Fw: #726: Science, Precaution and Pesticides

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: =======================Electronic Edition====================

: . .

: . RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #726 .

: . ---June 7, 2001--- .

: . HEADLINES: .

: . SCIENCE, PRECAUTION, AND PESTICIDES .

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:

: SCIENCE, PRECAUTION AND PESTICIDES

:

: Lymphoma is cancer of the white blood cells, and half the people

: who get it die within 5 years. Those 5 years are likely to be a

: hellish combination of fear, worry, pain, and sickness caused by

: standard medical therapies -- radiation treatment, surgery

: (including bone marrow transplants or stem cell transplants)

: and/or chemotherapy. Side effects from therapies can include

: pain, nausea, vomiting, persistent mouth sores, and secondary

: infections like colds and flu after cancer therapies damage the

: immune system. Worse, lymphoma can go into remission, then flare

: up without warning, requiring all the therapies to be repeated.

: This is a disease that gives its victims a terrifying roller

: coaster ride through the valley of death.

:

: There are two main kinds of lymphoma -- Hodgkin's disease and

: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or NHL. NHL accounts for about 88% of all

: lymphoma. Some 287,000 people in the U.S. are living with NHL at

: any given time. About 55,000 new cases of NHL will be diagnosed

: this year in the U.S. and even more will be diagnosed next year

: because lymphoma is the second-fastest-growing kind of cancer.

: Between 1975 and 1998, the incidence (occurrence) of lymphoma

: increased at about 2.2% per year, though the rate of increase has

: slowed during the past decade.[1]

:

: No one knows what causes lymphoma, but we know that all cancers

: are caused by multiple gene mutations (requiring probably 5 to 10

: separate injuries) and/or by damage to the parts of the immune

: system that normally destroy cancer cells. (See REHN #693.) In

: the past two decades medical researchers have come to suspect

: that various combinations of factors give rise to lymphoma -- a

: weakened immune system, exposure to certain kinds of chemicals,

: and perhaps exposure to one or more viruses. Studies seem to

: implicate one particular class of chemicals -- chlorophenols.

: Chlorophenols are chlorine-containing chemicals that include

: dioxins, PCBs, DDT, and the so-called " phenoxy herbicides, "

: including the weed killers 2,4,5-T, and 2,4-D. This last one is

: the most popular crabgrass and dandelion killer in America, sold

: as Weed-B-Gone, Weedone, Miracle, Demise, Lawn-Keep, Raid Weed

: Killer, Plantgard, Hormotox, and Ded-Weed, among other

: trademarked names.

:

: Now the Lymphoma Foundation of America has pulled together and

: summarized in a 49-page booklet all the available studies of the

: relationship between lymphoma and pesticides.[2] It is an

: impressive piece of work by Osburn, who directed the

: project, and a scientific review panel of 12 physicians and

: lymphoma researchers. The booklet summarizes 99 studies of humans

: and one study of pet dogs (see REHN #250) in relation to

: pesticide exposures.

:

: Of the 99 human studies, 75 indicate a connection between

: exposure to pesticides and lymphomas. Twenty-four show no

: relationship.[3] The one study of pet dogs indicates that the

: popular crabgrass killer, 2,4-D, doubles a pet dog's chances of

: getting cancer. (See REHN #250.)

:

: Does all this " prove " that exposure to pesticides causes cancer?

: No, it doesn't.

:

: In anything as complicated as pesticide exposures or even

: cigarette smoke, science can never prove beyond every possible

: doubt that X causes Y. There is always room for a researcher

: employed by Philip or the Crop Protection Association (the

: pesticide trade group) to say, " Couldn't this disease be partly

: caused by some factor that you haven't taken into consideration?

: Maybe it's partly caused by some factor you haven't even thought

: of. " And the honest answer must always be, " Yes, there's a slim

: chance that it could be. " Where chemicals and humans and

: ecosystems are concerned, the complexity is enormous, the tools

: of science are crude, and what is not known is always much larger

: than what is known.

:

: It's time we admitted to ourselves that science will never

: provide definitive answers to some of the most important

: questions that we face. Still, as individuals and, as a human

: society, we DO need answers. We can read the hundred studies of

: lymphomas and pesticides -- 75% of which tell us there's danger

: lurking here -- and then we must decide:

:

: (a) do we personally want to reduce our exposure to pesticides?;

: and

:

: ( do we want to start asking, where did pesticide corporations

: get the right to spread their dangerous products into the soil,

: water, and air that we all depend upon?

:

: The Lymphoma Foundation's booklet lists 12 ways that most of us

: are routinely exposed to pesticides in our daily lives even if we

: use no pesticides in our homes: routine spraying of apartments,

: condos, offices (and the associated lawns), public buildings and

: public spaces (parks, green spaces alongside highways, power line

: rights of way), and in motels, hotels, and restaurants.

: Pesticides can also be measured in most foods, much of the water

: we drink, in the air, and even in rain water. (See REHN #660.) We

: might well ask, where did these corporations get permission to

: violate our well-established human right to personal security?

: And why do we allow these toxic trespasses into our bodies to

: occur without our informed consent?[4]

:

: In other words, we might begin to view pesticide exposures not as

: a scientific question, but mainly as a question of morals and

: ethics, a question of human rights. If we view the problem in

: this light, then we can review the scientific evidence without

: expecting it to provide " the answer " to our questions, because

: science cannot answer questions of morals and ethics and human

: rights. Science can provide food for thought -- sometimes very

: compelling food for thought -- but we must provide the thought.

: Whether to use pesticides -- and whether we want to allow others

: to expose us and our children to pesticides -- are ethical and

: political questions. The answers lie within each of us and not

: with some panel of scientific experts.

