Mindfully.org Reader Commentary on Lawn Care Pesticides

From: Tom Barrett giotto80@hotmail.com Date: 27apr01

[mindfully.org response below]

I recently read customer comments concerning the toxicity of lawn & tree care pesticides in relation to humans. To some opinions, I agree. Others were merely rantings and ravings of misinformed persons who prefer to jump to conclusions based on as little information as possible. They say things like "common sense tells us that if an herbicide is made to 'kill' a weed, whose to say it can't kill us?" To some point, I agree with this. Nobody can deny that the chemical properties of lawn care herbicides can be dangerous to human health. The same can be said of more than a dozen different products in your house.

This kind of reasoning can lead us to conclude that, for example, since salt kills slugs, who's to say it can't kill people? And of course, that risk is out there. Consider the dilution. A tablespoon of salt in a liter of water will likely kill a slug but if you drink the same mix, how much harm would it cause you? How many doses would it take to injure or kill you? Is the mode of action the same? People's lack of reason and the general stigma placed on anything ending in "-icide" have led people to some outrageous conclusions.

I am all for "better safe than sorry." I aslo am not so stubborn to realize that we, in the lawn care industry, are dealing with some potentially dangerous chemicals that must, at all times, be handled and applied with care, purpose, and attention. But think of all of the others dangers that you, John & Jane Q. Homeowner, deal with on a much more frequent basis. Have you ever put gasoline into your vehicle? Have you ever washed your clothes in bleach? Have you ever scrubbed your floors with Pine-Sol? Have you ever chewed sugar-free gum? If you or your child or your pet are exposed to these products in concentrated or diluted forms, are you safe from the potential hazards? Can they kill people? Cause cancer? Even sugar-free chewing gum has "cancer warnings" on the package. To the fanatics, use the senses the God intended you to have. Take a serious look at the dangers in your life and assess w! here lawn care risks fit it. I'm not just speaking chemically, but mechanically, biologically, etc. And nothing bothers me more than hearing a person complain about the chemicals that I'm spraying on a lawn while they smoke a cigarette on break.

The world is filled dangers around every corner. How many kids are killed by vehicles when walking to school in the morning? Is it more than the number killed by pesticide exposure? Statistically, it can be proven that vehicles cause more health problems than pesticides (although acute). So why not outlaw vehicles? For people to target one small niche of all of the potential dangers in the world, and claim that lawn care pesticides are as deadly and dangerous as they claim they are is simply luticrous. As stated before, I do not deny the potential of these products to be dangerous or deadly. But if being applied by responsible, knowledgeable, attentive personnel, they serve a very real purpose in our lives. As one of these people, I practice safe methods of pesticide application but weighing several different factors into the situation. Does everybody do this? Of course not. Target the irresponsible applica! tors and make it harder for them to cause damage. Homeowners should not even be allowed to purchase pesticides. Only licensed, trained technicians should be allowed to purchase, mix, and apply any pesticide. Another point made concerned the information provided about the toxicity of these pesticides. As we learned in the tobacco industry, information supplied by science can be modified to protect the investments of the people who own & run these big corporations. I'm not a scientist and cannot prove the severity of pesticide risks. However, many of the risks associated with these pesticides are detailed on MSDS. Of course scientists still haven't made up their minds on if eggs are healthy or unhealthy.

On a closing note, don't forget about the obvious benefits pesticides have offered mankind. Their benefits have, time after time, far exceeded their detriments. By controlling insects, fungi, rodents, etc., humans have the luxury of healthy food supplies and fewer diseases. Of the points I do agree with, a few dandelions, aphids, or billbugs never hurt anybody. I NEVER do more than I have to keep a lawn and landscape healthy and safe while reducing the number of chemicals I use. Most of my work consists of keeping homeowners religious about basic cultural practices to reduce the need for pesticides. A closing suggestion to your readers: "Compare the risks and possibility of exposure to those risks of pesticides to everything in your day to day life. If you are paying attention, you'll see that the world is a much bigger and scary place than the lawn care technician spraying weed control on the lawn down the st! reet. The minty gum in your mouth has the same carcinogen warnings that the weed control does."

