Dow Chemical Asks Trump to Ignore Pesticide Study

What will Trump do? Such a dilemma, consider his deep-rooted interest in ecology.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/dow-chemical-endangered-species

"Luckily for Dow, the E.P.A. is now run by climate-change skeptic and general enemy of living things Scott Pruitt, who last month said he would reverse “an Obama-era effort to bar the use of Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide on food after recent peer-reviewed studies found that even tiny levels of exposure could hinder the development of children's brains.”

Dow donated over a $1 million to Trump.

 

What are the threshold levels for chlorpyrifos ?? What are the arguments behind the claim that the studies are fundamentally flawed ?? Have these studies been repeated ??

 

Like so many poisons, it is extremely toxic in many ways:

http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC33392#ChemID

- Excessive salivation, sweating, rhinorrhea and tearing.
- Muscle twitching, weakness, tremor, incoordination.
- Headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea.
- Respiratory depression, tightness in chest, wheezing, productive cough, fluid in lungs.
- Pin-point pupils, sometimes with blurred or dark vision.
- Severe cases: seizures, incontinence, respiratory depression, loss of consciousness.
- Cholinesterase inhibition.

And like so many poisons, different doses can effect different people differently.

The following shows the low dose and high dose effects for the Cholinesterase Inhibitor poison properties. Note also, that infants and children are more susceptible. Note, also that the mechanism of action is the same in insects as humans. What does this tell you? If a dose is strong enough to kill insects, then it stands to follow, that the same dose is not benign to humans.

Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Proper functioning of the nervous system requires an enzyme called cholinesterase (ChE), which facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses. ChE-inhibiting pesticides disable this enzyme, resulting in symptoms of neurotoxicity---tremors, nausea, and weakness at low doses; paralysis and death at higher doses. Most of these pesticides are insecticides with a similar mechanism of action in both insects and humans.

Exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides has been linked to impaired neurological development in the fetus and in infants, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Parkinson's disease.

 

After reading the article...it looks like the Federal probably OBAMA LEANING scientists aren't worried about fetuses or people. They want to restrict usage because they deem animals might...and I stress MIGHT be at risk. I think they have been using this pesticide with apparently no issues.

 

CA flew hundreds to thousands of missions around the SF Bay Area spraying malathion. Guess why? They needed to eradicate the Mediterranean Fruit Fly. Did it work? It has been many many years since anybody here in the SF bay area has talked about this.

Sure it worked.

Tip to all Democrats

Do not spray any DOW chemical on your children. Science says that is bad.

 

Hmmm might explain why republicans.......

 

Good idea. Also, you may want to avoid giving fruit and vegetables, contaminated with these products to your children. Maybe you can give them potato chips and coca cola instead, Gallagher-style. And your pregnant wife - I thought the Right was against abortion.

 

Again what is the threshold ?? What is the exposure level ?? What are the arguments that the current test results are flawed ?? And again have these tests been repeated with the same results ?? The amount which would kill an insect is no measure of the threshold for humans.

 

Did you study the link, or are you just here to lobby rhetoric?

 

I'm asking questions of the person who posted the OP. There is nothing in the Vanity Fair linked article or the AP article linked by the Vanity Fair link about thresholds and how many apples someone might have to eat per day for X days to be harmed. The PAN database is unclear as well although the information may be buried in the linked reports. That's the link you posted - where is the threshold information ?? Water (if you drink enough) will kill you.

Alarmism over pesticides has happened before such as the hoax of Alar contamination of apples and that Alar was a carcinogen.

 

And like I said, you didn't read the link clearly. It talks about the low doses, and I posted it. It talks about threshhold differences for fetuses, children, versus adults. If you really want to go to the link, and look up numbers of micrograms, it's there. Have at it.

 

What are the thresholds and how are they determined ?? How much would have to be eaten before those thresholds are met ?? If you indeed know all this then share with the forum.

 

The following shows the low dose and high dose effects for the Cholinesterase Inhibitor poison properties. Note also, that infants and children are more susceptible. Note, also that the mechanism of action is the same in insects as humans. What does this tell you? If a dose is strong enough to kill insects, then it stands to follow, that the same dose is not benign to humans.

Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Proper functioning of the nervous system requires an enzyme called cholinesterase (ChE), which facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses. ChE-inhibiting pesticides disable this enzyme, resulting in symptoms of neurotoxicity---tremors, nausea, and weakness at low doses; paralysis and death at higher doses. Most of these pesticides are insecticides with a similar mechanism of action in both insects and humans.

Exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides has been linked to impaired neurological development in the fetus and in infants, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Parkinson's disease.

 

There's no quantification in the above. What is the high and low dose and how much water, apples, salmon filets, ... are necessary to get this dose ?? Doses lethal to insects tell us nothing about what the tolerance threshold is in human beings.

 

Doses lethal to insects do tell us something - if the biological mechanism for processing is the same, as it is. I fully understand your naysayer environmental agenda. Go to the big companies lobby propaganda websites. You'll get exactly what you want.

 

Again there is no quantification of what the human threshold is to these chemicals. The unnecessary ban of DDT has resulted in the deaths of ~ 30 million people. And the possible unnecessary ban of these chemicals will do economic harm and nutritional harm regressively to low income individuals in third world countries. There is nothing anti environment in properly evaluating the effects of pesticides. Questioning the EPA and any studies used to form their decisions is always an indication to the left of evil intents because the left fails to understand the concept of safe thresholds.

 

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2723&Itemid=2965

Acute Toxicity and Tolerance of Chlorpyrifos

• LD50 acute, rats, p.o. 95 to 270 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, mice, p.o. 60 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, rabbits, p.o. 1000 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, rats, dermal >2000 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, chicken, p.o. 32 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, pheasant, p.o. 8.4 mg/kg
• LD50 acute, sheep, p.o. 800 mg/kg
• Certain dog breeds (e.g. greyhounds, whippets), cats and certain birds (e.g. geese) and are also more susceptible to chlorpyrifos.
• Weak or stressed animals are more susceptible.

 

There is no quantification on threshold again. The world is full of poisons. In every breathe and swallow humans are exposed to lethal substances.

 

It all depends on what you consider safe. It's like you are saying "bugs who needs bugs" . Every time you kill a bad insect you kill the preditor insects as well. IMHO the answer is not in producing more powerful insecticides. A better plan is biodiversity. Giving a home to the predator insects. You can win battles against nature...but nature will always win the war. The soil food web should teach us that insects and earthworms are necessary for productive farms and ecosystems. We are learning more every day. Farms are going broke...not from insects... but the expense of inputs. These include herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and fungicides. Don't buy their junk and it will fade away.

 

Safe limits are expressed as thresholds which have safety margins built in. Every bite or sip entering your body contains arsenic at levels far bellow the threshold levels. No harm is done because humans evolved under those conditions and can tolerate the small doses.

Nature does not always win the war.

 

Then why do they have to make stronger and stronger pesticides, and herbicides? Why is our topsoil eroding at a phenominal rate? Our rivers and streams are full of conservation plans(silt), instead of being crystal clear with understanding. Our lives literally depend on two things... a thin layer of topsoil...and the fact that it rains. Without the rain and the topsoil we starve.

 

You can eat that poison. I will grow my own. Do you even have a garden?

 

Thereby ensuring a continuing supply of GOP voters...

 

To increase yield.

 

Everything grown is full of poison.