Pyrethrins
Products: Blitz, BP-100, Drione, PT-565, others
Toxicity Information: Pyrethrins are insecticides derived from dried chrysanthemum flowers. They have a rapid action designed to quickly paralyze the pest and contain allergens that cross-react with ragweed and other pollens. Pyrethrins are absorbed most easily through ingestion or inhalation. People with asthma can have severe reactions to pyrethrins.
Pyrethrins can also cause male reproductive effects by binding the androgen (a male sex hormone) receptors, disrupting the normal function of the hormone.
Glyphosate
Products: Roundup
Toxicity Information: The weed killer glyphosate can cause acute symptoms including eye and skin irritation, cardiac depression, gastrointestinal pain, vomiting and accumulation of excess fluid in the lungs.
Studies have shown that 14%-78% of glyphosate can drift off-site as far as 1300 feet downwind. Glyphosate can persist in soils from three days to a year.
“The surfactant used in Roundup, polythoxl tallowamines (POEA) is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself and the combination of the two is even more toxic. POEA is irritating to eyes and skin and causes gastrointestinal irritation, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Another chemical, isopropylamine is also added to Roundup despite the fact that it is ‘extremely destructing to tissue of the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract’ with inhalation able to cause fatal spasms, chemical pneumonia, and excess fluids in the lungs. In addition, isopropylamine exposure can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and burns,” states the CALPIRG report.
Diazinon
Products: KnoxOut, TKO, Diazinon, PT 265, Bug B Gone
Toxicity Infromation: Diazinon is an organophosphate nerve toxin and inhibits enzymes critical to nervous system function. Acute symptoms include headache, dizziness, nausea, and pulmonary edema (swelling in the lungs.)
“Tests show diazinon can cause reproductive effects in laboratory animals and use of diazinon by farmers in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska has been linked to increased risk of one type of cancer, non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma. An epiderminological study of workers at a diazinon production facility found that chromosome aberrations were more common than in a group of non-exposed workers. Two EPA surveys found diazinon to be the sixth most frequent cause of accidental death due to pesticides and pesticide-related illnesses. In one study, residues of diazinon were found in the urine of pest control workers who had sprayed diazinon, despite their use of protective clothing. Another study monitoring crack and crevice treatment in a schools dormitory, showed that diazinon can persist indoors for as long as 42 days after application,” states the CALPIRG report.
Malathion
Products: Ortho, Green Light
Toxicity Information: Malathion, introduced in 1950, is one of the earliest organophosphate insecticides to be developed. Acute exposure symptoms include numbness, tingling, incoordination, headache dizziness, tremor, nausea, abdominal cramps, sweating, blurred vision, difficulty breathing, and slow heartbeat.
Malathion is rapidly absorbed by practically all routes, and at high doses can cause unconsciousness, convulsions, and fatality. “Numerous malathion poisoning incidents have occurred among pesticide workers and small children through accidental exposure,” according to an EXTOXNET report.
Information for pyrethrins, glyphosate, and diazinon came from “Failing Health: Pesticide Use in California Schools,” which was funded by the CALPIRG Charitable Trust.
Volume 10, Number 11 May 2000
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