ADHD, children's brains and pesticides
According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, detectable levels of pesticides are present in a large number of fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S.
According to lead author of the a recent study connecting pesticides and children's' brains, Maryse Bouchard, PhD, organophosphates are “designed” to have toxic effects on the nervous system because, “That’s how they kill pests." Organophosphates are the basis of nerve gas, plastic solvents and pesticides. The pesticides act on a set of brain chemicals closely related to those involved in ADHD, Bouchard explains, “so it seems plausible that exposure to organophosphates could be associated with ADHD-like symptoms.”
"I am very confident in the correlation in this study, because we controlled for quite a few things that we thought could play a role," says Bouchard. "Adjusting for those things did not change the results very much. Which indicates that there is very little potential for confounding in this association between pesticides and ADHD."
So if you put poison chemicals that are designed to disrupt the nervous system of bugs in children's food and they eat it, their vulnerable brain chemistry gets negatively affected?
Duh and double duh.
According to sane thinking this is nuts! What is it with our society and our commissioned regulators that allows such heavy pesticide use to continue? How many studies need to be done on human beings who allow such crappy behavior to pervade society?
Previous studies done in the past on high risk (children of farm worker) communities have linked cognitive and behavioral difficulties to exposure of pesticides. But that wasn't enough. Is this study enough evidence that children shouldn't be eating poison?
There have also been studies showing that some children diagnosed with ADHD just need more motor activity. But that's another silly story.
In this study over 1,000 children, ages 8-15 from all over the US had the levels of pesticides tested. Those with above average exposure had double the odds of an ADHD diagnosis. In the meantime, eat organic or better yet, belong to a community garden.
Find out more: www.organicconsumers.org/, www.localharvest.org/, Food Inc.
Comments
If you write enough false information, you can make anything look "Duh and double duh." From the inaccuracies and outright falsehoods in the article cited to the misinformation in this article, there is plenty of "duh" to go around. The funniest part is that the three major US television networks even got suckered in to this line.
Just a couple of facts to get you started:
1. Organophosphates are just 37 of over 1300 different compounds listed for use as pesticides in the US. Dr. Bouchard claims that this number constitutes "the most widely used" component of all pesticides used.
2. This author claims, or at least implies, that organophosphates are used to make all pesticides. That's kind of like saying that kiwi fruit is used to make all food products consumed in North America.
Just goes to show that if you use the word "pesticide", all the goofballs will start coming out of the woodwork.
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