By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times of Chester County, March 28, 2016
If they can’t breed, you don’t need to worry about using pesticides
I recently noticed a newspaper article that is very misleading about the costs and benefits of spraying to control mosquitoes.
The story was much too casual about the use of toxic chemicals in residential properties. Continue reading
excerpt from “Pyrethroids: Not as safe as you think” at Melissa Kaplan’s Herp Care Collection, last updated January 1, 2014:
…Some insects have developed ways to detoxify the naturally occurring pyrethrums encountered when feeding on the nectar of feverfew and chrysanthemums, a not uncommon adaptive response. Unfortunately, while insects and plants have had millions of years to work out these survival pathways, we humans haven’t.
An increasing number of insects have developed high levels of resistance to pyrethroids, such as cockroaches, head lice, and tobacco budworm, pear psylla, fall army-worm, German cockroach, spotted tentiform leafminer, diamondback moth, house fly, stable fly, head lice, and tobacco budworm. Many of these species are resistant to more than one pyrethroid. Because insects reproduce – and adapt – far more quickly than do vertebrates, they are far better able to evolve defenses against the toxins we throw at them, resulting in an ever expanding range of poisons developed and thrown into our environment.
Pyrethroids, like all toxins, are indiscriminate: they affect all the organisms who come into contact with them in the air, on plants, on the ground, in the soil, and in the water. While your local grower – or you – may be applying it to deal with a specific pest, the products affect everything around it. And, since particulates are easily airborne, they travel, often great distances, from the actual point of application….
“The Neurotoxic Effects of Pyrethroids” is one section of the post by Maryam Henein “When We Fumigate Flies and Mosquitoes, Are We Poisoning Ourselves?” at Truthout, 11 October 2015, beginning:
Upon my return to the United States, my autoimmune condition flared up, and when I visited the doctor, my test results indicated that my thyroid levels had plummeted below normal. I often tell people that those who suffer from autoimmune conditions are environmental indicators just like our honeybees.
Read the full post at Truthout. It ends with consideration (including links) of the effects of pyrethroids on humans and the environment.
email from Penn Environment, 3/7/16
Is the USDA silencing scientists?
Here’s the story: Jonathan Lundgren has been at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 11 years, earning stellar performance reviews along the way. He was so respected the USDA even named him its Outstanding Early Career Research Scientist in 2011. [1]
But once he started documenting the damage pesticides were doing to bees and butterflies, industry lobbyists pressured his agency to look the other way. Since then, he’s been threatened with termination and forced to stop speaking publicly.
Will you take action? Tell the USDA: Suppressing science is unacceptable.
The problem goes beyond Dr. Lundgren’s research. In fact, more than 10 scientists filed a formal petition last year detailing a pattern of harassment for simply doing their jobs. These whistle-blowers claim their work has been censored or suppressed for calling into question the safety of chemicals used widely in agriculture. [2][3]
With bees and butterflies experiencing a steep decline due to systemic pesticides, we can’t let this important research be silenced.
That’s why we’re demanding a full investigation into the influence that corporate polluters are exerting at USDA. Tell the USDA: Suppressing research is wrong — even if it threatens pesticide makers like Bayer and Monsanto.
Especially with bees dying by the millions, we can’t let scientists get silenced. Please take action today.
Thanks,
David Masur
PennEnvironment Director
[1] Bee expert: USDA punished me for research on pesticides, Oct 28 2015, MPR News
[2] Report: USDA scientists harassed for questioning Roundup’s safety, Mar 31 2015, Wisconsin Gazette
[3] Whistle-Blower Claims the USDA Suppressed Research on Bee-Killing Pesticide, Oct 29 2015, takepart
Petition for League of Conservation Voters members:
TELL BAYER TO SAVE OUR NUMBER ONE FOOD SECURITY GUARD — THE HONEYBEE!
Thank you for taking our quick survey. We at LCV agree that we need Bayer to stop manufacturing their bee-killing chemicals and find safer alternatives. But they will only change their ways if we speak out now.
Please join thousands of LCV members in sending a message to Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers and tell him to stop producing chemicals that are killing our bees!
Protect our nation’s food security — stop producing chemicals that kill our bees
Dear Marijn Dekkers,
I am writing to urge you to stop producing the neonicotinoids that are killing our honeybees across the globe.
Honeybees may sound easy to dismiss, but they are directly responsible for pollinating nearly 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables, including produce like almonds, cranberries, avocados, and apples. In the U.S. alone honeybees pollinate more than one-third of the entire food supply and help to generate more than $15 billion in agricultural production each year!
By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times of Chester County, September 29, 2015
An interview with leader of local group questioning mosquito spraying
My opinion piece “Mosquito spraying: why doesn’t the county want to talk about it?” in the Times of Chester County, August 31, asked many questions. Since then I’ve found many answers, including from talking with the County Health Department, and many new questions too. One thing I’ve learned is how complex this subject is, since it depends on the always lively interaction of the human and the scientific.
I think West Chester has a good opportunity now, as this year’s mosquito season trails off, for cooperation between citizens, the Health Department, and the Borough government (and the same could apply in other municipalities.
For now, I have written up an interview with Margaret Hudgings, who has been leading the citizens group (of which I have been part) that is dialoguing with the Health Department and the Borough in an effort to avoid public insecticide spraying if at all possible.
How did you get interested in the issue of mosquito control?
MH: I became interested in mosquito control in 2012, when I realized that the Borough was about to be sprayed with permanone, whose active element permethrin is listed among toxic chemicals in Greenpeace’s “Black List of Pesticides.” Our son became sensitive to chemicals in his early 20’s and so we as a family have become very aware of the chemicals in our environment.
When did you become an activist in this area?
MH: I became an activist this past summer when we realized that once again the County planned to spray in the Borough. After the last dose in 2012, our son became so ill he could not return to his home near Everhart Park for months. After consulting Mayor Comitta, I decided to create a petition and go out in the Borough to talk to our neighbors about their feelings on the County’s pesticide spraying….
read more at The Times of Chester County
dontsprayme 