Lots of panic over the Zika virus right now. Not that I blame anyone. If you can get pregnant, if you have ever been pregnant, there is no more frightening thought than that of your baby being born with some terrible health problem. The emotional impact of what went wrong can be devastating to the mother, but also the father, the whole extended family. The financial burdens of specialized care, for a baby that if they do survive, might not ever be independent. And not everyone has more than one child. So this can also mean the end of a familial line as well in some cases. The Zika virus as it is named as the culprit for the microcephaly is terrifying to women of childbearing age globally.
And that’s where this thought comes in—Would You Rather Be Happy or Right?
There is a lot of speculation about this virus. And one powerful thought to me is the possibility that Agrochemicals might be the actual culprit or at least a co-factor in this cluster.
You see, if this is straight up, a mosquito borne virus that is causing these clusters of microcephaly, with no other factors, then we are globally screwed. You aren’t going to contain it, you aren’t going to stop it. Mosquitoes go everywhere. And since we have a ready-made human reservoir to carry this virus globally in hours (air travel for starters), then infected people, bitten by uninfected mosquitoes can make sure this reaches every shore where mosquitoes and the virus can replicate and flourish.
What’s the point you are thinking?
The point is, that I would hope that chemicals are at least half the cause, because man-made chemicals can be cleaned up, they can be banned from further use. We can control chemicals much easier than we can control mosquitoes. Our only solution at this point for mosquitoes is a chemical version of MAD. That’s Mutually Assured Destruction. It won’t happen as fast as the nuclear version of MAD, but chemically, we will destroy what is left of our pollinators and turn our rivers and lakes back into toxic oil lamps.
We need bugs to pollinate and to support food webs. We need clean air, water and soil for health. And dumping poisons on our own heads to eradicate a bug has never worked out well for us or the ecology of a place. We have history to prove that sad fact. Silent Spring anyone? The DDT Wars?
So why would anyone think that chemicals might be the culprit?
First lets look at some of the news that comes out of Brazil regarding agrichemicals:
Reuters Report: Why Brazil has a big appetite for banned pesticides (2015)
Truthout: Rebelling Against Massive Use of Pesticides, Brazilians Shift to Organic Foods (2013)
Reports from Brazil show an concerted effort to ban organo-phosphate and especially organo-chlorine pesticides repeatedly. Several known to be teratogens, and many which are banned in most other countries due to safety issues, or that are heavily restricted.
So when I read the Huffpo story yesterday about one singular fungicide being named the culprit, I laughed. Because that story was so disingenuous or perhaps poorly researched, that it was misleading to the public about what the Brazilian people are facing. (anyone who can find this Huffpo post again, please get the link, I could not locate it today.
If the Fungicide is a factor, it is mostly due to the fact that it is the latest and greatest chemical in the drinking and bathing water in some communities throughout Brazil. One more layer to that chemical onion if the stories above are any indicator of the state of things in that country.
Lets look at what Brazil is trying to ban currently:
Abamectin, acephate, benomyl, carbofuran, cyhexatin, endosulfan, phorate, phosmet, heptachlor, lactofem, lindane, methamidophos, monocrotophos, paraquat, methyl parathion, pentachlorophenol, take, trichlorfon.
I found additional stories reporting pesticide leaks from a tank of Furadan and the original 2015 story mentioned also that Glyphosphate may be added to the ban as well.
As I did additional research I found a story from a Canadian news organization, CBC:
Microcephaly cases in Brazil predate Zika virus outbreak, study says (Feb 10 2016)
The author of the study started delving into medical records, and discovered microcephaly cases dating back to 2012. She plans to keep digging, to see how far back these cases go. Her next goal is to go through records back to 2011 and 2010. She indicates that the number of reported cases spiked in 2014—Oct or Nov. This changes the timeline a bit. And may challenge the notion that Zika is the only factor in these cases or even the cause of the deformities.
