Pesticide News
Family Settles with Exterminator whose Poisons Killed their Children
Nathan and Brenda Toone suffered the unthinkable loss of two of their daughters to alleged pesticide poisoning within days after taking care of the seemingly routine home maintenance task of using an exterminator. The Toones hired Bugman Pest and Lawn, Inc. to take care of voles, which had established themselves in the family’s lawn at their Layton, UT home. Bugman employee Cole Nocks buried poisonous Fumitoxin pellets, a phosphide-based rodent killer, in the yard. Within a day, Rebecca, age 4, and Rachel, 15 months, fell ill. A carbon monoxide alarm went off in the family’s home on Friday, February 5, 2010. The fire department found only trace amounts of carbon...
Read MoreToxins Meant to Kill Pests Can Put Human Health in Danger
Pesticides and household chemicals seep into our skin and filter through our lungs every day. The exposure to toxins meant to kill pests puts human health in danger and those toxins have long been linked to causing cancer. Now, a new University of Missouri study out this week even connects pesticides to Parkinson’s. And the problem with pesticides is that it’s hard to track their impact on our health since none of us live in a bubble. “Like with drug development, it’s a process of continuous improvement,” stated Penelope Fenner-Crisp, who worked in the EPA’s office of pesticide programs and serves on Virginia’s Pesticide Control...
Read MoreWhy Am I Fat? Four Surprising Reasons
These factors might mean the difference between those who eat without gaining weight … and the rest of us. Whatever fad diet books tell you, the single most important factor affecting weight gain is the ratio of calories consumed to calories burned. Eat more than you work off, and you’ll gain weight. But in recent years we’ve witnessed a flurry of research showing that there’s more at work than this simple formula. We all know (and loathe) them: Those people who seem to eat and eat and eat, but never gain weight. Why do some people pack on pounds, while others subject themselves to rigorous diets and workout regimens only to struggle with stubborn...
Read MoreStudy: Home Pesticides Linked to Childhood Cancer
As if links to Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and obesity, cancer, low sperm counts and other reproductive health problems, and childhood developmental problems and diseases were not enough … or that pesticide residue is common on foods, or that that children are even more susceptible than previously thought, or that pesticides stick around in the home for decades after being used, or that the EPA is slow to remove known toxic pesticides from the market, and doesn’t require chemical makers to even list toxic “inert” ingredients … now there’s another reason to avoid using pesticides around the home. A new study of children in the...
Read MoreLower IQ in Children Linked to Toxic Air Pollutants, Some Pesticides
A mother’s exposure to urban air pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can adversely affect a child’s intelligence quotient or IQ, according to the new study “Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years.” PAHs are widespread in urban environments and throughout the world as they have many sources, several of which are related to pesticides, including creosote used for wood preservation, burning pesticide-laden grass seed fields, and exposure to organochlorine pesticides whether banned, yet ubiquitous DDT or the still used insecticide dicofol. Other sources include synthetic turf fields and the...
Read MoreStudy: Children Susceptible to Pesticides’ Health Effects Until Age 7
It’s well known that children are more susceptible to the harmful effects of chemical exposure than adults. For one, their bodies are still developing rapidly, so chemicals can interfere with the normal growth of their brains and other organs, or disrupt their hormones at key developmental periods. For another, doses are likely to be disproportionately large, because their bodies are so much smaller than adults’ and because their breathing rates are so much more rapid. Finally, their habits — crawling on the floor, testing the world with their mouths and frequently putting their hands into their mouths dirty — mean they are exposed to more toxic...
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