Have you ever smelled the fumes from Chinese plastic products? A printer or cell phone, or a DVD cover or any of millions of plastic products? Toxic fumes that at least give people headaches, eye-pain, asthma and eventually worse. Have you ever smelled tar/asphalt, or pesticides, Mosquito spraying, lawn care chemicals, and asked yourself why Americans poison the selves and their neighbors with products made right here? Like the war in Iraq, they are all about money.
These articles appeared in my Blog more than a year ago, but they bear repeating. The second one below was published here as a diary last year after appearing on my blog. They will appear again in my Novel to be published late summer 2007, copyrighted in 2003.
Have you ever thought about mosquite spraying and lawncare pesticides the most blatant and prolific forms of drug abuse, legalized, forced drug abuse, forced on those who know the dangers by idiot neighbors? Many communities lacking well-informed, properly educated citizens and employees on the mosquito control issue, have fallen into the trap of spending unwisely and possibly placing their constituents in grave physical danger. According to reports, it is alleged that the surest means of eradicating mosquitoes, if they are a radical health danger, which they are allegedly not always, is to seed standing water, ponds, leaf and wood chip piles and other mosquito dwelling places, with bacilli, sterile male populations, oil-water cover, and natural Pyrethrum; all of which kill larvae effectively. Spraying for adult mosquitoes is reported to be widely ineffective, killing less than 1% to 7% of adult mosquitoes. Moreover, it poses grave threats to health and ultimately to life, even among humans. There also appears to be no public assessment by unbiased medical toxicologists as to what the tolerance level of individuals is for such toxins. Increasing the dosage of the adult mosquito killing toxins would probably make them more dangerous to humans than they are already. Moreover, it is said that, after a time, the mosquitoes become immune to the toxic poisons used to kill them, while humans only become more vulnerable to them.
It has not been publicly advertised or to our knowledge investigated: If or whether the chemicals used in spraying for adult mosquitoes interferes with medications people may be taking; or if the chemicals may cause adverse drug interactions; nor if they may pose extreme health hazards to certain people with allergies and other afflictions; nor if these chemicals represent, in addition to certain immediate symptoms, (which some victims may not recognize as resulting from pesticide applications), certain long term mental, body-health altering lifetime illnesses; nor has advertising or public information been delivered concerning the effectiveness of applications for adult mosquitoes and/or the personal dangers and symptoms that may result from applications for adult mosquito spraying; nor has the public been informed of the odds against being infected by each disease the pesticide companies claim to be carried by mosquitoes since 1999 in Northern Illinois, or the number of deaths since nationally state by state. One wonders what the medical profession has to say about the above and when they will begin to look into the problems cited here.
If public information is accurate, in 8 years, 670 have died nationally. Of a population of 320,000,000 x 8 years, that is less than 84 deaths nationally a year for the entire nation. That is considerably less than the number which have been afflicted or died of asthma and a number of other ailments, nor has spraying for adult mosquito populations changed that, nor have those who profit from it informed the citizenry, town by town, state by state, why they risk making tens of thousands ill from pesticide spraying for Live Adult mosquitoes. Are they guilty of using fear tactics to panic some communities into spraying for Live Adult mosquitoes and not mentioning such small numbers of deaths and the generally mild nature of some of the diseases known to be associated with mosquitoes in Northwestern Illinois and the risky side effects of spraying? For instance, those profiting have not proved to have effectively reduced mosquito populations by spraying for adult mosquitoes, nor ever refrained voluntarily from spraying in communities where the odds are even greater against anyone dying or even becoming seriously ill than the national odds. In Illinois in 2003, one person died of West Nile making the chances of dying of West Nile that year greater than 15,000,000 to 1. In 2003, the epicenter of the disease has moved west with most cases appearing in western states. Why, then must 15,000,000 in Illinois be placed at risk because one person died in 2003? The answer $$$$$, there is lots of it in spraying for adult mosquitoes and more when chemicals rather than natural sources are used, and even more when the companies spraying makes their own chemical, witch's brew.
Since it has been alleged that pesticides are heavily implicated in breast and ovarian cancer among women, and pesticides are alleged to be implicated, in the proliferation of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and that perhaps spraying for adult mosquitoes is, by and large, ineffective, killing less than 1%-7% of adult mosquitoes at each spraying, after which it is alleged that the adult mosquito population then increases exponentially), and that the products in use appear to affect and cause a variety of human negative reactions and that a number of communities of well-informed government officials, who truly care about their constituency, rather than merely as tax-cash-cows, seeing this information have discontinued spraying for adult mosquitoes completely. It has been alleged that spraying for Adult Mosquitoes, is primarily a profit-making venture and no more than a cosmetic, placebo, gesture, and if so, is therefore unnecessary and preys upon the weaknesses and fears of those not properly informed to make sufficiently well informed decisions about such matters.
Since drug application by the oath and law of those administering drugs, weigh the benefits against the dangers, it is our contention that such has not been done in the case of spraying for adult mosquitoes and if it were there would be no spraying for Adult Mosquitoes and that therefore citizens cannot make an informed and safe decision about such matters. Present your local mosquito control board with FOIA requests if your state has such measures, otherwise petition municipal or county authorities for contact information about those who are getting ill from the spraying, contact those people and form a powerful voice of reason in stopping the useless contamination of water, air and human vessels with pesticides.
