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37 Comments
- AnthonyFTMFW, on 07/15/2009, -5/+19Industrialized agriculture blows.
- wannaBdug, on 07/14/2009, -0/+13This could be very important and useful. Let's hope.
- Janv1er, on 07/15/2009, -1/+13"When lindane is used in agriculture, an estimated 12-30% of it volatilizes into the atmosphere, where it is subject to long-range transport and can be deposited by rainfall. Lindane in soil can leach to surface and even ground water and can bioaccumulate in the food chain. Most exposure of the general population to lindane results from agricultural uses and the intake of contaminated foods, such as produce, meats and milk."
Wikipedia - inactive, on 07/15/2009, -1/+11So are you still going to laugh at the fly having spasms and not wonder what it is doing to you?
- varun1s, on 07/15/2009, -2/+12According to the article the pesticide beta-HCH was found in about 75% of people with Parkinson's.
However correlation doesn't imply causation.
What if 80% of the people also have the pesticide DDT (hypothetically)? Does that mean DDT caused it?
or
What if in 99% of people beta-HCH doesn't cause Parkinson's. But in select 1% (due to their genetic makeup, etc) beta-HCH causes Parkinson's 75% of the time?
I'm not arguing pro/anti the pesticide, just questioning why the research/news article is not put well together to give actual meaningful information. - rocknog, on 07/15/2009, -2/+9People who say "whatever we have now is good enough, how dare you point out problems that could be fixed by researching and developing new techniques and technology" are one of my least favorite kinds of people. Why the ***** is it so hard to say that while we need to do things a certain way for now, we should look into finding better ways of doing things in the future?
- Pxtl, on 07/15/2009, -1/+5So in other words, even the organic-food-hippies are contaminated by the rainfall issue - but less-so.
- TigerStar337, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifest ...
Processed food and the industrialized Western diet stinks. I like to eat fresh food with no chemicals. - varun1s, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1No evidence of 'increased risk' if exposed to pesticide. Just because 75% people with parkinson's were found with beta-HCH, doesn't mean the pesticide put them at increased risk. Correlation does NOT imply causation.
What if 90% of them were also found drinking fluoridated water? Would that mean fluorine in water caused it?
Science requires burden of proof. The above is not. - varun1s, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1What does valid mean to you? It doesn't give much meaningful information. It seems to imply a link when there's no evidence of one. Again, correlation doesn't imply causation.
Again, I couldnt care about the pesticide, the logic is not sound thats why I posted. - nighthwk1, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1I listened to it, and he makes the assumptions that organic producers must use toxic, "natural" pesticides, and that around the world, more farmland is required.
The first may be true in cases where industrial farms have partially converted their operations to produce food with an organic label, but is not the case with most small farms. If you doubt this, visit a local farmers' market and talk to a few of the sellers.
The second assumption is flat out wrong. On a global scale, we produce far more food than is necessary for human consumption, which is the reason why we have a growing population in the first place. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPRJQpWhE0o)
Oh, and: Eat local ftw. - FLarsen, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1They have to protect their crops against insects and other pests, otherwise the yields will be pretty low. To increase yields you need pesticides, and the artificial ones are safer and more effective than the natural ones. Also, with lower yields, more farmland is required to produce the same amount of crops.
The benefits provided by pesticides are the same regardless of the size of the farm. Small farms have even more use for pesticides if they want larger crop yields, as they can't expand like the big industrial farms.
On a global scale? Yes, some people have lots of food, but that doesn't help those who don't.
Organic food is a lot more risky than regular food. It can be contaminated, it may contain a lot of acually dangerous pesticides and it may contain an increased amount of natural (obviously unregulated) toxins that develop if farmers select the most naturally bug-resistant plants. Nature doesn't care about our health, nature can't care about anything, so why should natural food be safer? A scientist can design a pesticide to be safe for humans while deadly to insects, nature just makes it deadly to insects and if it kills humans as well then so be it...
Oh, and: Be smart and eat *safe* food, be it local or not. - nostarrag, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1to varun1s
I disagree I think you are arguing pro pesticide, although maybe not intentionally. Most research into Parkinson's (including mine) and the article look at what could cause Parkinson's and how. I don't care at all if beta-HCH is almost completely safe, if in fact it is. If it poses a risk to some people then the research is valid. - FLarsen, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1http://cdn3.libsyn.com/skeptoid/skeptoid-4019.mp3? ...
