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Nicaraguan field hands win lawsuit alleging that a pesticide used to boost banana production made them sterile. By John Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 6, 2007 - A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $3.2 million to six Nicaraguan farmworkers who had sued Dole Food Co. Inc., arguing they had been rendered sterile some three decades ago by the international corporate giant's application of a banned pesticide on the plantations where they worked. Jurors return today to consider whether Dole, and codefendant Dow Chemical Co., should be punished with more monetary damages. They will decide whether Dole acted maliciously in failing to warn its workers of the danger, and whether Dow engaged in gross negligence in manufacturing the chemical.
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The "Hidden" Benefits of Fungicides and Other Chemicals - Synthetic horticultural chemicals do not work. One study showed that since the 1940's, crop loss inflicted by insects pests have nearly doubled from 7% to 13% despite a ten-fold increase in insecticide use (crop loss due to insects was reported at only 3-4% in 1900). Twenty-five to 50% of the air sprayed pesticide doesn't hit the field and 98% doesn't even target the pest. Most of what is applied enters the environment, contaminating the soil, water, and air, not to mention poisoning or adversely affecting non-target organisms including animals and humans. In the 1940's before synthetic insecticides were introduced, the crop loss from insect herbivory was 31%; it is now 37%, despite a thirty-three (33) fold increase in the quantity of pesticides used and a ten-fold increase in their toxicity during the intervening half century." Noah's Garden, Sara Stein, p. 115 The EPA now says that about 70 pesticides now in use are "probable" or "possible" cancer causers. The National Academy of Science (1993) has said "exposures to pesticides early in life can lead to a greater risk of... cancer, neurodevelopmental impairment, and immune dysfunction". This means our children are in far greater danger. Full Text: http://www.natureswayresources.com/resource/infosheets/thoughtsafe.html
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Navy Plans To Focus On Heavily Polluted Area At Submarine Base - TheDay - New London,CT,USA - A contractor for the base, Tetra Tech, was removing soil contaminated by the pesticide DDT in a stream near the weapons complex, and unexpectedly "struck ...
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MEPs vote for tighter rules on pesticides -
Farmers Guardian - Preston,England,UK
... rule out the use of a large number of insecticides and was a cause for concern, said Mr Chambers. Georgina Downs of the UK Pesticides Campaign described ...
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The Winchester Star -
Winchester Star - Winchester,VA,USA - The birds eat other animals exposed to the pesticide, and as a result, can end up with dangerously thinned eggshells or neurological problems, he said. ...
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Hearing probes local pesticide problem -
Wadena Pioneer Journal - Wadena,MN,USA
Sheets would also like pesticide drift and contamination enforcement removed from the MDA because that department collects fees from the sale of pesticides, ...
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Pesticides Polluting Delhi Air -
MedIndia - Chennai,India - A United Nations study says carcinogenic pollutants like Endosulfans in the pesticides posing a danger to the health of the capital's residents. ...
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Cricket: Warne says the county game is a source of England strength -
Guardian Unlimited - UK ... strangulation associated with Cypermethrinide poisoning". Cypermethrin is a pesticide used frequently in countries including Britain, China, Pakistan, ..
