Subject: A Pattern of Illness - Chemicals
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 1:20 pm
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State
of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Carol Browner browner.carol@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker,
I thought you might like to read an article entitled: A Pattern of Illness - Chemicals - By TONY LEYS - Register
Staff Writer - 01/14/2001. The
url is: http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c4788996/13497379.html
A pattern of illness, chemicals
Atlantic, Ia. - Russ Jordan's trembling hand sweeps over
an imaginary cornfield as he recalls how he used to use his pesticide sprayer.
Jordan towed the big contraption around his farm every
spring, raining chemicals onto the land. He paid little attention to the
powerful fumes washing over his tractor. His only concern was the health of
his crops.
"I was young and big and strong," he says.
"I didn't think anything could get the best of me."
Decades later, Jordan wonders whether the spray seeped
into his brain, destroying crucial cells and leaving him to spend retirement
in the grip of Parkinson's disease.
Scientists wonder the same thing. A national study
suggests Iowans are much more likely than most other Americans to contract the
debilitating brain disease. Doctors believe the pattern is strongest in rural
areas. Researchers are homing in
on farm chemicals as a possible cause.
"You would not believe the number of cases out
there," says Lynn Struck, a Des Moines neurologist whose practice
includes small-town Iowa.
Struck says researchers face a huge task in narrowing the
list of possible chemical culprits.
"Do you know what a nightmare it is to ask an
80-year-old with Parkinson's what he was exposed to as a child?" asks
Struck.
The Parkinson's Institute is sending investigators to
Iowa this spring to compare rural residents who have the disease with those
who don't. Their questions will include a long list of chemicals people might
have used on their crops and around their houses. Surveyors also will take
soil samples at participants' homes to look for bacteria that might be linked
to the disease.
The effort will analyze the lives and health of about 350
Iowans, plus a smaller number of North Carolina residents. The painstaking
process is expected to take more than five years and cost about $3 million.
Caroline Tanner, who is leading the study, cautions that
scientists have no proof farm chemicals are to blame. "We don't know for
sure," she says. "We're just investigating."
Parkinson's is one of the most puzzling major diseases,
but Tanner says researchers are gaining ground. "I'm pretty
optimistic," she says. "I think there's a chance we'll figure it out
in 10 years. Science works in mysterious ways."
Other experts are attacking the question in the lab.
Iowa State University researchers are starting to study
the possible role of dieldrin, a pesticide that many corn farmers used before
the United States banned it in the 1970s. They hope to find out whether the
chemical interferes with the body's ability to make dopamine, a vital brain
chemical destroyed by Parkinson's disease.
The lead investigator, Anumantha Kanthasamy, says
research elsewhere found that Parkinson's patients were more likely than other
people to have traces of dieldrin in their bodies after death. He says the
chemical can stay in people's systems and in the ground for many years after
it is applied to crops.
His study's first step is to expose specially modified
rat-brain cells to the pesticide, then watch for damage. "To see the
effect can take just a few days," Kanthasamy says. "To understand
the mechanism takes quite some time."
If the lab study is successful, the ISU scientists will
expose live animals to the chemical over time to see whether they develop
Parkinson's symptoms.
A similar effort at Emory University in Atlanta linked
another insecticide, called rotenone, to Parkinson's symptoms in rats. Other
studies are looking at the effects of a range of insecticides and herbicides.
Pesticide companies note the disease was around long
before their products came on the market, and no one knows whether people are
more likely to get it now than they were 100 years ago. (One way would be to
actually look at the records.)
Some of the studies have involved extremely high doses of
chemicals injected into small animals, says Angelina Duggan, director of
science policy for an industry group. "This is not how farmers or the
general public would be exposed to these products," she says.
Duggan says the American Crop Protection Association
supports well-designed research into the matter. She hopes the public will
wait for firm evidence before blaming pesticides for Parkinson's. "It's
easy to come to a quick conclusion," she says.
The industry has made great strides in safety, Duggan
says, including the development of containers that allow workers to treat
fields without touching the chemicals.