In addition to the CBC, the Washington Post also reported on the inflation of microcephaly births.
But Zika is present in the babies. Yes it is. But finding mosquitoes in an equatorial region is like finding grains of sand on a beach. They are ubiquitous. And Zika outbreaks have happened all over the globe since it was isolated in 1947, so the presence of Zika and Mosquitoes may not be causal. Even if it was, something has drastically changed to make the virus potent enough to cause deformities where it has not been recorded doing so before, especially at such an unprecedented scale. Usually Microcephaly is associated with nuclear radiation and sometimes lead poisoning or fetal alcohol syndrome.
Dr Mattos announced something else in this article:
“Scientists think the original report of 4,700 suspected cases were inflated by over-reporting that didn’t stand up when specialists examined the babies. Brazil’s ministry of health said Tuesday that 404 cases have been confirmed as involving microcephaly, or other nervous system disorders, and 709 have been ruled out. The other cases remain under investigation. (CBC)”
The CBC article also pointed out that 80 percent of the suspected microcephaly cases are confined to Brazil’s northeast region. A German epidemiologist, Dr Zink stated in the Canadian piece:
“I would ask my toxicological colleagues in Brazil to please look very closely into the practical applications of agrochemicals in their country.” (CBC)
What’s going on in the Northeast Province of Brazil? Intensive Agriculture. Soy, corn, coffee, cotton, sugar cane, cocoa, and other fruits are produced there. The government built a series of irrigation canals for agriculture because the Northeastern Province was prone to droughts. People who live there also get their water from these canals. Water full of agrichemical runoff (Reuters). That’s also when I learned that Brazil actually uses more pesticides per capita than the United States. Yikes! That’s saying something. And that it overtook the US in pesticide applications in 2008. I also learned that Brazil seems to suffer from a similar political problems regarding enforcement and regulation. The US does not own the market on revolving door idiocy. Below is a quote from the Truthout story about the affects of these chemicals on the people who live near and around these big plantations and farms.
“Some of the most serious effects include neoplasms, defects in the central nervous system, while the more subtle problems are the neurological development of a child, changes in kidney (health), and sexual functions, and cancer,” said Koiffman. He added that more recently, researchers have noted that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy affects the fetus as well.” (Truthout 2013)
Keep in mind, this isn’t a middle class neighborhood in America where the only chemicals you are exposed to are the ones on your lawn, or your conventionally grown apples. These are people who work in these plantations and who live right next door. We know that farm-workers and neighbors of Big Ag often suffer the most chemical exposures out of a population except for maybe military personnel and exterminators. The Truthout story covered communities in Santa Maria, which is in the South of the country—this predates the microcephaly outbreak by at least one year. Reuters covered the Northeast primarily. Limoeiro do Norte specifically.
The Reuters piece reports the following problem in one community:
“Problems along the plateau emerged as early as 2008. Agricultural workers and neighbors of farms began complaining to local church officials, and labor organizations that they were developing rashes after taking showers, while their farm animals were getting sick.” (Reuters 2015)
So now if we add a fungicide to that water—do you think that might be a problem? And does that sound more serious when considered in this context than if we imagine that it is a singular additive used alone?
What's the big deal fungicides? I mean they kill only fungus right? Check out this report about Brazilian OJ arriving in the US and found to be contaminated with a fungicide banned for food products in the US. It's a metabolite of Benomyl and destroys the testes of lab animals. mmm Breakfast of Champions! In Australia it was tied to a cancer cluster, and like it’s parent-product, benomyl caused the birth of a child with no eyes. (Sydney Morning Herald 2009) Fungicides can be bad for people.
