And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist http://unisci.com/stories/19992/0430992.htm University Science Pesticide Use, Cancer Incidence Both Increasing While Americans annually spend more money on chemically treating their lawns, the incidence of certain types of cancers related to pesticide exposure also increases. At the same time, by treating lawns and gardens with pesticides, they are ensuring that next year's bugs will be even harder to eliminate than this year's, a recipe for ecological disaster, according to Thomas S. Mang, Ph.D., clinical and research associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. Mang, a former member of the City of Buffalo Pesticide Management Board and Town of Amherst Pesticide Advisory Board, says Americans spend more money each year on chemically-treated lawns, in spite of new information and studies on their health effects published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. The studies have found repeatedly that pesticides, including herbicides and fungicides, are related to increases in certain types of cancers. "Each year, there is a 5-8 per cent increase in the use of lawn-care chemicals," says Mang, "and a 3-4 per cent increase in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma." While no direct correlation has been proven between those increases, he notes that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer that debilitates the immune system, has in many studies been linked to pesticide exposure. It also is one of a handful of cancers that are on the rise. For example, Mang says, individuals such as farmers who handle pesticides in their jobs are four times as likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma than are other people. He cites a recent study noting that in people who are exposed to pesticides for more than 20 days per year, there is a three- to seven-fold increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Other studies have shown that in children, exposure to pesticides significantly increases their risk of developing leukemia. Even pets are vulnerable, says Mang, with dogs that have been exposed to pesticides demonstrating the same types of increases in these cancers. Mang stresses that pesticides persist in the atmosphere, often for months at a time. A recent EPA study, he adds, found 23 kinds of pesticides in dust inside homes. But it is not just current exposures to pesticides that are the problem, according to Mang. Future generations are being affected, too, through birth defects linked to pesticide exposure and through infertility problems found in animals and now being seen in humans. "A lot of pesticides are estrogen mimics and they persist in the environment," he says. "These pesticides can have severe effects, and have been linked to increases in breast and testicular cancer, as well as to an increase in some very rare birth defects and in severe drops in sperm counts in human males."" The public, he believes, is mistakenly taking comfort in labels that say products are registered with the EPA. "The Environmental Protection Agency is not a consumer protection agency," he says. "It is a registration agency. All the EPA asks of a pesticide manufacturer, is 'Does it work against the target organism?' If the answer is 'yes,' that's good enough (for it to be registered)." In fact, he says, it now is against the law in New York State for any pesticide manufacturer or applicator to say that pesticides are safe, even when used in a proper manner. "We do not know enough about these substances," says Mang. "We don't know about their metabolic fate, because it's not part of the testing procedure. We don't know how they interact with each other or with some medication that you may be taking." But probably the most important reason not to use pesticides, he notes, is that, ultimately, they cause pests to do more -- not less -- damage to lawns, plants and crops. "We're creating a drug-dependent environment," he says. "We are killing the easy pests and selecting out for the tougher ones." Instead, says Mang, consumers should try non-chemical ways of controlling pests, such as integrated pest management (IPM), which advocates non-chemical and least-toxic solutions. They include mechanical controls, physical barriers (such as caulking to keep pests from coming indoors) and chemical controls, such as fly strips, that contain sex hormones that attract insects. - By Ellen Goldbaum [CONTACT: ELLEN GOLDBAUM ] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 30-Apr-1999 Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
