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Pesticides Are Lethal To People, Too JOE SCHWARCZ - The Gazette Sunday, February 29, 2004 Pesticides are designed to kill the insects, fungi, rodents and weeds that compete for our food supply, that carry disease or tarnish our green space. But pesticides can also kill people and, unfortunately, that isn't a rare occurrence. The World Health Organization estimates there are 3 million cases of pesticide poisoning worldwide every year, and close to a quarter of a million deaths. Astonishingly, in some parts of the developing world, pesticide poisoning causes more deaths than infectious disease. How? Some die from a lack of protective equipment, or because they can't read the instructions about diluting the chemicals properly. But the main cause of death from pesticides is suicide. About a million people worldwide do away with themselves every year. More than three quarters of these are in Third World countries. In Sri Lanka, suicide is the No. 1 cause of death among young people, and in China more young women kill themselves than die from any other cause. And pesticides are their weapon of choice. In rural Sri Lanka, pesticide poisoning is the main cause of death reported in hospitals. There are wards devoted to patients who have tried to kill themselves with organophosphates, one of the most toxic classes of pesticides. In Samoa, suicide rates went up sharply when paraquat was introduced in 1974. They dropped back down when paraquat was taken off the market in 1982. In Amman, Jordan, poisonings fell way off when parathion was banned. Obviously, if the use of the most toxic pesticides could be curtailed in these countries, many lives would be saved. Sadly, though, these chemicals are often unregulated, and some of the most toxic ones are sold to illiterate farmers who have little chance of using them properly. When salespeople are paid a commission by pesticide companies, it is in their interest to push product, even when it may not be necessary. A joint effort by pesticide manufacturers and governments is needed to keep the most toxic pesticides out of developing countries. In North America, our pesticide regulations are far more stringent and farmers must be licensed to use these chemicals. That doesn't mean we don't have problems, though. In North Carolina, for example, roughly 100,000 migrant workers are employed on the tobacco, vegetable, fruit and Christmas tree farms. Many live in dilapidated housing next to the agricultural fields, and their homes and bodies are contaminated with pesticides. Metabolites of organophosphates commonly show up in their urine. This is not surprising, given that access to showers and clean clothes after working in the fields is limited. Even though there may be no immediate effects of such exposure, there are enough studies suggesting a link between pesticide use and neurological problems, developmental delays, Parkinson's disease and cancer to cause concern. Elimination of agricultural pesticides is not an option. But providing workers with safe housing, clean clothes, showers and, above all, pesticide-safety training is. Of course, working in the fields of North Carolina is not the only way to be exposed to pesticides. Garden-supply stores sell an array of such products. They are all "registered," meaning they have undergone extensive safety evaluation. Risks should,therefore, be minimal, if the products are properly used. An often-quoted study at Stanford University found a link between Parkinson's disease and domestic pesticide use. People with as few as 30 days of exposure to home insecticides were at significantly greater risk; garden insecticides were somewhat less risky. Because of the large variety of products available, researchers were not able to zero in on any specific ingredients. Another study, at the University of California at Berkley, compared pesticide exposures of children found to have leukemia with a healthy control group matched for age and socio-economic status. The families of children with leukemia were three times more likely to have used a professional exterminator. During pregnancy, exposure to any type of pesticide in the home coincided with twice as much risk. But - and it's an important "but" - there was no association between leukemia and pesticides used outside the house. Pesticides cannot all be lumped together in terms of their safety profile. There are tremendous differences between insecticides and, of course, these differ extensively from herbicides and fungicides. One must remember associations cannot prove cause and effect. Physicians, you'd think, should realize this. But in a letter to a medical publication, a doctor chastised Ottawa for allowing people to be exposed to dangerous substances on their lawn, saying: "A boy was removed from a day care three years ago because his parents noticed the lawn was being treated with pesticides and the child began to suffer health problems and recurrent pneumonias. He developed acute lymphoblastic leukemia." The simple-minded message is the spraying caused the leukemia - a gigantic and inappropriate leap of faith. Great caution must be used with insecticides in the home, and I think their use during pregnancy should be totally avoided. But using insecticides inside a house presents a completely different scenario from occasionally spraying a lawn with fertilizer and weed killer. Different chemicals, different exposures, different risks. - - - Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society http://www.OSS.McGill.ca He can be heard every Sunday from 3-4 p.m. on CJAD. 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