The pesticide potential for causing health problems depends on the extent and type of exposure and the susceptibility of the individual. Children and the elderly are the most susceptible. Children's bodies are smaller and they receive proportionally higher dose of toxins per body weight; their organs can be damaged more readily because they are not fully developed. Many of the most frequently used pesticides affect the nervous systems and children are more susceptible to neurotoxins than adults. The National Cancer Institute found an increased risk of leukemia in children whose parents used pesticides in their home or garden. The elderly are more susceptible because their immune systems and organ systems decline with age. The main studies of the effects of pesticides are mostly on cancer. Between 1969 and 1986, several types of cancer increased significantly among people ages 64-84 in six leading industrial countries. These cancer types are multiple-myeloma (a cancer that starts in the bone marrow and spreads to other bones), melanoma of the skin, cancer of the prostate, bladder, brain, lung, and breast. Farmers whose general life style is healthier than city folks with lower risks for most cancers and non-cancer diseases were found to have some specific cancers including: multiple myeloma, lymphomas, skin melanomas, leukemia, cancer of lip, stomach, prostate, and brain. Work related exposures may be causing specific cancers among farmers. What is Going On? Evidence has accumulated that many industrial chemicals (including many common plastics and pesticides) mimic estrogen hormones. These hormone mimickers disrupt reproduction and development in humans, mammals, birds, and fish, just like diethylstilbestrol (DES) did to those mothers and fetuses who received the chemical drug. These estrogenic-like chemicals may be the cause for the increasing incidence of cancer of the breast, testicles, and prostate. According to the American Chemical Society: 1. sperm count in men world wide is 50% of what it was 50 years ago; 2. the incidence of testicular cancer has tripled and of prostate cancer has doubled in the past 50 years; 3. in 1960 the incidence of breast cancer was 1/20 and now it is 1/9; 4. and young male alligators in pesticide contaminated lakes in Florida have such small penises they are unable to function sexually. Estrogen mediated hormonal imbalances can create these changes. Estrogen is usually considered a female hormone, but males produce estrogen in small amounts. In the developing fetus, a specific ratio of androgens (male hormones) to estrogen must be maintained for proper sexual differential to occur. If the hormone balance is disturbed, the offspring may be born with two sets of sexual organs or a single set that is incompletely developed. Diminished sperm count and possible future cancer may be set at this stage. Examples of estrogen mimickers are: DDT, DDE, dierdrin, dicofol, methoxychlor, some PCB's, alkyl phenols from penta- to nonylphenol, as well as bisphenol-A (the building block of polycarbonate plastics and which is used in many common detergents, toiletries, lubricants, and spermicides). Many of these estrogen mimickers resist breaking down in the environment and are highly soluble in fat. This sets the stage for them to accumulate in the bodies of fish, birds, mammals, and humans. Non-vegetarians obviously accumulate a higher amount. One study showed that the mother's milk of vegetarians had only 1% the amount of pesticides as that of meat eating mothers. Many of these estrogen mimickers will cross the placenta barrier and pass into the developing fetus. Even the American Medical Association Journal (JAMA) has reported that estrogenic chemicals have an effect. Ana Soto, a medical researcher at Tufts University, combined 10 estrogenic mimickers, each at one-tenth the dose, to produce minimal response. She found that when all ten were combined, they were strong enough to produce an estrogenic response. This is significant because the U.S. government has been regulating based on their testing of individual chemical effects. They have almost no data on the synergistic affect of the many pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, plastics, PCB's, etc., working together. Scientists can only pretend to discern "safe" levels, for an individual chemical, but they have no idea of any safe level for any chemicals when they are looked at from a synergistic point of view. There is no "safe" levels, as current anti-environmentalist deregulators are trying to say. Political decision makers need to understand we have to abandon the chemical-by-chemical regulation approach, and regulate whole classes of chemicals together. Instead of judging pesticide affects on healthy adults, their affect on children who are most vulnerable should be used as a standard. These categories of dangerous chemicals need to be immediately discontinued if we are to survive as a species. There are about 19 major chemicals used on U.S. crops that are associated with disrupting the human hormone system. According to the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, over 200 million pounds of these hormone disrupters are applied annually to 68 different crops in this country alone. In 1992, Frank Falck M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine examined the tissues from suspicious breast lumps in 40 women and found that those which were cancerous had higher levels of PCBs, DDT, DDE (a DDT byproduct) than those which were benign. Dr. Wolf, professor