APFN: Pesticide Sprays over Cities.

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APFN
Pesticide Sprays over Cities.
Sun Aug 17, 2008 20:15
72.201.43.207


ISIS Press Release 15/08/08
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Sex Hormone Sprays Halted over Cities But.....
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California embarks on an even more alarming pesticide
eradication policy for a harmless moth

Sam Burcher

The good news is that officials have stopped aerial
sprays of toxic pheromones over Californian cities
(see Sex Hormones and City Life [1]), thanks to the
campaign of scientists and citizens united by their
concerns over health, social justice, and environmental
protection. But, the State has reserved the right to
spray rural areas such as farmlands, hills, ridges and
forests where there is no protection for populations
living there. The USDA has been forced to prepare an
environmental impact report on rural areas, and is
also appealing against the Court’s decision to stop
the spray over urban populations in Monterey and Santa
Cruz [2].

Synergistic effects of pesticides
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Aerial spraying in the city will be replaced with
mobile pesticide units, trucks spraying an insecticide
Permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid that the US
Environmental Protection Agency has classified as a
carcinogen because it inhibits the immune system and
causes lung and liver tumours in mice [3]. It is
extremely toxic and children are likely to be
five times more susceptible to its effects than adults
based on animal studies. Originally used in warfare,
permethrin was combined with the nerve gas
psyridostigmine bromide, and is a possible cause of
health problems reported by 30 000 Gulf War veterans.
Symptoms from exposure include aggressive behaviour,
tremors, temperature rise and lack of co-ordination
and learning ability. It also affects male and female
reproductive systems and causes chromosomal abnormalities.

Permethrin is toxic to honeybees and other beneficial
insects, fish, aquatic insects and amphibians. A study
that used a combination of permethrin and
psyridostigmine bromide had an adverse effect on hens
that increased further when other insecticides such as
DEET were added. A genetically modified bacterium
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is also used as a ground
spray in urban areas. Bt is known to have allergenic
effects on humans and animals in rural areas
(see More Illnesses Linked to Bt Crops [4].) so there
is concern about the synergistic effects of permethrin
and Bt ground spray in backyards and city spaces.

Sterile moths released by air instead
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The really bad news is that the latest act of war
pending against the populations in California is the
aerial release of sterile moths that USDA and FDA
(Federal Drugs Administration) officials say will keep
the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) from reproducing, by
rendering the eggs sterile [5]. The plan for 2009/2010
is to release 20 million male moths by air every 7-10
days that have been irradiated to stop sexual
development and then doused with the pesticide
pheromone CheckMate. A total of 100 million modified
moths will be released in a bid to wipe out an
estimated 25 000 LBAM.

Professor Joe Cummins of University of Western Ontario
says this plan won’t work. "Irradiated male moths seldom
work because the irradiated animals are weak and not
perceived as very sexy by female moths," he said. And,
because the female LBAM moths are multiple maters, they
live until they fertilize and lay eggs. He believes that
the alternative to irradiated moths is worse still. This
would involve the use of piggyBac transposons (see
piggyBac a name to remember [6] to genetically modify
terminator male moths that are considered sexy and mate
very well, and produce dead offspring. The safety of
terminator moths is of concern because piggyBac vectors
are genetic units related to viruses that can move from
one site to another in the same genome, or move between
genomes belonging to unrelated species. PiggyBac vectors
are active in mammals including humans making rampant
horizontal gene transfer and recombination across species
barriers possible (see Terminator insects give wings to
genome invaders [7].) Professor Cummins warns that other
studies involving piggyBac such as the Oxford-Stanford
business school dengue project and the cotton boll weevil
releases have not been well demonstrated (see Terminator
Mosquitoes to Control Dengue?[8].) "Millions of dollars
have already been splurged on the Bay area LBAM programme
to eradicate a tiny moth population," he said.

Read the rest of this article here

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SHSHOCB.php





"It is now 30 years since I have been confining myself to
the treatment ofchronic diseases. During those 30 years I
have run against so many histories of littlechildren who had
never seen a sick day until they were vaccinated and who,
in the severalyears that have followed, have never seen a
well day since. I couldn't put my finger onthe disease they
have. They just weren't strong. Their resistance was gone.
They wereperfectly well before they were vaccinated. They
have never been well since. "---Dr. William Howard Hay

Preface

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and it is
accelerating, says the latest Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released 17 November 2007.
Eleven of the past twelve years are among the warmest since
records began. Sea levels are rising faster than predicted.
Heavy rains, droughts and heat waves are more frequent, and
happening over larger areas of the globe. Cyclone Sidr hit
Bangladesh two days earlier leaving a death toll of more
than 10 000 and rising, a dramatic enactment of the
“increase in intense tropical cyclone activity.”
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/foodFutures.php