Pesticides and chemical fertilizers clearly linked to premature births

The use of pesticides and nitrate-containing fertilizers is almost certainly responsible for rising rates of premature birth in the United States (up 30% since 1981), according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.

 

 

My comments:

Alberta and Ontario recently reported the greatest increases in preterm birth here in Canada in the last seven to ten years. Overall, the Canadian rate rose from 5% to over 6% of all births.

 

Previous C-section and advanced maternal age are also risk factors for preterm birth; however, most of the increase is happening in younger first time mothers.

 

Nitrates are thought to disturb the oxygen-exchange functions within the cell and affect placental perfusion which may trigger preterm labour.

 

The effect of increased fluoride intake and exposure on thyroid suppression and increased risk of preterm birth was ignored at this conference. The effect of increased fluoride combined with reduced iodine intake and reduced vitamin D serum levels (because of the widespread admonitions to avoid all sun exposure) that would otherwise offset some of the fluoride effect was also ignored.

 

Please note that many pesticides are fluorinated (because this increases their killing effect at lower concentration) and have thyroid-toxic effects as well as adding fluoride and endocrine disrupting organophosphates to the body burden.

 

Chemical fertilizers add fluoride as well as nitrates to the soil, groundwater and crops. Fertilizers are manufactured from fluoride-rich phosphate rock combined with nitrogen from propane, methane or natural gas. The pollution scrubber effluent of that process, a hazardous waste called fluorosilic acid, is what is added to drinking water for the public health policy of water fluoridation. Fluoridation of tap water also means fluoridation of the food supply, as foods grown with fluoridated chemicals are processed and cooked in fluoridated water and the level gets higher. For the fetus, who just recirculates an ever-increasing load of maternal fluoride in its amniotic fluid and developing organs, this can be deadly.

 

The US EPA is also allowing DOW Chemicals to use sulfuryl fluoride on produce and food ingredients. This gas leaves a high fluoride residue that is difficult to wash off (impossible, in the case of dried grain, flour, dehydrated eggs etc). So every meal made with US-imported food ingredients adds more thyroid-suppressing fluoride to the fetal load.

 

The increasing levels of fluorinated perchlorate (from rocket and jet fuels) in irrigation water make imported salad greens an unfortunate source of this extremely thyroid-toxic chemical for Canadians.

 

Choosing local produce from farms that use integrated pest management and sustainable, organic, and biodynamic methods can greatly reduce fluoride intake from these sources.

The effect on the fetus of this combination of low levels of perchlorate, iodine deficiency, fluoridated tap water consumption, fluoride from foods, and Vitamin D deficiency urgently needs study. However, most universities are heavily funded by fluoride-related industries, or have directors who are large shareholders in these companies, and exposing fluoride as a preventable cause of preterm birth would amount to a conflict of interest (guess who loses that one).

 

The most recent conflict of interest involved a Harvard professor, Dr. Chester Douglass, funded by Colgate, who suppressed the findings of a study showing that teenage boys had a five to seven fold increased risk of developing often-fatal osteosarcoma if they drank fluoridated tap water in the years before puberty. Harvard did not discipline the professor despite receiving thousands of protest letters including many from prestigious alumni.

 

If you are a doula or midwife, please pay attention to fluoride intake and exposure in your clients, and try to ensure that they get enough iodine (kelp tablets, edible seaweed, ocean fish, mineral supplement containing at least .5 mg) and D (ten to twenty minutes of sunshine on face and arms depending on skin pigment, or one tablespoon of cod liver oil or 1000 units of D3 daily) during pregnancy. Waiting for the government or academics to figure it out will be too late.

 

Aliss Terpstra RNCP

Research Coordinator, Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative www.SLweb.org