Pesticide Exposure Linked To Parkinson's

[CosmicWizard]

Harry....Thanks for posting the article. These things are good to consider wether a person believes it or not. Having the information gives people choices. They can take it to heart and adjust their life accordingly, or they can slough it off and swim in the stuff if they choose to.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by sarahkate_m

Remember DDT? my former husband worked in a factory ran by Stouffers Corporation (MONTROSE CHEMICAL) in the Los Angeles South Bay in the '70's. He said it came in huge (HUGE) hunks by train & was unloaded then ground down by huge machinery. The workers wore suits but no other protection. They cleaned the grinders with BENZENE sprayed with hoses (more exposure).

When he & his room mates would come home from work, they would disrobe from their coveralls in the back yard. He said they would find dead birds in the yard.

When I tried to look up worker exposure, it was a uphill battle to find anything. I finally (about 10 years ago, there could be more "out there" now) found something, it was a government study report with findings stating that worker exposure was supposed to be inconsequential. Pfffft.

So when ever there's some big deal in the news about microscopic amounts or whatever found in someone's backyard in LA, I feel disenchanted.

I'm not saying DDT isn't bad. I'm saying that responsibility for it is really NIL.

My husband lived to be 51. His life ended with many health issues but no one will ever know what was attributable to DDT because "the powers that be" don't want to know.

He did tell me that he had a co-worker in the South Bay who went on to be a police officer. I always wonder if that person had any children or any health issues.... My husband never had children...

Another thing that peeves me is that I've heard that in the countries south of the USA, that DDT isn't necessarily banned. Think about THAT! How is that cool for us to eat that or put up with that??

Is DDT bad or not? It seems the 'jury' or the scientific community says it's bad... but where is the real responsibility for this knowledge? When will the corporations responsible for it's manufacture take responsibility? When will the powers overseeing the environment speak up? When will the medical community question the status of former or current workers out there in the world (since it is manufactured, I'm guessing, somewhere these days)???

Kate

Project MUSE - Enterprise & Society - Environmental Decision Making and DDT Production at Montrose Chemical Corporation of California

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband, Kate.

I do believe that there are some cases - and that of your husband would be one - that are extreme. Working in and around something all day every day is different than, say, being in a neighborhood a couple days after it was fogged with DDT.

A lot of it has to do with levels of exposure.


Also, we sometimes have to weigh our options as "the lesser of two evils." Malaria is pretty bad stuff. Weirdly enough, a couple years ago the World Health Organization seemed to change its stance and say that DDT was a better option than rampant Malaria.

So who's to know?

[sarahkate_m]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband, Kate.

I do believe that there are some cases - and that of your husband would be one - that are extreme. Working in and around something all day every day is different than, say, being in a neighborhood a couple days after it was fogged with DDT.

A lot of it has to do with levels of exposure.


Also, we sometimes have to weigh our options as "the lesser of two evils." Malaria is pretty bad stuff. Weirdly enough, a couple years ago the World Health Organization seemed to change its stance and say that DDT was a better option than rampant Malaria.

So who's to know?

Thanks for the sympathy, OR. About the traces found in people's yards: sometimes traces are found in the soil. Some of those locations become superfund sites...

Yeah, malaria is bad stuff. When I put DDT into the search engine, there was a result about new standards for mfg it... I don't know how much more one can be exposed than in the manufacturing process... When the 'hand that feeds' squeezes the life out of the worker, that gets my ire up.

Kate

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by sarahkate_m

Thanks for the sympathy, OR. About the traces found in people's yards: sometimes traces are found in the soil. Some of those locations become superfund sites...

Yeah, malaria is bad stuff. When I put DDT into the search engine, there was a result about new standards for mfg it... I don't know how much more one can be exposed than in the manufacturing process... When the 'hand that feeds' squeezes the life out of the worker, that gets my ire up.

Kate

Right. Workers & soldiers have typically been viewed as an expendable commodity.

There's always a balance that needs to be found though, isn't there? What's the right balance between management & labor? What the right balance between protecting the environment & helping people? How much agricultural land do you set aside for habitat, before you start cutting deeply in to the world's food supply?


Tough calls.

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Harry....Thanks for posting the article.

These things are good to consider wether a person believes it or not. Having the information gives people choices. They can take it to heart and adjust their life accordingly, or they can slough it off and swim in the stuff if they choose to.

Glad i did and no problem Franco !!

Well we live with this personally in my family as my cousin who worked as a pest control tech from 1988 until 1996 when he came down with a rare neurological disorder called CIDP or Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropthy as he's paralyzed in his feet and hands now and on disability as your not gonna convince me that his exposure to that crap daily for 8 years didn't have an effect on him.

There are 125 clinical studies at the NIH or National Institutes of Health showing exposure to Pesticides and Parkinson's. I also believe theirs a connection with high rates of our soldiers with Gulf War Syndrome or ALS and their exposure to the nerve toxins etc in the first gulf war.
Parkinson's/Pesticides Clinical Studies - Pubmed.Gov

Its sad to see my cousin crippled up with this disease as that's why i'm constantly researching these neuro diseases all over the web as we are desperately seeking a cure for him and others out there and so again thanks for the serious response man as your good people !!

6 foot 3