:

: What does science give us for guidance? This is where the

: Lymphoma Foundation's booklet is so useful:

:

: 1) The available evidence strongly indicates that people exposed

: to pesticides in their work are more likely than non-exposed or

: less-exposed people to suffer an excess of lymphoma.

:

: 2) There are a few studies that tell us that parents who use

: pesticides are more likely (than non-users) to raise children

: with an excess of lymphoma. In other words, we need to consider

: the possibility that, by using pesticides, we are increasing not

: just our own but also our children's chances of getting this

: awful disease. (Just as pet dogs pick up pesticides from lawns

: and track them into homes, so do children.)

:

: 3) We learn from the Lymphoma Foundation's booklet that

: scientists employed by pesticide corporations are more likely

: than independent researchers to find no connection between

: pesticides and lymphoma. In other words, consciously or not, a

: scientist's source of funding often influences the outcome of the

: research. (See REHN #581.) Worse, there is evidence that some

: scientists employed by chemical corporations conduct studies

: which could not possibly reveal a relationship between pesticides

: and lymphoma because they lack the " statistical power " to do so;

: some of those scientists then falsely claim that their studies

: provide positive evidence that pesticides are not associated with

: lymphoma. Some corporations evidently require scientists to check

: their ethical principles at the door when they report for work.

:

: 4) We learn from the Lymphoma Foundation's study that not only

: chlorophenol pesticides, but also atrazine and glyphosate are

: statistically linked to lymphoma. Atrazine is used on 96% of the

: U.S. corn crop each year, is found in most drinking water

: supplies in the midwest during the growing season, and has been

: strongly linked to birth defects in the children of midwestern

: farmers. (See REHN #665, #660, and #553.)

:

: Glyphosate is sold as Roundup, Rodeo, Touchdown, Rattler, Sting,

: and Pondmaster, among other trademarked names. (See REHN #660.)

: Roundup is the first reason Monsanto Corporation got into the

: business of genetically engineering food crops. Monsanto now

: sells " Roundup ready " seeds for corn, soybeans, and cotton; wheat

: will be next. These are seeds engineered to withstand a thorough

: dousing with Roundup, which kills weeds without killing the

: Roundup-ready crops. To make " Roundup ready " seeds legal, U.S.

: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had to triple the amount of

: glyphosate residues that it allows on crops. For years, Roundup

: has been Monsanto's most profitable product, and genetic

: engineering has allowed it to sell -- and to spread into soil and

: water -- gobs more of it. (See REHN #637, #639, #660, #686.)

:

: As we weigh whether we want to take action against those who

: expose us and our children to pesticides, we are not limited to

: thinking about lymphoma.

:

: Pesticide exposures seem to give rise to Parkinson's (REHN #635)

: -- a horrible degenerative disease of the nervous system.

: Pesticide exposures diminish children's memory, physical stamina,

: coordination, and ability to carry out simple tasks like drawing

: a stick figure of a human being. (See REHN #648.) Pesticide

: exposures seem to make children more aggressive. Pesticide

: exposures seem to contribute to the epidemic of attention deficit

: hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that has swept through U.S.

: children in recent years. (See REHN #678.) And, as we saw above,

: pesticides are strongly linked to birth defects.

:

: If we decide to take up the cudgel against pesticide exposures,

: we should consider carefully the basis of our strategy. For 30

: years the environmental movement has fought science with science,

: dueling to a draw. Pesticide use has steadily climbed, despite

: all the scientific evidence of harm.

:

: No, science will not solve this problem for us. Isn't it time to

: consider a human rights approach, an ethical challenge to the

: poisoners? And time to find new allies -- perhaps the chemical

: workers exposed to these poisons? They need good jobs, as we all

: do, but do they want to leave a skull and crossbones as their

: legacy? Do they want their children sick? Of course they don't.

: They need our help, we need theirs.

:

: The old science-based strategy has failed us. Perhaps a new,

: precautionary path can get us where we need to go. The

: precautionary principle says, " When an activity raises threats of

: harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures

: should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are

: not fully established scientifically. " (See REHN #586.) It is a

: broad ethical principle. It can guide us all -- workers and

: environmentalists -- in a righteous fight against corporate

: greed.

: -- Montague

: (National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO)

:

: ==============

:

: Thanks to Massey for research assistance.

:

: [1] http://www.cfl.org/resources_factsheet_non-hodgkins.cfm

:

: [2] Osburn, RESEARCH REPORT: DO PESTICIDES CAUSE LYMPHOMA?

: Available by U.S. mail from Lymphoma Foundation of America, P.O.

: Box 15335, Chevy Chase, MD 20825. Tel. (202) 223-6181. ISBN

: 0-9705127-0-8. Available at: http://www.lymphomahelp.org/docs/-

: research/researchreport/rr_2000.pdf.

:

: [3] Not all the links revealed in these 75 studies are

: " statistically significant " though the vast majority are. If a

: study revealed a positive correlation between exposure to

: pesticides and increased lymphomas, I counted it as " showing a

: connection. " Likewise, if a study revealed no connection between

: pesticides and lymphomas -- even if the study was so poorly

: designed that it could not possibly reveal a connection even if a

: connection existed -- I counted it as " showing no relationship. "

: --P.M.

:

: [4] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by the U.S.

: in 1948, says (Article 3), " Everyone has the right to life,

: liberty, and security of person. " Article 4, Section 4 of the

: U.S. Constitution obligates the federal government to protect the

: citizenry against " domestic violence " which arguably includes

: modern forms of domestic violence such as toxic assault. See

: http://www.article4.com/.

: