Dr. Gordon’s comments:

David Suzuki Foundation and Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) – Docs Talk

Pesticides bans are healthy for environment and people
Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:42 AM PST

If you live in a province that hasn’t already banned cosmetic pesticides, tell your representative that you want legislation to ensure a clean environment for you and your children (Credit: OlivIreland via Flickr).

Dr. Gordon’s Comments:

This is a bombshell! Autism genetic causation with millions of dollars invested in this wrong direction is all but dead when the world reads the attached in-depth report.

Of course, erroneous ideas hang around in medicine for years, as there is so much money involved in sticking with out-moded concepts. This destroys the “expert” standing of so many autism so-called experts so do not expect overnight acceptance of the environment causation, which to anyone not involved in genetic research will find is clearly the logical explanation for not just autism but the fact that in USA one in four in school today are on drug therapy for some condition, diebetes, asthma, mental issues including depression adhd, obsessive compulsive and so on. 

This latest large study moves the pendulum away from genetic causation back to environment!! This study is carefully reported here in all detail so if you are involved in autism please read the attached in its entirety, as there are important details you will want to express accurately if you are advising patients or teaching.

I have always known that what Andrew Wakefield reported on, see his website and book Callous Disregard, had merit (IE MMR triggered autism in what had seemed to be normal children up until then). I have dealt with many of these families and attended numerous conferences

However, things are not always simple A + B = C and Thiomersal may not be acting alone and there are these Epigenetic issues we know are happening when substances like Bisphenol A impair methylation, as Randy Jirtle at Duke has documented in Agouti mice. Then the issue becomes one of what are the contributing environmental toxins and they may well vary from case to case. Then when you try to study which nutrient deficiencies are contributing to the autism spectrum, you have issue including D, Magnesium etc and now issues around the need for methylation support in order to better handle the load of toxins found in every child’s cord blood (see Ten Americans at www.ewg.org). 

Then the bomb shell of cerebral folate deficiency now reported in NEJM last week where we find that some antigen is blocking the folate receptors in brain and the only hint of nutrient deficiency was documented only in cerebral spinal fluid. Now we have many potential culprits for this new autoimmune disease of the folate receptor – milk protein or whatever you want to implicate to help explain why the folate receptor in brain are blocked and cannot take up folic acid unless in the form of Folinic acid or 5’MTHF and apparently needed by some in significant orthomolecular levels.

Now we have the time line of events and a turning point in the disease was 1988, which we now find is when vaccine manufacturers turned away from egg and incorporated aborted fetal tissue for vaccine production. 

WILL someone ever make sense of all this so that we can stop this epidemic? 

I vote for anyone wanting a healthy baby to start a one or two year aggressive detox program for prospective mom and dad along the lines I advocate with oral chelation including my Power Drink with ZeoGold added along with regular exercise and some sauna exposure to enhance sweating, as a minimum.

Then hopefully start a boycott of all vaccines made on aborted fetal tissue that includes 24 of them today. That would be nice but since that in some countries is met with jail terms and a gun pointed at the prospective recipient of the vaccine, maybe we have to settle for now with trying to decrease the number of adverse outcomes by at minimum using aggressive Vitamin C based oral program. That means using a minimum of one gram per 10# of weight or roughly for year of age, as one program to try to diminish the clear risk I see in associated with current vaccine use in a world population whose immune system is compromised from birth with over 220 known toxins including an average of over 1000 times more lead in tissues than was present 700 years ago (see Cal Tech, Clair Patterson). 

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Link: http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/07/new-autism-twin-study-demolishes-decades-long-belief-in-genetic-causation.html

Excerpt:

For over two decades now, so-called “autism experts” have been claiming that autism is more than 90% caused by genes. The influence of these claims on autism policy and research funding is hard to overstate. But few realize that the basis of these claims hangs on a fragile evidence base: two small twin studies–one from Great Britain, the other from Scandinavia–that reported high rates of concordance for autism among identical twins and no concordance at all among fraternal twins. Last week, the largest and most rigorous twin study ever conducted, the California Autism Twin Study (CATS) reported contradictory new evidence that struck a devastating blow to these claims. The CATS identical twins had lower and the fraternal twins higher concordance rates than past studies, a striking finding that suggests that instead of being highly heritable, the vast majority of autism cases stem from environmental causes.

