Daily Grist: At Least the Bugs Are Dead Pesticide use increases risk of Parkinson's disease, new study finds
Exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, concludes a broad, long-term study. Researchers followed the health of 143,325 people since 1982 and found that those regularly exposed to pesticides had a 70 percent higher incidence of Parkinson's. The research, published in the Annals of Neurology, found that the amount of exposure seemed not to matter: occupational farmers, hobby gardeners, and determined home bug-sprayers all had the same increased risk. (Exposure to other harmful substances like asbestos and formaldehyde brought no increased risk of Parkinson's.) No specific pesticides were pegged as culprits, though past studies have suggested a link between the disease and the class of 'cides called organophosphates. Parkinson's disease affects about 6.3 million people worldwide and over a million in the U.S.; the disease debilitates muscle control and can severely reduce a person's ability to walk, talk, and maintain a pest-free lawn. <...> New Scientist, Roxanne Khamsi, 26 Jun 2006 http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7199 Reuters, 26 Jun 2006 http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7200 The Times, Jonathan Leake, 25 Jun 2006 http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7198 Parkinson's Lot (2005) Evidence grows linking Parkinson's disease to pesticide exposure http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2005/11/29/4/index.html ============= ====== CU-Boulder Team May Have Solved Mystery Of Carcinogenic Mothballs June 20, 2006 http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/216.html Chemical compounds in household products like mothballs and air fresheners can cause cancer by blocking the normal process of "cell suicide" in living organisms, according to a new study spearheaded by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Naphthalene in mothballs and para-dichlorobenzene, or PDCB, found in some air fresheners, were shown to block enzymes that initiate programmed cell death, or apoptosis, said Associate Professor Ding Xue of CU-Boulder's molecular, cellular and developmental biology department. Apoptosis is a normal function of certain cell groups that acts as a "brake" to prevent unchecked cellular proliferation similar to the process that triggers the formation of cancerous tumors, said Xue. <...> THE CANNABIS PANDEMIC! [Harry Anslinger's ghost haunts the U.N.] UN warns of new cannabis dangers London June 28, 2006 http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/un-warns-of-new-cannabis-dangers/2006/06/27/1151174200159.html <...> "Policy reversals leave young people confused as to just how dangerous cannabis is," Mr Costa said. (I would have to agree that policy reversal and the confusion it breeds IS often dangerous to young people who smoke cannabis. //leigh) "With cannabis-related health damage increasing, it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis control dependent on which party is in government. The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health, requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political spectrum and by society at large." Mr Costa said cannabis was considerably more potent than a few decades ago. It was a mistake to dismiss it as a soft drug, he said. "Today the harmful characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin," he said. <...> (If you can't spot the logical fallacy in that last sentence, speak up.). Leigh http://leighm.net/ (My Buffalo River Home, where you'll find me just grazin' in the grass.)
