Comments:
Scotts
the nation's largest supplier of
do-it-yourself lawn and garden products has damaged the environment with DDT and
other chemicals
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Hi Steve,
I get Organic Gardening magazine. The latest issue mentions that Scotts pesticide company sent them a "Happy Earthday" card, on recycled paper no less. What a whacky world. I wonder if the KKK sends the NAACP a happy MLK day card too?
Best,
Will Sugg
I asked Scotts if their lawn and garden products
contained municipal sludge. Here
is the answer I received from Scotts.
"Bio-solids" is what Scotts calls municipal sludge/toxic
industrial waste. I called and
wrote after reading a warning on the back of the garden soil I was using that
read "It is recommended that you wear gloves when working with this
product". Also, none of the
plants that I placed in this soil grew very well.
Some died, none thrived. Those
areas of my garden that I did not use this product continued to thrive as they
have for the last five years. I
knew sludge/toxins was being used to fertilize farmland.
I didn't know that it was being sold to the general public.
The package also had some other interesting information.
Remember that after you flush your toilet or some industry sends its
wastewater through the city sewer, the waste water treatment plant takes out
the water and recycles it. The
muck that is left over (more appropriately called crap) is magically changed
into "A blend of quality ingredients" according to Scotts' package
info. Scotts goes further and says this product will " ...
help the growth of outdoor plants in native soils." This says two things. Don't use the product indoors and don't
try to grow the plants directly in this concoction, mix it with the dirt you
have in your garden. Another
quote "Not recommended for pots or containers."
I wonder why? Too many
"quality ingredients" for potted plants? "Specially formulated with composted materials ... and
added nutrients". I haven't
figured out which one is the bio-solids (a.k.a. "sludge") and Scotts
couldn't answer that one either. "In
the state of Washington do not exceed 130 bags per acre".
This is the most interesting one.
I found out that it is AGAINST THE LAW in the state of Washington to
put more than 130 bags of this material on an acre of land.
Illegal!!
Let's review...
1. Don't put your hands in it.
2. Don't try to grow something directly in this material.
3. You must mix it with regular soil. One part Scotts to three parts good dirt.
4. Do not use it for potted plants.
5. In the state of Washington it is against the law to use more than 130 bags on one acre of land.
6. Scotts says that this is a blend of "quality ingredients".
7. The quality ingredients include municipal sludge and toxic industrial waste. It also includes high amounts of arsenic and lead.
8. Scotts wants you to eat the food grown from this poison.
9. Our government is fully aware that this is happening.
It's time to abandon the democratic and republican
parties. Join the Green Party (
http://www.greens.org/referrals/ ) or the Natural Law party ( http://www.safe-food.org/-campaign/about.html
), but don't fall for the slick talkers that currently run our country.
There are good people in politics today, but they are in the minority.
Until some third party establishes itself as a force in this country we
will be lied to and our children's heritage turned into a yoke of debt from
which there will be no escape. Once
a third and fourth party emerges as a force in politics the good men and women
in government will flock to them and we will stand a chance to regain control
of the government from the corporate special interests.
We can create that situation by abandoning the two party system,
financially supporting alternative parties and voting exclusively for third
party candidates. Don't be
tortured by the "lesser of two evils" game that dems and repubs rely
on to get re-elected year after year. Break
free by becoming knowledgeable about how the two party system has defrauded us
over the decades. If you don't
have the time to become thoroughly acquainted with what has happened put your
trust and vote in the hands of one of the third parties above.
Michael
Polidori
Steve--In the early eighties I used Scott's Ween n Feed
and never read the bag, ergo, I wore flip flops and often broadcast the stuff
with a cup. In the early eighties I had viral meningitis, multiple sinus
infections, diarrhea for six months and I believe that is when I began to
develop chemical sensitivities, first to Paba in suntan lotion. Now I have
progressed to all solvents, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, volatile
hydrocarbons and have MCS. In 1998 Dursban/Diazanon really sent me over the
edge, out of mainstream society due to perfume/solvent intolerance.