of community medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City, analyzed blood from more than 14,000 women and found that those who developed breast cancer had higher levels of DDE than those without cancer. He found that the women with the highest levels of DDE had four times the risk of breast cancer than those with the lower levels. Since the 1960's researchers in the US. have felt that the findings which connect the estrogenic pesticides with breast and other cancer are only preliminary, but the Israeli government has already acted on the evidence with exciting results. From 1976 to 1986, Israel was the only country among 28 countries studied, where breast cancer death rate dropped. One explanation was that in 1978, Israel banned three estrogenic pesticides. Within two years after the ban, Lindanc levels were reduced by 90 percent; DDT by 43 percent, and BHC by 98 percent. By 1986, the death rate for breast cancer among Israeli women, below the age of 44, had dropped by 30 percent. The amazing observation is that pesticides also don't achieve their stated purpose! Dr. David Pimentel, a world-leading agriculture expert at Cornell University, estimates that more than 500 species of insects are now resistant to pesticides. It is no accident that crops destroyed by insects have almost doubled during the last 40 years in spite of an almost tenfold increase in the amount and toxicity of insecticides. One recent study showed that the pesticide usage by Filipino rice farmers cost the individual farmer more in medical bills than it generates in increased rice production. Even on a cost-benefit verses health approach, the use of pesticides comes out on the negative side of things. Aside from increased rates of certain cancers, farmers who were not organic growers suffered nearly double the kidney and respiratory problems as organic farmers and were five times more likely to experience eye problems. Farmers who used pesticides had considerably more skin complaints, gastrointestinal problems, neurological problems, and hematological problems. In 1986, the Indonesian government sponsored a plan to decrease the use of pesticides. The rice production since then has increased by 10 percent, and there is much less capital outlay for pesticides and their concomitant medical problems. In Bangladesh, farmers using integrated pest management spent 75 percent less money on pesticides and increased their crop harvest by 14 percent over those using high levels of pesticides. Pesticide usage is a major public health problem worldwide. It reflects a consciousness that is completely out of touch with the laws of nature. The National Academy of Sciences estimates that pesticides are responsible for 20,000 cancer cases annually! Cancer is the worst concern, but what about the amount of increased neurological problems, learning disabilities, and hyperactivity our children are having on what appears to be a mass basis? How much damaged immune systems and environment allergies are being created? Why? What sort of consciousness does it take to continue deliberately poisoning yourself and your family in order to get less effective crop outputs? What sort of consciousness does it take to manufacture these poisons and sell them; and especially to sell banned poisonous chemicals to third world countries where the people do not understand how to minimally protect themselves? Pesticide usage is also associated with directly destroying the life force of the soil. I do not understand how people can choose to spend more money for something that not only doesn't work, but poisons us humans and the environment. As a German medical doctor once said, "it is like pissing next to the urinal." We can protect ourselves, and change the situation, by buying only organic produce. This not only protects ourselves from pesticide poisoning, but supports the organic farmers who are rebuilding the soil. The more organic farmers there are, the less the organic produce will cost, and the more the soil is brought back into balance. Organic produce, according to a study at Tufts University, has a nutrient content that is approximately 88 percent higher than commercially grown produce. This means by buying organic produce we actually get more for our money and for our health. The other thing we can do is support the Pesticide Food Safety Act. Presently, there is a movement to deregulate environmental protection on many levels including pesticide regulation. Let the politicians know it is time they awoke and became more responsible to themselves and to their constituency. Regardless of what Washington does, ultimately, it comes down to us taking responsibility for the health and safety of ourselves, our families and our community. We have the power to consume what is safe, and refuse to consume what is detrimental to our health and to the planet. The power of the marketplace is a power that is stronger than that of even Washington politics. Let us put our money where our mouths... and health are. We have the power to restore the world to one that is aligned with the healing harmony of the universe. Let us do it! ©2000, New Frontier Magazine. Gabriel Cousens, MD, is a holistic physician and author of Spiritual Nutrition, The Rainbow Diet, Sevenfold Peace and Conscious Eating. He is co-director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona For further information on this article contact the author. Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, P.O. Box 32, Patagonia, AZ 85624, Phone: 520-394-2319 |