- mikalveli, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1in bed.
- dwalker, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1This is reasonable clinical proof your fathers doctor back then was correct.
Otherwise, it would have been a guess at that time!
[time to climb down off your high horse man] - FLarsen, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1Fresh food with no chemicals? Fresh food is nothing but chemicals.
- dwalker, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1also read the analysis from varun1s below....
- inactive, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1research all the damage genetically modified foods do as well.
this combined with the pesticide cocktail they hose them down with will have most of us dead from preventable disease in another decade.
and thats just veggies, what they do to meat is about 800 times worse - Spamiclese, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1This just goes to show there is no way to know in what way pesticides and caustic household cleaners affect the body after decades of exposure.
- lelebelle, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Eat organic ftw.
- DDRSkata, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1"Oh, yes, Lindane, the stuff for the occasion
This lotion gives you cancer with too many applications
But I must use it
I'll be the tested
This time it's gone too far
My body is infested"
-Choking Victim, "Infested (Lindane Conspiracy Pt. 1)" - jbmcb, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Please stop using the term "Chemical" to denote anything man-made. A chemical is anything with a homogeneous set of properties. Water is a chemical. Table salt is a chemical. Chlorophyll is a chemical. Nearly everything is composed of combination of chemicals.
- Sheethappens, on 07/15/2009, -0/+0Fair enough it was centered on that one thing but honestly, it IS a pesticide and so were all the others. While it would be good for them to say "add this one to the list of data" it certainly wasnt anything new or groundbreaking about Parkinsons as the article makes it out to be.
- nostarrag, on 07/15/2009, -0/+0to Sheethappens
While it is true that we have known that pesticides may be a factor in Parkinson's disease for a long time most of that research was concerning rotenone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotenone Because of that research rotenone is mostly being phased out. I am not familiar with beta-HCH but research on it is probably valid. - SpareAccount, on 07/15/2009, -0/+0"get your act into gear!"
...that's a creatively mixed metaphor. - jjwn, on 07/15/2009, -0/+0Suggest you read the actual study results in Archives of Neurology to see that B-HCH wasn't the only pesticide tested for and that it does not talk about causation, rather about possible increase risk if exposed.
- dwalker, on 07/15/2009, -2/+1"I like to eat fresh food with no chemicals."
Don't WE ALL!
You are NOT going to get it unless you grow your own. - Sheethappens, on 07/15/2009, -4/+3Are the British just SLOW or dont they read the medical discoveries of other nations? My wife's uncle was diagnosed with Parkinsons 15 years ago and at the time was asked if he had been exposed to pesticides much at all in his life in greater quantity. Sure he had (the guy is almost 70 now) when he was a child and with his father and grandfather used to work a farm in country NSW, Australia. He had been exposed to a hell of a lot of it, in fact. The doctor said, back then, that studies have been brought out linking pesticides to Parkinsons. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!
Honestly, Britain, get your act into gear! - Xaevier, on 07/15/2009, -3/+1Bad week to be a farmer...
- Mike17102, on 07/15/2009, -8/+6Ya, I hate having food to eat! Things would be so much better if everyone was starving.
Dont kid yourself, we would never be able to feed ourselves without modern farming methods. - inactive, on 07/15/2009, -6/+1So according to the title, Parkinson's gives you pestacide?
- DreadedWalrus, on 07/15/2009, -8/+3So basically, I should stop adding Lindane to my cocktails?
- Plurkman, on 07/15/2009, -6/+0But does it keep you lice-free?
- Lanttu42, on 07/15/2009, -6/+0"Also, the half-life of the pesticide is seventy eight years, so it stays in the body for a long time..."
"SEVENTY EIGHT!? Are you serious"... O.o
"... I mean... seven TO eight years..." - inactive, on 07/15/2009, -7/+0pldfd
- hersheys99, on 07/15/2009, -9/+0Well i have 3, 2 hour experiments that prove that time travel is a major cause to Parkinson's disease
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