I have had so many chemical exposures that ought not have
been on the market that it is now impossible to say which chemical did what.
Had I any idea whatsoever that Scott's Weed n Feed had 2,4-D in it in the
early eighties I would never have touched the bag.
M. Abou-Donia, Clement Furlong, Urnovitz and others tell
me I have had all the neurotoxic exposures I can have for the remainder of my
life. Furlong told me my paraoxonase is low--he also found that Dow has been
souping up Dursban if you have not already heard that. My neighbor sprayed
Cyfluthrin on Monday and I am sick, called the National Pesticide
Telecommunication Network at Oregon State, talked to Wagner there and he
actually took the problem I have seriously. He can't DO anything about it, but
he did seem to link a hormonal problem with the hormone mimicking effect of
the chemicals sprayed. He suggested that the product might have cause me to
develop diabetes insipidus following the exposure. That is interesting because
I don't have that condition, but apparently it can occur following an
exposure. I looked up the condition and it can occur following nephrotoxic
exposures. I don't think this information will lead me anywhere medically,
however, but I did want to tell you that things have to be pretty obvious if
Wagner is doling out information such as that over the telephone. He admitted
he could not stop spraying near me.
So, I am moving out of my 4,800 sq. foot house again, to
travel over to N.C. to a friend's house who had a chlordane problem (Eliz.
O'Nan) to bunk.
I would say that my adult life has been ruined by lawn
care products. As I told the EPA in the recent communication session, I have a
plaque from George Bush saying my kid is one of the highest academic achievers
in the state, thanking us as his parents, yet in the chemical arena, I can get
no recogniton for my problem.
Something here is very wrong. We aim to try to do
something in the legal arena. We have been at this for months. We will let you
know what happens.
Susan Jannarone
Dursban is a generic name for chlorpyrifos.
An highly toxic chlorinated
organophosphate(OP)formulation applied in both rural and suburban areas
throughout Oz, its application is ubiquitous.
By contrast, in the USA, this OP will be phased out.
Common uses: Termite treatment prior to
building...fumigation in public areas, shopping centres, schools, golf courses
and parks.
Residue is detectable in crops...in fruit and vegetables
consumed by small children. Some
researchers liken its toxicity to DDT.
Rex Warren, president of ACTA, has established a link
between another organophosphate...glyphosate or Roundup... and ADD/ADHD type
illnesses provoking endocrine and central nervous system disruption and
unpredicable behaviour.
Glyphosate use is rampant in this country.
Considered by the uninitiated to be 'as safe as table salt'.
Local councils in this area use it extensively. On
verges, in gutters and around garden beds throughout the city.. backpacking
council employees spray nerve toxins bare legged, ungloved, unmasked and
unknowing.
Organophosphates are nerve poisons...designed to kill by
destroying the central nervous system.
Food for thought.
Pamela Valenti
Representative
Australian Chemical Trauma Alliance
(ACTA Inc)
Email: pamelav@cairns.net.au
I can assure you, vast numbers of people are extremely
concerned at the damage both in environmental cost and human health cost of
these lethal neuro-toxic chemicals - but sadly the ones who are extremely
concerned are the ones whose mental and/or physical health has already been
damaged by the chemicals.
As you know there are so many volunteer groups worldwide
who support people damaged by these deadly chemicals.I thank you for giving me
the opportunity to comment and I thank you for caring - these neuro-toxic
chemicals are used on a huge scale everywhere in the world - it has to stop -
the mental and physical illness has to make people wake up - it is just so
devastating - it ruins your life - especially when it is your young child who
is damaged by these chemicals.
Kindest Regards
Thank you, Diana Buckland
Sheesh, what hysteria over a self-contradictory article on an old, old event. I
would really be interested in knowing how (if they are at fault, which has been
denied and apparently is unproven) they have "damaged the environment" through seepage of DDT some 15 years ago. Seems that there are (as the
saying goes) bigger fish to fry than this. Don't waste your energy on trivia.
Jerrod Mason