I don’t care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees… this was the Joni Mitchell song in the 70s when DDT was a common pesticide. It may be banned in America but its effects linger on. Then there are entire classes of pesticides that are believed to be killing us in various ways:
- An entire class of pesticides (organophosphates) ingested in food are linked to 3 million poisonings, 200,000 deaths a year, many of them suicides in poor agrarian countries, (Internal Medicine, 2007)
- 3 common pesticides harm 97% of endangered plants and animals (EPA, year)
- The World Health Organization recently designated the key ingredient in RoundUp a “probable human carcinogen”; linked to kidney disease
The list goes on. Just like proving asbestos causes lung cancer mesothelioma (20 years after exposure) it’s very difficult to prove that pesticide exposure causes long-term harm. Yet another study on pesticides, reported in JAMA Neurology, finds a direct link to pesticide exposure and the increase for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS.
The researchers interviewed 156 patients about pesticide exposure, going back 30 years, and took blood samples.
Those exposed to any kind of pesticide were 5 times more vulnerable to ALS than those with no exposure, the researchers concluded in the study.
Time to start growing our fresh food hydroponically people. It’s pesticide free if you do it right.