Mindfully.org Response

30 April 2001

Pesticides, and lawn care herbicides not only have the capability of being dangerous, they are dangerous. Because another commonly used chemical kills or causes deleterious health effects does not have any bearing on the validity of another proven carcinogen and endocrine disruptor.

The reason the "-cide" is in the word is because it kills.

Webster's defines cide as:

Function: noun combining form Etymology: Middle French, from Latin -cida, from caedere to cut, kill 1 : killer <insecticide> 2 [Middle French, from Latin -cidium, from caedere] : killing <suicide>

The last word above describes what we are doing by using these "cides."

Many toxicologists are so far behind current scientific knowledge that they don't even know that it is no longer true to say that "the dose is the poison." That means, in other words, that the higher the dose, the greater the toxicity. Because of what is known about low-dose toxicity, this is just not the case any more. A great many these chemicals have the ability to mimic hormones in animals - that includes humans because we are indeed animals. The hormone estrogen must be measured in the parts per trillion range because that is how small a dose it works at. To get a picture of what one part in a trillion looks like, visualize one drop of water in 660 rail tank cars. That train would be more than six miles long. None of the chemicals we are discussing are regulated at that low a level or for human reproductive effects. As a hormone mimic, these chemicals have effects that are not only permanent, but are many times, not visible or obvious until after puberty.

As for gasoline, its use should be curtailed immediately. Today's technology doesn't require gasoline. The only reason it is still used is because of the oil lobby and short-sighted vehicle manufacturers that have billions of dollars to influence our lawmakers.

I don't, never did and never will use bleach. It too is the cause of quite a bit of misery. The manufacturing, use, and disposal of PVC releases dioxin because of the chlorine in it. In fact, PVC is the main vehicle today in the production of dioxin. Organochlorine pesticides also have the same problem in releasing dioxin into the environment.

Take a look at all the rest of the activities and purchases industry brainwashes the world into thinking they actually need:

Fossil fuel driven transportation
Plastic
Genetic engineering
Sugar-free gum
Cigarettes
Chemically preserved foods
Irradiated foods
Nuclear power
        ...this list is far too long to put in this email message, but they are all products of a mindset that is hell-bent on profiting without regard for any person, place, thing, life, world, or environment.

Each can easily be attacked as a misconception on any plain, whether it is scientific, religious, economic, environmental, or anything else. They are based on ill-advised, myopic visions, shoddy theories and practices, flagrant abuse of money to influence regulatory agencies and educational institutions, and a general system that favors industry "science" as opposed to the truth. In short, if we want to live healthier, happier, and more simple lives, we should be doing exactly the opposite of what most government and industry officials tell us to do.

Statistically, it is impossible to prove that cars kill more people or children than pesticides because there are NO data being kept on the deleterious effects of pesticides.

Whether or not a pesticide applicator is well-trained, practices what he is taught, and has a conscience is inconsequential. It is the laws that are written allowing them to spray at all that are at fault. Add to that the numbers of applicators that are poorly trained or not trained at all and you have a catastrophe, a living experiment in poison application on humans and all the rest of what we need to live.

It is illegal to claim that pesticides are safe in any way. By being registered, a pesticide is only registered. That registration gives no assurance of safety by any regulatory agency. Pesticides are tested by the manufacturer, not the EPA, FDA, USDA or any other agency. The results of said testing are given to the EPA when and if the manufacturer feels like it. A great number of pesticides were "grandfathered" into use rather than being required to undergo even minimal testing. That means that there has been absolutely no testing at all. Even if you value the testing that IS done, which I don't, there are many poisons being used today that have not been tested.

The use of pesticides proliferated as a result of the invention of WWII nerve gas by the Nazis. Because great profits were possible, they were pushed onto agriculture and homeowners by US manufacturers, one of which is a direct descendant of a Nazi company that produced Sarin, the gas used to kill millions of Jews.

Finally, risk assessment is used by regulatory agencies. The definition of risk assessment is how many people you can kill before profits must end.

I think I have covered all your statements. Thank you for your comments to mindfully.org. I wish you luck in the future with your pesticide usage. Please write again if you would like to know more.

Sincerely,
Mindfully.org