A review of 14 separate studies has shown that chemicals can reduce memory and the ability to process information quickly.
The findings, by researchers at University College London and the Open University, are the most comprehensive evidence yet that organophosphates can harm human health at low levels.
Doctors have long recognised that in high doses the chemicals, which are used to kill or repel insects and are also ingredients in aviation fuel and in some flame retardants, can be toxic, but the effects of lower doses have remained controversial.
Dr Sarah McKenzie Ross, a clinical psychologist and honorary senior lecturer at University College London, said that there now needed to be tighter safety rules for people exposed to the chemicals during their jobs.
She said: “The studies we looked at were in people who were exposed occupationally on a regular basis but were not getting ill from that exposure.
Continue to read Pesticide exposure harms memory
Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10408444.2012.738645
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I cant remember what i was going to say now .......
Seriously : Gardening DAMAGES YOUR HEALTH ,
im slightly deaf, tinnitus (ringing ears)
fumes give me a bad chest regularly.
Vibrations are bad for your white blood cells/ circulation.
Dust from jobs, mowing, blowing, hedgecutting, digging dirt and ivy removal etc etc.
at the same time , it gives me exercise, fresh-air and variety of scenery / places to work in.
Too much work is bad, too much rest is bad for you and to much play is bad for you. Thats life !!. We all know the risks of everything that comes along in our lifes. I get really narked off with all these "reports" at times. Why dont they discover something we DONT know !!!!!!
Neurobehavioral problems following low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides: a systematic and meta-analytic review
Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10408444.2012.738645
I read the comments underneath Phil's first link and followed up one about Mark Purdey. - Purdey was writing a book called - 'Animal Pharm' - but he died of a brain tumor before he finished it; his brother finished it. In the last chapter he writes about the stupidity of culling badgers to stop cross-infection with TB - there is not one copy in the Greater London library system.
Unfortunately for me, many subjects I find myself drawn to tend to have a conspiracy element to them - which is ok but they do seem to attract nutters who insist on a 'them-and-us' stance.... which I do not find helpful.
But this sort of thing does make you wonder :-
Purdey's house was burned down and his lawyer who was working with him on Mad Cow Disease had been driven off the road by another vehicle and subsequently died. The veterinarian on the case also died in a car crash. Purdey's new lawyer, too, had a car accident, but not fatal. Dr C Bruton, a CJD specialist -- who had just produced a paper on a new strain of CJD - was killed in a car crash before his work was announced to the public.
Here is his obituary in the Telegraph
If you're interested there's a 30 minute interview with him at his farm - on You Tube - just type in Mark Purdey.
thanks for that Pete, very interesting. I know what you mean about conspiracists, I've met them myself; but even so... Just because they're nutters it doesn't mean they're necessarily wrong.
Does anyone else encounter people who automatically worry about their children coming within 100' of any even possibly mildly skin irritant plant, 200' of any berry bearing shrub or half a mile of a mushroom, yet want you to chuck a whole sack of poison all over the lawn that junior crawls about on? Of course, as long as you're fully certificated there'll be no problem. Joined-up thinking I think not.
I don't think these kind of reports should be mocked. Google glyphosate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Remember thalidomide. etc etc. As an individual you may not live long enough anyway to be overly affected by these chemicals. But what about the longer term effects as they persist/build up in the environment? Anyone with children should think about that. We don't know the risks of this stuff. That's the point.
I agree with you. But. I don't think it's a bad thing for people to be aware that weedkillers and pesticides have a price, which may be high. (especially as I try to be an organic gardener haha). But I'm not optimistic at all. Whatever the middle class western world does, it's just a drop in the ocean. No harm in trying though.
Insecticides are designed to work on living creatures, often on the nervous system. However different we are to insects we are a lot more similar than we are to say plants or weeds. Therefore insecticides are nearly always inherently more hazardous than herbicides, note I say nearly always.
The vast majority of pesticide used by people on LJN will be herbicides, probably in line with the rest of the UK amenity industry at approx 90 plus % of their total pesticide usage.
Glyphosate for example globally outsells the next 13 biggest selling a.i's by more than double......that's numbers 2 to 13 of the biggest selling pesticide a.i's ADDED together and doubled.
Whilst health risks for farmers and growers who occupationally use a lot of insecticide (sheep farmers in particular) cannot be taken seriously enough neither should a landscaper using virtually all herbicide with appropriate training be unduly concerned.