*********It is time that patient’s start standing up and pushing back….sitting back and doing nothing is getting us no where.

*********We need to stop “fearing” city hall, when we can be city hall in these Lyme wars.

*********Just remember folks, Lyme isn’t just carried by ticks….look to birds, rodents, mice, we need to understand that it is up to us Lymie’s to take a stand.

Regards,

Linda

Article Excerpt:

New Haven, Conn. – The range of Lyme disease is spreading in North America and it appears that birds play a significant role by transporting the Lyme disease bacterium over long distances, a new study by the Yale School of Public Health has found. The study appears online in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Researchers analyzed published records and concluded that at least 70 species of North American birds are susceptible to infection by black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), the principal vector of the Lyme disease bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi). The evidence also suggests that these bird species are dispersing infected ticks into areas that had previously been free of the disease, such as Canada.

Lyme disease bacterium is usually associated with small mammals such as mice and squirrels. Immature ticks (in the larval and nymphal stages) become infected with the bacterium when they feed on these mammals. During subsequent blood meals, an infected tick transmits the infection to other hosts, including humans. White-tailed deer-while playing an important role in maintaining and spreading tick populations-are a biological dead end for the bacterium because its blood is immune to infection.

Birds, however, are not immune and numerous species get infected and are capable of transmitting the pathogen onto ticks, the researchers found. What remains to be seen is whether the B. burgdorferi strains that can infect birds can also cause disease in humans. If so, the role of birds in the epidemiology of Lyme disease could be profound.
 

To read the whole article:

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/cgi-bin/artman/search.cgi

France’s highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as “biodegradable” and claimed it “left the soil clean.” Roundup is the world’s best-selling herbicide.

French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup’s main ingredient, is classed as “dangerous for the environment” by the European Union.

In the latest ruling, France’s Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics, including ruthless legal battles against small farmers, is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Monsanto is a very dark cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety in the United States. This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including:

Leading the world into a new age of potentially hazardous genetic modification of seeds.
Patenting not only their own GMO seeds, but also a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time — without a vote of the people or Congress. 
Not allowing farmers to save their seeds to replant the next year — a practice that has been done for generations. Instead, they aggressively seek out and sue farmers they suspect of doing so.
Suing farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of Monsanto’s GE pollen or seed onto their land for patent infringement!
Producing two of the most toxic substances ever known — polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange).
Now France’s highest court has confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its Roundup herbicide as “biodegradable” and said it “left the soil clean” — claims that could not be further from the truth.

The Reality about Roundup

Monsanto long used the slogans, “It’s Safer than Mowing,” “Biodegradable,” and “Environmentally Friendly” to describe Roundup — until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers in California. Additionally:

The surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
Glyphosate is suspected of causing genetic damage.
Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance.
Laboratory studies have identified adverse effects of glyphosate-containing products in all standard categories of toxicological testing.
In one animal study, rats given 1,000 mg/kg of glyphosate resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 57 percent of fetuses!

This is very concerning because millions of pounds of Roundup are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Roundup works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is necessary for plants to grow. Without it, plants are unable to produce essential proteins so they slowly yellow and die.

Monsanto developed a cash cow when they created not only Roundup, but also their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” crops.

Roundup Ready soybean, cotton and corn crops are the world’s largest group of genetically modified crops. In fact, the GM Roundup Ready gene is part of more than 75 percent of soybeans, 65 percent of cotton and 10 percent of corn grown in the United States.

This particular variety of GM crops became so popular because it allows farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide directly onto their fields without harming the crops. Ordinarily, if you were to spray Roundup, or any other glyphosate-based herbicide, onto a plant, it would die.

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, however, produce an enzyme that has the same function as EPSP synthase, but is not affected by Roundup.

As you might imagine, the use of Roundup herbicide has increased dramatically since the GM Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and serious problems have been reported ever since.

Roundup Residues are Toxic
It’s widely known that GM Roundup Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain Roundup residues. A study published earlier this year even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health. 

The study found that residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and death, even at very low levels. The authors of the study said their research “… points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny.”

Even when researchers tested formulations of Roundup that were highly diluted (up to 100,000 times or more) on human cells, the cells died within 24 hours.

They also found damage to cell membranes and DNA, along with an inhibition of cell respiration.

Further, the researchers discovered that the mixture of components used as Roundup adjuvants actually amplified the action of the glyphosate, making at least one of its metabolites even more toxic. The researchers wrote:
“This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from Roundup formulation-treated crops.”

With findings like these, you can see just how outrageous Monsanto’s claims really were. Roundup is not “biodegradable,” safe or in any way good for people or the environment.

Not by a long shot.

Monsanto’s Sordid Past
It does not come as a surprise that Monsanto lied about Roundup, given their extremely under-handed track record. There is easily enough “dirt” on Monsanto to fill an entire book.

Perhaps their biggest assault to your food supply is what’s known as terminator technology. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.

The implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply are disastrous: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.

If allowed to continue, every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!

Monsanto — the convicted liar’s club — has also worked its way into varying high-level positions in the U.S. government, ironically in positions that are meant to protect your food safety!

The New Senior Advisor for the FDA is a Former Monsanto VP!

Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is the new senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Who is Michael Taylor? He is the person who “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods. Smith continues: 

“If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.”

The FDA policy being referred to is the 1992 GMO policy, which stated:

“The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods [genetic engineering] differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way.”

In reality, there was major concern among chief lobbyist at Monsanto that GM foods were in fact different than natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems.

Along with being a key player in the initial pushing of GM foods onto Americans’ plates (without any required safety studies), Taylor also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST). 

This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:

“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”

Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free.

Unfortunately, the connections do not end there. You can find out more about all of Monsanto’s key players who are now part of the Obama administration here. 

You Can Fight Back Against Monsanto

By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known. This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.

Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233 million in October 2009, largely due to a drop in sales of its Roundup brand — so I am confident that many are wising up to the underhanded dealings of this evil company.

If you want to help keep Monsanto from expanding their stronghold on the world’s food supply, please also continue to stay informed.

Monsanto is the poster child for manipulation and corporate greed, so please, forward this article on to your circle of influence, and make the choice to boycott any product that this unethical company is associated with.

The poll of 2,016 women by deodorant-maker Bionsen said most of the
pollutants are self-inflicted by women who sprayed on deodorant, slapped on
body moisturizer and applied lipstick each morning.

Today’s average British woman uses body and facial moisturizers, perfumes,
deodorants and various other make-up products which leave them unknowingly
carrying hundreds of chemicals on their bodies throughout the day, Bionsen
said.

Moisturizer can contain over 30 different chemicals and perfume up to 400,
it added.

More than a third of the women who took part in the study were unaware of
the key ingredients in their toiletries, with only nine percent aware of
most of the ingredients in the cosmetics they put on each day.

More than 70 percent of the women polled said they were not concerned about
the number of chemicals they put on their skin and only one in 10 opted for
chemical-free toiletries when shopping.

“Women have never been more image-conscious and their beauty regimes have
changed dramatically over the years, from a simple ‘wash & go’ attitude, to
daily fake tan applications, regular manicures, false lashes and hair
extensions,” Bionsen’s Charlotte Smith said in a statement.

“Lots of the high-tech, new generation cosmetics and beauty ‘wonder’
treatments naturally contain more chemicals to be able to achieve even
better results, which, of course, means that women now carry more chemicals
than ever before.”

Eight out of the 12 areas on the body highlighted by Bionsen as places where
women used cosmetic products containing chemicals were on the face or head
and included moisturizers, foundation, blush, eye make-up, hair spray and
perfume head or face.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Steve Addison)
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5AI3M820091119

Regards,
Linda

What about mercury and amalgams? Good progress continues to be made legally by eliminating amalgam fillings using a multi-pronged approach, as explained here in the article below.

Eventually when the public realizes the danger and that they can not pull all the fillings out in less than 10 years, they will want to know more about some form of protection and or treatment.

Heavy Detox (DMSA) is without question the best product for a focused intense Mercury detox but it is better with Advanced Cellular Zeolite (ACZ) and EZ Defense chewing gum. The more broadly based the treatment the better results will be and something is needed for life for all of us but particularly for all those who will not be able to afford to remove all their amalgam fillings.

We know that we all need to diminish the ongoing increases in brain mercury levels occurring by breathing and eating and now we have more exposures by chewing food with amalgams.

Although EDTA is not the perfect mercury chelator, at least the EDTA GUM (EZ Defense) can tie up the most recent mercury released before it has time to become fully absorbed by chewing it after each meal. We know it lowers lead, which makes mercury far more toxic.

Ideally our patients will need to also be taking several things, not just ACZ and the Heavy Detox, but also the Beyond Fiber, as found in the POWER DRINK with the BIOE’NR-G’Y C, Dr Gordon’s Greens etc. Just by living we suffer from unavoidable increasing and ongoing exposures to mercury and other heavy metals so we need to continually lower total body burdens of Mercury etc for the years it takes to detox it.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

http://www.toxicteeth.org/mercury_dental_fillings_toxic_tort.pdf

Regards,
Linda

Scientific American
September 28, 2009

Wild Meat Raises Lead Exposure
Tests by the CDC show that eating venison and other game can raise the amounts of lead in human bodies by 50 percent
By Scott Streater and Environmental Health News

To Dr. William Cornatzer, it was an unforgettable image, one that troubled him deeply.

An avid hunter, Cornatzer was listening to a presentation on the lead poisoning of California condors when an x-ray of a mule deer flashed on an overhead screen. The deer had been shot in the chest with a high-powered rifle. Cornatzer was shocked that the deer’s entire carcass was riddled with dozens of tiny lead-shot fragments.

“My first thought had nothing to do with California condors; it had to do with what I had been doing as a hunter myself, and what I had been feeding our kids,” said Cornatzer, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

“I knew good and well after seeing that image that I had been eating a lot of lead fragments over the years,” he said.

That realization led Cornatzer and a radiologist last year to X-ray 100 packages of venison that had been donated by a sportsmen group to a food bank. About 60 percent of the packages contained lead-shot fragments, even though it’s common practice among hunters to remove meat around the wound.

The discovery prompted North Dakota to warn pregnant women and children 6 and under not to eat venison killed with ammunition containing lead.

It also sparked a flurry of new research that raises questions about the safety of eating wild game, as well as a renewed debate about eliminating lead ammunition.
ecosystems
Earlier this year, the National Park Service announced a controversial plan to ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle in the parks, which Acting Director Dan Wenk said “will benefit humans, wildlife, and  inside and outside park boundaries.”

Cheap, durable and readily available, lead has been used in weapons and other products since the Romans first mined it more than 2,500 years ago. Bullets have contained lead, which upon impact mushrooms to create a larger wound, since the 14th century.

But lead is a dangerous neurotoxin, particularly for children and fetuses. Low levels can harm children’s developing brains, causing learning disabilities and reduced IQs. High levels can trigger severe neurological problems.

Sporting groups are opposed to any restrictions on lead-based ammunition, arguing that there’s no clear evidence that it is dangerous when used to hunt deer and other animals.
“The use of traditional ammunition does not pose a health risk to human beings,” said Ted Novin, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms, ammunition and hunting industries.

Novin added that “there has never been a documented case of lead poisoning among humans who have eaten game harvested with traditional ammunition.”

New research, however, has shown that eating venison and other game can substantially raise the amounts of lead in human bodies. The findings have prompted some experts to recommend bans on lead ammunition.

“We want to avoid having people exposed to lead to the extent that it’s feasible and practical, and it’s clear that one of the key ways to minimize exposure is to use alternatives to lead ammunition,” said Dr. Michael Kosnett, a medical toxicologist at the University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine. “You’re putting food on the table to nourish your family. Why not nourish them with healthy food if that’s a possible alternative?”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested 736 people, mostly adults, in six North Dakota cities and found that those who ate wild game had 50 percent more lead in their blood than those who did not eat it. The lead exposure was highest among people who consumed not only venison, but also birds and other game, according to the study published last month in the journal Environmental Research.

Those who ate wild game meat had average lead levels of 1.27 micrograms per deciliter, compared with 0.84 for those who ate no game. Most said they either hunted the animals themselves or obtained the meat from friends or family members.

“What was most troubling is that as wild game consumption increases, the blood-lead levels increase,” said study co-author Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC’s lead poisoning prevention branch. “The strong recommendation we would make is that pregnant women should not consume this meat.”

The CDC is planning a second round of testing this year involving hunters in Wisconsin, Brown said.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation argues that everyone in the North Dakota study had blood-lead levels below the CDC’s health guideline of 10 micrograms per deciliter.

However, recent research has reported that children’s mental abilities are reduced by lead at levels far below the CDC guideline. Brown and others say there is no threshold below which lead does not cause harm, particularly with children.

As a result, the CDC recommends that “all nonessential uses of lead should be eliminated,” according to a 2005 statement. Less than 2 percent of children in the United States have lead levels that exceed the amount that the CDC considers safe. Most exposure comes from old, deteriorating lead-based paint, which was banned in 1978.

Another study, published in April, showed that eating venison containing lead-shot fragments can quickly raise blood-lead levels.

Researchers at Washington State University and Boise State University fed lead-tainted venison to four pigs and lead-free venison to a separate control group of pigs. The pigs that ate the venison containing lead fragments reached a lead level of 3.8 micrograms per deciliter after only two days—more than three times higher than the highest level in the control group of pigs, according to the study, which was sponsored by The Peregrine Fund, a group that advocates for the removal of lead shot to protect condors.

“At risk in the U.S. are some ten million hunters, their families, and low-income beneficiaries of venison donation,” the report says. One program, Sportsmen Against Hunger, donates the meat to low-income people.

The National Park Service posted the results of The Peregrine Fund study on its Web site, noting “that while the results are preliminary and much further study needs to be done to better assess risks to humans, it appears that if lead bullets are used, odds are high that you will ingest lead particles in ground meat.”

Mostly to protect wildlife, the park service plans to end the use of lead bullets and fishing gear in all parks. A public comment period will be held next year, said Jody Lyle, an agency spokeswoman.

“Our goal is to eliminate the use of lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle in parks by the end of 2010,” Wenk said when announcing the proposal in March. “We want to take a leadership role in removing lead from the environment.”

Although hunting is prohibited in most national parks, it is allowed on some park properties. Rangers also would have to stop using lead ammunition when culling herds or killing wounded or sick animals.

Hunting groups say any restriction on traditional ammunition will price many people out of hunting, because the alternatives–steel, copper or tungsten shells–can cost as much as six times more.

This is not the first time the federal government has considered restrictions on lead ammunition. The United States in 1991 phased out lead-shot for hunting waterfowl, mostly because bald eagles that prey on them were being poisoned.

Twenty-nine other countries have adopted voluntary or legislative restrictions. Some of the most aggressive regulations have been adopted in Europe, where lead-shot poisoning has killed white-tailed eagles and endangered Spanish Imperial eagles.

While there is no European Union standard for lead ammunition, Denmark was the first to ban lead shot for waterfowl in wetlands in 1985, followed throughout the 1990s by Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, England, Spain and Sweden. France did so in 2006. Denmark, followed by Norway and the Netherlands, extended the lead-shot ban to all hunted species in 2000.

California and Arizona also have taken action, implementing mandatory and voluntary bans, respectively, on lead bullets and shot in an effort to protect condors.

