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- Sunday, December 8, 2019
High Income, Peer-Pressure Correlated with Chemical-Intensive Yard Care Practices
High Income, Peer-Pressure Correlated with Chemical-Intensive Yard Care Practices (Beyond Pesticides, December 3, 2019)
' Lawns cover 63,000 sq ft in the United States, four times as much land as corn, making them the largest crop in the country. So while decisions over whether to irrigate, fertilize, or spray pesticides are made at the household level, even minor changes in practices could have major impacts on the environment.
Higher income individuals are 23% more likely to irrigate their property, 26% more likely to fertilize, and 16% more likely to apply pesticides.
also discusses alternatives.
filed under lawn/turf
- Sunday, December 8, 2019
Study Finds EU Moratorium of Persistent Bee-Toxic Pesticides Cannot Eliminate Short-Term Hazards
Study Finds EU Moratorium of Persistent Bee-Toxic Pesticides Cannot Eliminate Short-Term Hazards (Beyond Pesticides, December 5, 2019)
'Five years after three neonicotinoids were banned for use on bee-attractive crops in the EU, researchers found that these bee-toxic chemicals are contaminating soils and poisoning the nectar of oilseed rape (canola). The results of this research point to an immediate need to end the use of persistent environmental contaminants and promote organic practices.
They tested for imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin residues in the nectar of winter-sown oilseed rape in from 291 oilseed rape fields in western France for five years following the EU moratorium (2014-2018).
Results show all three neonicotinoids were present at least once in the study’s time period. Imidacloprid was detected every year with “no clear declining trend,” though its prevalence fluctuated widely between years. Two samples from 2016 show residues that are five times the expected maximum concentration in nectar of a plant directly treated with imidacloprid. Risk peaks in 2014 and 2016 indicate that 50% of honey bees were likely to die from imidacloprid on 12% of the study plots. Risk for individual wild bees was even higher.
These data illustrate that the EU moratorium, while viewed as a a critically needed step, cannot in the short-term eliminate risk from persistent pesticides for foraging bees.'
filed under bee die-off, wildlife/insects and neonicotinoids
- Sunday, December 8, 2019
Bending to International Industry Pressure, Thailand Walks Back Toxic Chemical Bans
Bending to International Industry Pressure, Thailand Walks Back Toxic Chemical Bans (Beyond Pesticides, December 4, 2019)
'Last week, Thailand’s government shifted course from banning three toxic pesticides to only restricting the use of glyphosate and delaying the enforcement of bans on paraquat and chlorpyrifos. After an initially strong stance, the government is now bending to pressure from the U.S. government and the chemical-intensive farming industry... 16% of Thailand’s population is employed in the agricultural sector. The country is a substantial exporter of rice, rubber, and sugar.
While this story has indeed taken a disappointing turn, the farmer backlash offers a case study for where single-chemical bans – though they can be an important in a short-term goal – can go wrong. The focus in Thailand is on the replacement of the banned toxic chemicals with substitutes instead of holistic, organic practices that are safe for people and the environment. '
filed under legislation/international
- Sunday, December 8, 2019
Assessment of Glyphosate Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Pathologies and Sperm Epimutations
Assessment of Glyphosate Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Pathologies and Sperm Epimutations: Generational Toxicology Deepika Kubsad et al, www.nature.com/scientificreports, 23 April 2019)
Another first-of-its-kind study from Washington State University exposed pregnant rats to just half the rate of the commonly used herbicide Roundup that is considered safe for exposure. Researchers found that roughly 90 percent of the next two generations developed health problems by the time they were one year old, including kidney disease, obesity, or issues with their ovaries, testicles, or prostate.
The most dramatic finding, says WSU professor of biological sciences Michael Skinner, showed about one-third of the future generations had miscarriages and/or died during pregnancy.
filed under endocrine disruption
- Saturday, November 30, 2019
Ignoring Adjuvant Toxicity Falsifies the Safety Profile of Commercial Pesticides
Ignoring Adjuvant Toxicity Falsifies the Safety Profile of Commercial Pesticides
(Robin Mesnage and Michael N. Antoniou, Frontiers in public Health, 22 January 2018)
SNAP comment: Canada and US regulatory system is based on the outdated principle of 'the dose makes the poison', not precaution. This whole concern about adjuvants (also called formulants or inerts) could start with total disclosure in ALL pesticide formulations. They are currently secret except for a few allergens and a few very toxic ones.
