Pesticides inhibit proper childhood development

Thursday, February 10, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff

(NaturalNews) Mothers exposed to high levels of pesticides bear children with lower intelligence levels than children born to mothers not exposed, says a new study published online in the journal Pediatrics. Piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a common chemical used in thousands of household insecticides to boost the effectiveness of another chemical known as pyrethroid, delays childhood development and causes brain damage.

Megan Horton, a postdoctoral research fellow from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and her team tracked 348 mothers from around New York City for their study. They took both air and blood samples of the women to track their exposure to PBO, and compared the intelligence levels of children from each exposure grouping. Based on this assessment, the team observed a significant connection between high levels of PBO exposure and delayed development in children.

“Kids who were in the highest quartile range of exposure to PBO were three times as likely to be in the delayed category, compared to kids with lower exposure,” said Horton, noting that the research took into account other factors that may affect development, including exposure to tobacco.

Pyrethroid insecticides have largely taken the place of organophosphorus (OP) insecticides, which were used more widely in the past but are now known to cause serious nerve damage and other problems in birds and mammals. But based on the evidence, pyrethroids are not much better as they cause significant harm to both children and adults.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pyrethroids are used in over 3,500 registered insecticide products. Known side effects caused by exposure include breathing problems, chest pains, rashes, blisters, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, learning disorders, chromosome damage, blood abnormalities, and thyroid problems.

Sources for this story include:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/2011020…

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/reevalu…

http://www.anapsid.org/pyrethroids.html

EPA to regulate rocket fuel chemical in drinking water for causing the same problems as fluoride

Friday, February 04, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified the need to set a limit on the amount of perchlorate, a toxic chemical found in rocket fuel, that is permissible in water supplies. The agency says perchlorates negatively affects the body’s ability to uptake iodine, which in turn alters proper thyroid function and causes disease. Interestingly, this is exactly what toxic fluoride, which is added to most U.S. drinking water supplies, does, yet the EPA has remained silent on this issue.

“There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny of the standard because, again, we are looking at but one of several precursors that can affect iodine uptake in the thyroid,” explained Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, to CNN concerning the agency’s new limits. “It’s the first time we’ve ever regulated a chemical not because of what it does directly to you, but because it has an impact on iodine uptake that might affect your child down the road.”

In other words, these rocket fuel chemicals are implicated in causing endocrine disruption, and are thus a serious threat to public health. And it is a good thing the EPA is taking notice and trying to do something about the problem. But the fluorosilicic acid, also known as fluoride, added to the majority of the nation’s drinking water supplies does the very same thing, except that chemical is deliberately added under the false pretense that doing so protects teeth.

In 2006, the National Research Council (NRC) issued a review of the EPA’s “safe water standard” of 4 parts per million (ppm) for fluoride in drinking water. NRC concluded that “several lines of information indicate an effect of fluoride exposure on thyroid function.” In fact, fluoride was actually used up until the 1970s as a thyroid-suppressing medication because it is known to offset necessary iodine and instead affix itself within the body (http://www.fluoridealert.org/health…).

When the thyroid fails to get the iodine it needs, it can cause a range of serious illnesses including chronic fatigue, depression, weight gain, hair loss, perpetual muscle pain, increased cholesterol levels, heart disease, and many other conditions. So chemicals that disrupt it, like both perchlorates and fluoride, deserve intense scrutiny.

Thyroid dysfunction is just one of the many negative effects of ingesting fluoride, but the fact that it does illustrates an important double-standard taking place over at the EPA. Seemingly concerned about toxic chemicals that impair iodine uptake, the EPA is coming out against perchlorates while saying nothing about the continued poisioning of the population via artificial water fluoridation. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.

To learn more about the dangers associated with fluoride ingestion, visit:
http://www.fluoridealert.org

Sources for this story include:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/0…