The inducement of fear, found so effective by the current administration in Washington to selling scams to the severely, poorly informed public, continues to be a factor in selling every kind of snake oil for every single poorly perceived and worsely researched fraudulent End-of-Days, scenario. Is it now true, as some are claiming, that in the last five years Europeans and the Chinese have surpassed Americans as the best-educated and unformed citizens on the planet? Well, at least more so than 54,000,000 who voted for the current Anti-Christ's and his followers here and in Great Britain and in the low art of panic peddling.
PS-While we invite knowledgeable persons who do not work for or are associated with pesticide companies to post non-toxic comments, we are certain that negative comments concerning this blog will appear and past experience has taught us that such comments are usually from those who may profit from use of such chemicals or of uniformed sycophants and puppets of same.
Toxic America: Scented Candles, Plug-Ins, Perfumes, And Chinese Plastics, Carcinogens, Toxic Reactions And How Misguided, Money Conscious Doctors Treat Them.
Many years ago, a cousin of mine made huge fusses over anyone wearing perfume, smoking or wearing too much hair spray in her home. Came to the point where she stopped inviting such people over to her frequent parties. She said those things gave her headaches and asthma. I thought she was a fuss-budget. (What has budget to do with fussing? In fact, what does the term/phrase mean, really?)
In the mid 1980's I noticed that certain laundry detergents and those little, flat pieces of cloth or paper that you put in your dryer, fabric softener, made one smell like a public "restroom". I finally stumbled onto grocers called Fresh Fields, which was bought out by Whole Foods, which unscented everything, including fruit and vegetables! (Just kidding about the produce.)
As the years ticked by, I began to notice that anytime I entered certain people's homes, especially their bedrooms or laundry rooms, I would get asthma, shortness of breath, headachy (people love to give tours of their new homes, even without being asked, I never could see the purpose of that.
I never, ever got headaches before, except once when I caught a pass and ran into a wood fence surrounding our football field-knocked down, flat-out cold for a few seconds. Aside from sizing up fields from then on especially the locations of fences and other obstructions, I began to size up people's homes. The home's which dealt-out headaches and shortness of breath, had a few things in common; scented candles, plug-ins, and fabric softeners. Some had all of those things and more.
While I was still teaching, going back more than 15 years I wrote constantly to manufacturers, congress men/women and health agencies of my suspicions that these fragrance emitting objects contained vaso-constrictors (which cause headaches, sore throats, containment of saliva, thus blocked saliva glands and interfering with neuro-muscular activities and disruption, much like pesticides and herbicides (different sides of the very same coin) which could lead to serious consequences, like asthma or worse, and also contained carcinogenic chemicals, like Benzene and Naphthalene derivatives.
No longer would the thought of bathrooms with Jacuzzis lit by dozens of different size candles be appealing, nor waterbeds with silken sheets, washed in raspberry scent. Now those things made everything smell like a public bathroom.
The sheets and other things dried with the fabric softener also gave me a crawly, itchy feeling as though large spiders or toads were creeping along up and down my chest, legs and back, a chemical irritation symptom I am told.
Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
ProfessorPete - If you have not, you may need to look into toxic mold poisening, as victims of this can, and usually do, develop a high case of MultipleChemicalSensitivity. My wife is one of these. We were both exposed to a high concentration of trichothecene mold off-gassing in a fifty year old home. I believe I'll let her tell you as she knows more facts about this than I do. I thought I was reading about mold poisoning two or three times while reading this article. We're trying as hard as we can to get this out in front of the public view, AND to the medical care people. Most of them we've run into are pretty narrow-minded....
Thomas M. Brooks
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Iris Brooks (8 articles, 8 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 17 comments) on Sunday, May 6, 2007 at 11:41:39 PM
Thanks for contacting me. There has been a tremendous amount of publicity on these highly toxic molds. It is important to note that almost any toxin can create Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Highest on the list appears to be pesticides, herbicides, vaso-constrictors, naphthalene's, benzenes and other extremely widely spread toxins.
I would be interested to read more, but my writing interest is in toxins spread for profit. It is a wise idea in the future, to buy a newer home but check out what building products they use, some builders, are "Green Builders" so are some architects, so if you do build, check with your local AIA, they know what to avoid, or if you do buy a used home, have a highly trained inspector inspect the site completely, as a part of your contract. Ask an attorney about that and about if you have any recourse about the home you have from the sellers or the real estate company, or the state. Some states recognize Chemical Sensitivity as a disability, others do not. Find out if your state does, ask your congress person for a copy of the disabilities Act. I have some Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) contracted because of chemicals used at the College at which I taught, and they do hinder my life.
I can only tell you what has worked for me, each case seems to be different according to the University Environmental Specialty group, which I had diagnose what I already knew to be the case, but they advised what I was already doing, find out what chemicals the things which make me ill are and avoid them in future. Avoidance, they said, in my case, at least, was still the best remedy for this problem. Check with your MD what is best for you.
She will need a lot of support and understanding, but she can and should adapt. Humans are very adaptable. It is best to check all out with a very knowledgeable and understanding MD. Some hospitals have special departments which research MCS, ask around.
I hope she finds many ways, as I did, to function despite the disability.
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Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1317 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, May 7, 2007 at 9:31:37 AM
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