Hi John, I agree with your comments on the reproductive (birth defects) associated with spinosad. The problem could lead to significant birth defects or infertility in a large population, as well teratogens (birth defect causing chemicals are sometimes inactive or weakly active in rodent models but very potent in primates such as people. It would be a good idea to look at a population of children born to mothers exposed to spinoaad, and it is truly negligent to fail to require such studies. FDA seems to have a stringent policy of negligence and self serving excuses to protect its allegiance to large chemical companies. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing point out that spinosad is not synthetic (for the present) it is an organic by-product like most antibiotics. Along with that it has had more testing than the GM microbes and GM crops (including those producing biopharmaceuticals) released or field tested in North America. In spite of that, the organic market should demand clarification of the birth defect studies sponsored by Dow chemical (the spinosad producer). Prof.. Joe Cummins John D'hondt wrote: Hi all involved and interested in this. What struck me first reading the latest postings about spinosad was the eternal optimism of many. The German Professor who first synthesized DDT used to demonstrate the non toxicity of his brain child by eating a spoonful of it in public during a lecture. He spread it thick on bread with butter and ate it with relish in the full knowledge that it would not do him any harm and it probably didn't. And still we all now know that DDT is highly dangerous and capable of wiping out large populations of birds and damaging mammals. It is becoming clear that effect does not often stand in a simple mathematical relation ship to dosage. In many or perhaps most cases the effect/ dosage relationship is not a straight line but a highly complex one and worse effects are often seen at lower concentrations of the poison in question. The fact that factory data do not at all take this into account make me highly suspicious.Q. Does spinosad cause cancer or birth defects? A. There is no evidence of carcinogenicity of spinosad based on chronic rodent feeding studies. Reproductive and developmental toxicity occur only at exposures much greater than any exposures that could occur from applications of spinosad bait spray.This wants to perpetuate the myth that more poison is needed for a bigger effect and that is simply not true. Is the hype generated about Spinosad any different than the past hypes spouted about DDT, Dieldrin, Malathion and others? Not at all. Spinosad is relatively new and that is the sole reason it gets hyped up. It is going to make a lot of money for the one who holds the patent cards (Dow) for twenty years at least. Time is running and people want to be fooled anyway. I personally can not believe that there are such things as magic bullets that selectively kill our enemies but do no damage to ourselves or our friends when aimed at us. Time after time this has proven to be a falacy. We have the same genetic code as insects and weeds and we have very similar biochemical pathways that we share with almost every other life-form in plant and animal kingdoms. So is it not highly illogical to think that it will not affect us? It may not be as accutely bad for us as for an insect but that is all. I do not doubt that science will discover some ill effects as soon as a newer product has been developed. john ******************************************************** To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: 1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html and unsubscribe by typing in your e-mail address or; 2- Send a message to <listserv@sare.org> from the address subscribed to the list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg" in the body of the message. Visit the SANET-MG archives at: http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html &NBSP; ***************************************************** To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: 1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html
and unsubscribe by typing in your e-mail address or; 2- Send a message to mailto:listserv@sare.org
from the address subscribed to the list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg"
in the body of the message. &NBSP; Visit the SANET-MG archives at: http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html &NBSP; |