On the whole, we know a little bit about acute pesticide exposure involving singular agents, but precious little research exists exploring what happens when we mix them willy nilly in a water supply and then subject local residents to sublethal, chronic exposures to multiple agents. Before you look down on the people of Brazil, notice that we have similar problems here. Ignorance perpetuated by greed. We know next to nothing about the affect of singular or multiple pesticides on gravid women and developing fetuses. We don’t even know much about what drugs do to women and foetal development, because we aren’t officially supposed to experiment on them—it’s considered unethical. Dumping it in their water and on their heads though—that’s okay for money in this country and in Brazil. I mean we make a big deal about the Toxins in cigarette smoke for pregnant women and their babies. Which is to say, whatever toxins you introduce into a body that goes to the developing foetus, it doesn’t take much once it get’s past the placenta.
Reuters also reported a problem in Northeast Province:
“Tropical Nordeste, a plantation that exports bananas to Europe, recently won a prize from a foreign buyers association for excellence. In October, a worker at the plantation posted on facebook, photos he took of a leaking pesticide tank at a warehouse.” (Reuters 2015)
The tank that was leaking, was full of Furadan. A carbamate known to cause birth defects in the lab, specifically it affects neurological development in fetus and infants. (Panna Oregon Post) Its also a systemic pesticide meaning it cannot be washed off (Science Daily).
But lets look at those other chemicals. Why is this important to look at it in regards to the Zika outbreak? Many pesticides have one thing in common-- when humans suffer acute exposure or chronic, sublethal exposures, then suppressed immune function can result. This could allow the Zika virus or some other disease vector to cross the placenta and directly affect cell division in a developing blastocyst or fetus. This is without taking into account that it may be purely chemical, and that these cases of deformity, could be the result of a manmade teratogen.
Methamidophos was listed a teratogen in a Florida case involving three farm workers who gave birth to babies with unusual deformities. This case was covered by the CDC and NCBI. I found a more detailed story on these cases from The Ecologist.
Benomyl was associated with women who gave birth to babies without eyes. This has happened in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Britain. Another aspect to these legal cases here.
Cyhexatin was banned in 1988 due to links to birth defects (PanPesticide Poster UK) It was also listed in the Birth Defect Prevention Act of 1984 in the California Legislature. Also listed in the California document are Coumaphos (popular with bee keepers), and Parathion. The Nation has a story in 1987 about Cyhexatin and birth defects as well via the LA Times. And Dupont recalled Cyhexatin voluntarily in Sept of 87 due to fear of birth defects. None of these announcements specify what kind of birth defects.
“The Environmental Protection Agency warned pregnant women to avoid exposure to the pesticide cyhexatin, saying it may pose a risk of birth defects to their unborn children. Pregnant women should avoid working in fields where the pesticide has been applied, and women of childbearing age also should avoid exposure to the pesticide, the agency said. Dow Chemical Co and Chevron Chemical Co., the registered marketers of the product, told the EPA they were withdrawing all cyhexatin products from the market for the rest of this growing season, except for those used on apples and citrus.” (1987)
Endosulfan is a xenoestrogen. The Scientific American compared it to DDT. Endosulfan accumulates in fat, meaning that women will carry a higher load when exposed. Though males suffer delayed sexual maturity and other reproductive effects and it has been linked to reduced size in ovaries and follicle death, studies are also beginning to show potential links to genotoxicity and immunosuppression. (see here).
monocrotophos has been linked to pesticide poisoning in Brazil and Paraguay, specifically the paralysis in children. Similar report from Toxipedia
Paraquat and Atrazine are being blamed for a spike in Birth Defects in Hawaii. (The Guardian 2015)
Nelson, the pediatrician, points out that American Academy of Pediatrics’ report, Pesticide Exposure in Children, found “an association between pesticides and adverse birth outcomes, including physical birth defects”. Noting that local schools have been evacuated twice and children sent to hospital because of pesticide drift, Nelson says doctors need prior disclosure of sprayings: “It’s hard to treat a child when you don’t know which chemical he’s been exposed to.” (The Guardian 2015)
See Also Pesticides and reproduction—Women Farmers in Indonesia by PanPesticide Network UK. This paper contains a list of pesticides especially dangerous to women, which in turn can equate to birth defects in pregnancies—seeing how women get pregnant and all.