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Sarkozy puts France on green track -
Guardian Unlimited - UK - Mr Sarkozy proposed halving pesticide use over the next 10 years, saying it was not just the responsibility of farmers but also of the companies that ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2199594,00.html
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Scientists Estimate That Pesticides are Reducing Crop Yields by ONE-THIRD Through Impaired Nitrogen Fixation - July 2007
http://www.organic-center.org/science.hot.php?action=view&report_id=99 - Over the last forty years nitrogen fertilizer use has increased seven-fold and nearly every acre of intensively farmed, conventional cropland is treated with pesticides. A team of scientists explored the impact of pesticides and other environmental toxicants on symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) brought about by Rhizobium bacteria (Fox et al., 2007). Their findings were published June 12, 2007 in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/104/24/10282 . The team describes the critical role played by SNF in supporting crop yields and environmental quality. SNF has great potential to reduce farm production costs – a factor of growing importance as rising natural gas prices push upward the cost of nitrogen fertilizers. In Brazil, SNF from soybeans reduces production costs an estimated $1.3 billion per year. The research by Fox et al. (2007) explored in depth the signaling processes between plants and bacteria colonizing plant roots – processes that govern the degree of SNF and the production of certain phytochemicals. They focused on the ways that pesticides can disrupt signaling and impair the efficiency of SNF. Some 30 pesticides are known to disrupt SNF; the most widely used pesticide in the United States, glyphosate (Roundup) is known to be toxic to nitrogen fixing bacteria. The "Conclusions" section of the paper begins by stating: "The results of this study demonstrate that one of the environmental impacts of pesticides and contaminants in the soil environment is disruption of chemical signaling between the host plants and N-fixing Rhiz(obia) necessary for efficient SNF and optimal plant yield." Drawing on their recent work and other published studies, the team projected that pesticides and other contaminants are reducing plant yield by one-third as a result of impaired SNF. This remarkable conclusion suggests one mechanism, or explanation of the yield-enhancing benefits of well-managed, long-term organic farming systems. Source: "Pesticides reduce symbiotic efficiency of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia and host plants" Authors: Jennifer E. Fox, Jay Gulledge, Erika Engelhaupt, Matthew E. Burrow, and John A. McLachlan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 104, No. 24, June 12, 2007. .............................................................................................................................
How to kill pests without killing yourself or the earth...... There are about 50 to 60 million insect species on earth - we have named only about 1 million and there are only about 1 thousand pest species - already over 50% of these thousand pests are already resistant to our volatile, dangerous, synthetic pesticide POISONS. We accidentally lose about 25,000 to 100,000 species of insects, plants and animals every year due to "man's footprint". But, after poisoning the entire world and contaminating every living thing for over 60 years with these dangerous and ineffective pesticide POISONS we have not even controlled much less eliminated even one pest species and every year we use/misuse more and more pesticide POISONS to try to "keep up"! Even with all of this expensive pollution - we lose more and more crops and lives to these thousand pests every year. We are losing the war against these thousand pests mainly because we insist on using only synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers There has been a severe "knowledge drought" - a worldwide decline in agricultural R&D, especially in production research and safe, more effective pest control since the advent of synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers. Today we are like lemmings running to the sea insisting that is the "right way". The greatest challenge facing humanity this century is the necessity for us to double our global food production with less land, less water, less nutrients, less science, frequent droughts, more and more contamination and ever-increasing pest damage. National Poison Prevention Week, March 18-24,2007 was created to highlight the dangers of poisoning and how to prevent it. One study shows that about 70,000 children in the USA were involved in common household pesticide-related (acute) poisonings or exposures in 2004. It is estimated that 300,000 farm workers suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year in the United States - No one is checking chronic contamination. In order to try to help "stem the tide", I have just finished re-writing my IPM encyclopedia entitled: THE BEST CONTROL II, that contains over 2,800 safe and far more effective alternatives to pesticide POISONS. This latest copyrighted work is about 1,800 pages in length and is now being updated at my new website at http://www.stephentvedten.com/ . This new website at http://www.stephentvedten.com/ has been basically updated; all we have left to update is Chapter 39 and to renumber the pages. All of these copyrighted items are free for you to read and/or download. There is simply no need to POISON yourself or your family or to have any pest problems.
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Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten - Marne, MI - 43.04N -85.81W (Elev. 696 ft)
MCS International Country Coordinator for the USA - http://www.mcs-international.org/meet_team_steve.html and:
http://www.mcs-international.org/articles/article_steve_tvedten1.html
Websites:
http://www.thebestcontrol.com , http://www.getipm.com , http://www.learnipm.com , <http://www.licergone.com> , http://www.safesolutionsinc.com - <http://www.stephentvedten.com/> To learn more about the Bug Stops Here Yahoo group group, please visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thebugstopshere
To learn how to kill pests without killing yourself, please visit:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
You see things and you say, 'why?' but I dream things that never were; and I say 'why not?'" Thomas Edison
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race"-- Calvin Coolidge
"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." --Victor Hugo
'A ohe pau ke 'ike i ka halau ho'okahi. -- "All knowledge is not taught in the same school."
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