Pressure to ban lead-based ammunition in the U.S. intensified last year with the release of a report on threats to wildlife commissioned by The Wilderness Society and the American Fisheries Society.

The report said that lead fishing sinkers have poisoned brown pelicans, mute swans and Canada geese. Even more dangerous is lead shot in gut piles left behind by hunters and consumed by scavengers, including endangered condors, said Barnett Rattner, a wildlife toxicologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a co-author of the review.

John H. Schulz, a resource scientist at the Missouri Department of Conservation, has calculated that as many as 15 million mourning doves are killed in North America each year from lead poisoning, mostly from eating spent lead shot that looks like the weed seed they depend on for food. That’s almost as many as the estimated 20 million mourning doves legally shot and killed each year by hunters.

But it’s the science pointing to possible human health impacts that has Schulz convinced that there’s more than enough scientific evidence to begin a phase-out of lead ammunition.

“Let’s not spend any more time studying whether the problem is significant. It is real. It is serious. It is significant,” Shulz said. “Now, how are we going to address it in a thoughtful and sensitive manner so no affected stakeholders are disenfranchised?”
This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.

Regards,
Linda

Effects of Agricultural Chemicals and Pathogens on Human Health

Humans may be exposed to agriculturally derived chemicals and pathogens in the environment (i.e., air, soil, water, sediment) by a number of routes, including the consumption of crops that have been treated with pesticides or have taken up contaminants from soils; livestock that have accumulated contaminants through the food chain; fish exposed to contaminants in the aquatic environment; and groundwater and surface waters used for drinking water. Exposure may also occur via the inhalation of particulates or volatiles, or from direct contact with water bodies or agricultural soils (e.g., during recreation). The importance of each exposure pathway will depend on the pathogen or chemical type (Table 1). The main environmental pathways from the farm to the wider population will be from consumption of contaminated drinking waters and food. In the United Kingdom, vector, aerial, and direct contact pathways are currently of less importance to the general population.

Evidence for adverse human health effects from agricultural contaminants comes from epidemiologic studies (occupational and general population studies), case and outbreak reports, and toxicologic assessments. Attributing health effects in the general population to specific agricultural contaminants is often difficult because multiple chemicals and pathogens are in the environment, with multiple routes whereby they may reach humans. Some naturally occurring chemicals are also harmful (e.g., mycotoxins, microcystin), which further complicates the picture.

Although often inconclusive, several studies have associated different health outcomes with exposure to chemicals from agriculture. For example, Parkinson’s disease has been linked with exposure to pesticides (Ascherio et al. 2006), and studies have suggested that repeated exposure to low levels of organophosphates may result in biochemical effects in agricultural farmworkers (e.g., Lopez et al. 2007), as well as enhanced risks of certain cancers, such as leukemias or lymphoma. Studies in North America have associated chlorphenoxy herbicide exposure with circulatory and respiratory malformation, congenital abnormalities, urogenital and musculoskeletal anomalies, and changes in the male:female sex ratio of offspring (Stillerman et al. 2008).

Outbreaks of waterborne disease from the contamination of water supplies with animal waste (often associated with water treatment failures) remain an important public health problem (Crowther et al. 2002). Cryptosporidium transmission in humans has been linked to areas where manure is being applied to land (Lake et al. 2007a). There is also good evidence that heavy rainfall increases the risk of sporadic cases of Cryptosporidium in England (Lake et al. 2005, 2007b). Exposure to Mycobacterium avium in agricultural systems has been associated with Crohn’s disease, although the mechanism is not clear (Pickup et al. 2005).

Agricultural chemicals may also indirectly affect human health via other, often unanticipated pathways. Examples include dispersal of biotoxins into coastal communities resulting from harmful algal blooms triggered by inputs of nitrates from agriculture (Codd et al. 2005; Fleming et al. 2006; Kirkpatrick et al. 2006) and the agricultural use and environmental occurrence of antibiotics that may facilitate the selection of antibiotic resistance in microbes in the soil and water environments (Boxall et al. 2003).