A breakdown of those pesticides cross referenced with the list from the document from Brazil: Benomyl-birth defects in lab tests; Endosulfan—reproductive effects; Phorate—birth defects in lab tests; Parquat—foetal toxicity; Lindane—reproductive affects, foetal survival issues; Methyl Parathion—birth defects in lab tests. Because this other list is from Indonesia, banned substances in that area are not listed. It goes to show, trying to run down all these reports, is very time consuming, because you must gather it in the aggregate, there are few places that give you even half of the information I am looking for.
Texas Town inundated with health problems due to Pentachlorophenol pollution. Toxic Town:Cancer and Birth Defects in Somerville. See also Toxic Town, Birth Defects—both carried by the Houtson Press. Once again, you have to put the pieces together. Finding first hand accounts from reputable sources about various pesticides, is a real pain in the ass. But a human is a human, whether they live in Texas or Brazil. New Jersey has a lot to say about Pentachlorophenol including it is a known Teratogen and Carcinogen.
Trichlorofon is a known mutagen and a possible teratogen.
Many pesticide studies will state that fetal effects only happen at levels that are poisonous to the mother as well. That sounds safer, but when you consider the level of unintended chronic exposure in water ways due to runoff or illegal dumping or improper application or over-spray, that doesn’t seem so far fetched. Taking into consideration, that we have very little knowledge about how these compounds and their metabolites mix and create new issues—the medical personnel looking into this microcephaly cluster, have their work cut out for them.
Meanwhile, here in the North (Americas) we seem intent on telling everyone what the source is and isn’t. The Medical people in South America have more riding on this, than we do, because whatever this is, it’s already there and reeking havoc on their population. So they have a powerful incentive to get to the bottom of things fast.
The Buenos Aires Herald reports that they have found links to the Microcephaly clusters and the application of Pyriproxyfen. It’s a larvacide for mosquitoes added to the water directly to control hatching and disrupt the life cycle. Over-- or Up here, people have gone nuts blaming vaccines, and Monsanto, etc., Seriously, I would take the people who live and work their seriously, but leave the really wild speculation at the door. We can get to blame later. Right now we are looking for a source right here-right now.
A similar story from an Argentinian Television Station—English Translation
“Previous Zika epidemics did not cause birth defects in newborns, despite infecting 75 percent of the population in those countries,” the Argentine report said. “Also, in other countries such as Colombia there are no records of microcephaly; however, there are plenty of Zika cases.”
This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentinian-Doctors-Question-if-Zika-is-Linked-To-Birth-Defects-20160215-0002.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english
Dr Mattos reports that microcephaly cases spiked in 2014 which coincides with when this larvaecide was added to the water. It may not be the larvaecide alone. It could be that + other residues, that weaken the body and allow the Zika virus to do more damage than it normally would. This is a common insecticide used to control the growth rate of fleas and other pests in houses. I have used it as spot treatments for fleas in the house. However, I have not used it while pregnant and certainly to my knowledge I have never drank it mixed with my water.
There is panic in South America too. People with an abundance of caution want to find a way to stop this, and others feel that without 100 percent proof that any action taken is premature and illogical. Who takes precedence? The pregnant women who are being terrorized or people who don’t have so much skin in this game?
You cannot imagine the terror of being told something could be wrong or go horribly wrong with your pregnancy. I would not blame those women and their families if they put an all stop on all chemicals and demanded imported bottled water until tests confirm or deny chemical factors.
All the ivory tower arguments are meaningless to people in the trenches right now.
I will repeat. I hope there is a chemical factor at work here, and not just a virus. We can clean up chemicals. Controlling a mosquito borne virus is another thing entirely. Judging from what I can find on the net, from mainstream news sources, there are plenty of chemicals to consider, alone and in concert with one another.
Good luck to the Doctors and Scientists who are working on finding the source.
Read More