Jordan, 81, says farm practices are much safer now.
Pesticides today often are sprayed by professional applicators using special
machines with enclosed cabs. "I was out there in the open, taking it all
in," he says.
Jordan remembers the salesmen's pitches when the products
came into broad use in the 1950s. "They left you with the impression that
if you followed the directions on the can or bottle, why, you'd be fine."
(There were actually ads that stated Chlordane was so safe that pest
control people were told they did not need gloves or a respirator!)
He prided himself on being a modern farmer, trying new
chemicals as they came on the market. He ruefully recalls using rotenone on
cattle to kill fly larvae living in their hides. "We'd really soak them
up with it," he says. "It really worked."
A doctor told Jordan 13 years ago that he had Parkinson's
disease. "I have to say it's gaining on me a little bit every day,"
he says. "Having the disease is a little bit like having another job.
There's always something to contend with."
He suffers tremors and stiffness. Once-vigorous strides
have been reduced to slow, tentative steps. His booming voice has softened.
Jordan realizes the cause of his disease probably is
complicated. Many of his farmer friends used the same chemicals without any
apparent harm. Also, his affliction strikes many nonfarmers, including
Attorney General Janet Reno, evangelist Billy Graham and actor Michael J. Fox.
"None of them would probably know what you were talking about if you
mentioned pesticides," he says. (Even
though they were all routinely exposed to your "registered"
POISONS.)
Researchers
don't expect to single out agricultural chemicals as the sole cause of the
disease. "We certainly know that people who live in downtown Manhattan
all their lives can get Parkinson's," says Robert Rodnitzky, a
neurologist at the University of Iowa.
(I
would like to point out your "registered" POISONS are used at high
levels in downtown Manhattan.)
Studies have suggested the involvement of several
environmental factors other than farm chemicals. For instance, some scientists
believe people who regularly use household insecticides or live near paper
mills are more likely to get the disease.
On the other hand, cigarettes appear to somehow protect
against the disease. "People who smoke the most are least likely to
develop Parkinson's," Rodnitzky says.
The strongest evidence of rural residents' risks comes
from a 1999 study by the National Parkinson Foundation.
Foundation researchers charted the number of people
receiving prescriptions for L-dopa, which long has been the main treatment for
the disease. They found that Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas had
rates that were about twice the national average of 1 Parkinson's caseper 250
residents. No other state had as many.
Iowa's high ranking probably is due partly to the
characteristics of its population.
The state has more than its share of residents in their
60s or beyond, when Parkinson's usually strikes. It also has a large number of
residents of Northern European heritage, who are believed to have a slightly
higher risk of getting the disease. (I
wish to point out that the use of your "registered" POISONS to
"treat" corn in Iowa is/was extremely high!)
Neither of those facts explains Iowa's apparent
Parkinson's rate. Several other states with large elderly populations,
including Florida and Arizona, have much lower rates. Also, most researchers
believe genetics play only a small part in who gets the disease.
The survey is a fairly rough measure, but it's the best
anyone has. Doctors don't routinely report Parkinson's cases as they would
cancer, and experts say a significant portion of people who have the disease
go undiagnosed. Those factors cloud attempts to gauge the disease's impact,
with national estimates ranging from 500,000 to 1.5 million cases.
Better estimates would require large, door-to-door
surveys by medical experts. Researchers say such an effort would provide
invaluable information, but the cost would be huge.
Jordan knows he might not live to find out what made him
so sick. He takes heart from the increased research into the question.
"If they could find out what caused it," he
says, "they would be halfway there toward finding a cure."
Copyright © 2001, The Des Moines
Register. Use of this site
signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 4/13/2000).
Well Mr. Helliker, I believe the best "cure"
for Parkinson's Disease and many other diseases is to prevent them.
Obviously, your "registered" POISONS are not "health
foods or seasonings" - yet they are now a part of our foods, water and
air. Your "registered"
POISONS contaminate now every living thing --- I do not believe that any of
your "registered" POISONS helps our immune systems.
What do you think?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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