' Despite the known toxicity of adjuvants, they are regulated differently from active principles, with their toxic effects being generally ignored. Adjuvants are not subject to an acceptable daily intake, and they are not included in the health risk assessment of dietary exposures to pesticide residues... Urgent action is needed to lift the veil on the presence of adjuvants in food and human bodily fluids, as well as in the environment (such as in air, water, and soil) and to characterize their toxicological properties. This must be accompanied by regulatory precautionary measures to protect the environment and general human population from some toxic adjuvants that are currently missing from risk assessments.'
filed under formulants
- Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Study Shows Drastic Loss of Arthropods in German Grasslands and Forests
Study Shows Drastic Loss of Arthropods in German Grasslands and Forests (Beyond Pesticides, November 13, 2019)
They found that, in grasslands, arthropod:
- Biomass declined by 67%
- Abundance declined by 78%
- Number of species declined by 34%
In forest sites, arthropod:
- Biomass declined by 41%
- Number of species declined by 36%
- Abundance had more complicated results
The paper’s abstract sums up, “Our results suggest that major drivers of arthropod decline act at larger spatial scales, and are (at least for grasslands) associated with agriculture at the landscape level. This implies that policies need to address the landscape scale to mitigate the negative effects of land-use practices.”
It seems like the researchers stayed clear of mentioning pesticide although Beyond Pesticides adds the following: 'It’s clear that industrial agriculture is contributing to the insect apocalypse, as well as declines in birds and other yet unknown species. Yet we also know that, by eschewing pesticide use, focusing on soil health, diversification, and sustainable practices, organic and regenerative farming and land management can help reverse this decline. Join this effort by purchasing organic whenever possible, planting diverse pesticide-free habitat on your property, and encouraging your local community to follow suit. Initiatives in cities like Amsterdam, Netherlands show that this is an issue we can still address.'
filed under wildlife/insects
- Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Neonicotinoid Insecticides Deprive Fish of Food in Lake Shinji, Japan
Neonicotinoid Insecticides Deprive Fish of Food in Lake Shinji, Japan (Beyond Pesticides, November 6, 2019)
'90% drop in their (fish) yield. Eel catches dropped by 74%. New research, published in the journal Science, implicates the introduction of neonicotinoids to the abutting watershed in the decimation of these aquatic populations, stating, “In Lake Shinji, neonicotinoids indirectly reduced fishery yields by decreasing the abundance of invertebrates that serve as food for smelt and eels.”
filed under wildlife/ fish and neonicotinoids
- Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Companies that Claim Sustainable Sourcing Lack Criteria, Virtually None Includes Pesticide Use
Companies that Claim Sustainable Sourcing Lack Criteria, Virtually None Includes Pesticide Use (Beyond Pesticides, November 8, 2019)
'A new report out from As You Sow — 2019 Pesticides in the Pantry: Transparency and Risk in Food Supply Chains — focuses on the risks that agricultural pesticide use represents for food manufacturers, and offers recommendations and benchmarks for improvement in the areas of management and transparency.
The report connects the dots for food corporations: “The environmental damage caused by pesticides creates significant operational risk to food companies.'
Apparently a sruprisingly readable report.
filed under pesticides in food
- Wednesday, November 27, 2019
City of South Miami Becomes First Organic Community in Florida
City of South Miami Becomes First Organic Community in Florida (Beyond Pesticides, November 21, 2019)
'South Miami, under the direction of Mayor Phillip Stoddard, PhD, professor of Biological Science at Florida International University, has a history of leading the state in the protection of public health and the environment. In 2014, the City Commission voted to declare all of South Miami a wildlife sanctuary, thereby restricting the use of highly toxic mosquito adulticides. The move protected populations of the state’s rare and endemic wildlife, such as the Florida bonneted bat, which begins to feed on mosquitoes in the spring at the same time spraying usually begins.
The City’s move toward organic landscaping was borne out of two years of successful trials by city workers and contractors. In 2017, its landscaping request for proposals (RFP) required that, in addition to practices intended to reduce pesticide use, only certified organic or minimum risk products could be used on city property.
As the memorandum for the ordinance reads, “Thus-far this initiative has been a qualified success, allowing the City to cut down on its waste-footprint significantly at relatively little expense, and providing a model for other local government to use as guidance.”'
filed under bylaws/USA
- Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Increased Risk of Skin Cancer Tied to Use of Weed Killers, as Researchers Call for a Precautionary Standard
Increased Risk of Skin Cancer Tied to Use of Weed Killers, as Researchers Call for a Precautionary Standard (Beyond Pesticides, November 5, 2019)
'Herbicide use is associated with an increased risk of developing cutaneous melanoma, a skin cancer, according to a meta-analysis published last month in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. For those working on farms and in other occupations with frequent exposure to herbicides, the risk is another in a long list of pesticide-induced diseases. Ultimately, researchers suggest, “A precautionary public health safety policy that includes preventive individual counselling and surveillance to workers exposed to pesticides may be advisable.”
Herbicide exposure is linked to a long list of health effects, which are documented in Beyond Pesticides Pesticide- Induced Diseases Database.'
filed under cancer