regulator methoprene (Altosid®) has been a widely used mosquito larvicide in Florida and elsewhere in the world. Methoprene is specific to immature insect larvae, especially dipterans, which include mosquitoes. Methoprene has extremely low mammalian toxicity. Diflubenzuron (Dimilin®), a chitin inhibitor, has much broader non-target impacts than methoprene, especially on marine and freshwater arthropods such as shrimp and crabs. Therefore, Dimilin is severely restricted to only certain allowable sites. Due to the potential for non-target impacts, it is not widely used.

 

Biologicals -- Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) and B. sphaericus (Bs) are both bacterial larvicides (acting as stomach poisons) that are quite specific to mosquito larvae and a few other aquatic dipterans. Bti is used worldwide. Bs is newly labeled and only effective in freshwater habitats. Both are non-toxic to mammals and exhibit few or no non-target effects.

 

Human Health Concerns

 

A consideration associated with the overall use of pesticides, of which mosquito control is a part, is the potential human health risk of pesticide exposure. In the last several years, more evidence has been evaluated concerning the impact on humans from a half-century of exposure to synthetic chemicals and other environmental contaminants. Human health problems associated with the effects of severe exposure to organophosphorus pesticides include irreversible neurological defects, memory loss, mood changes, infertility, and disorientation (Savage et al. 1988). However, this is an example of chemical misuse, not a result of mosquito control applications.

 

Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI), often referred to as multiple chemical sensitivity, is now a recognized medical phenomenon. As much as 10% of the U.S. population could be described as having some degree of IEI (Florida Today 1990). However, as yet there is no clinical medical test to demonstrate pesticide sensitivity. There is no reason to doubt that IEI individuals can become ill from mosquito control spraying; thus, mosquito control operations are potential targets for disputes with chemically sensitive individuals.

 

FDCAS currently maintains a list of pesticide-sensitive persons in Florida. Currently only 94 individuals are listed.

. . .

Chemical Trespass

 

The concept of chemical trespass (i.e., applying chemicals to an individual or their property against their wishes) extends back to old Florida Statutes. However today, statutory law (Chapter 388 F.S.) permits the application of mosquito control chemicals in the public domain. The potential for conflict is obvious, and this has been the basis for some claims in the past (e.g., by beekeepers).

BUT

I still can't find out what pesticide you use in the USA.

Can anyone else?

There are no government run mosquito controll set-ups in Oz to my knowledge.

 

I think I found it Alduticide =pesticide

http://mosquito.ifas.ufl.edu/Documents/BuzzWords/Vol3No5.pdf

Adulticides used include, malathion, fenthion, naled, chlorpyrifos, permethrin and resmethrin.

No wonder you have no bees or birds

Depends a bit, of course, on how they are applied by a plane or a man walking around with a spray backpack

They even say in their own papers that synthetic pyretroids (permethrin and resmethrin) can also be as persistent as OPs and brake down into even more toxic products. But we don't know yet cause we haven't used them enough

A chemist friend reckons OP are more dangerous than Chs

Do you want the bad or the bad news?

Every mosquito control district (MCD) in Florida adulticides to some extent, using aerial and/or ground application. The most common forms of adulticiding are ultra low volume (ULV) and thermal fogging. Ground adulticiding is almost exclusively conducted with ULV equipment. Aerial applications usually use ULV treatments while some use thermal fogging.

Mosquito Information Website - Mosquito Management - Integrated Mosquito Management - Adulticiding

Isn't a Bush the Governor of Florida?

 

S**t

What are you doing?

Florida has a bigger mossie Air-force than the RAAF

Rotor Craft

 

Rotor craft are seeing wider use for adulticiding . Many programs which operate them for larviciding duties will change the spray equipment and also adulticide with them. Additionally, programs will use them for adulticiding smaller areas that have difficult obstructions or meandering shapes. They are more maneuverable than fixed-wing aircraft and can be serviced at field sites thus reducing ferry times. Air speeds are somewhere between 70 knots for piston-engined ships and 110 knots for the faster light turbines.

 

In 1996, organized MCDs in Florida listed the following aircraft used for adulticiding:

 

Fixed-Wing Aircraft

 

12 Douglas DC-3/C-47

 

3 Beech 18/C-45

 

1 Beech King Air C-90

 

1 Beech Queen Air

 

1 Beech Twin Bonanza

 

2 Piper Aztec

 

4 Cessna 337

 

Helicopters

 

2 BellUH-1B

 

9 Hughes/MD 500 C, D & E

 

2 Bell 206

 

3 Bell 47

 

4 Hughes 269 A, B & C

Dough I just found this

I wouldn't worry about DDT anymore if I was you. Aminor problem when Yanks have this attitude to the environment

CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Army admits it dumped 64 million pounds of chemical weapons at sea

Move to a high non-earthquake prone NZ Mountain!

[InfiniteNow]

I still can't find out what pesticide you use in the USA.

Can anyone else?

There are no government run mosquito controll set-ups in Oz to my knowledge.

Mike,

 

You might try drilling down into some of the following if you have not done so already:

 

Pesticides | US EPA

Types of Pesticides | Pesticides | US EPA

Regulating Pesticides | Pesticides | US EPA

 

 

And the statistics available at the following Agricultural Chemical Use database will, perhaps, be of even greater use to you (although, you may need a research assistant who lives on Ramen noodles to help you parse the data :lol: ):

 

NASS Agricultural Chemical Database

You can search agricultural chemical usage by selection of one area, one year, one or multiple crops, and one or multiple chemicals.

[InfiniteNow]

Here's another collection of information which seems to be organized by Purdue University:

 

Home - National Pesticide Information Retrieval System (NPIRS)

 

 

:lol: