MALATHION BREAKS DOWN INTO TOXIC MALAOXON

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MALATHION BREAKS DOWN INTO TOXIC MALAOXON
SOURCE: Bulletin of Environmental Contamination Toxicology, 57:705-712, 1996

In trying to calm the fears of Tampa residents, representatives for the Florida Department of Agriculture have made public statements that after application, malathion "breaks-down" in a matter of hours. What they don't tell you is that malathion can actually break-down into compounds which are more poisonous than the malathion itself. This is, in fact, the conclusion of research from a graduate project by researcher N. E. Barlas at the Department of Biology, Hacetepe University, Turkey. Barlas went on to say, "The disappearance of pesticide residues at a given location does not mean the end of the problem. Pesticides can be translocated, bioconcentrated or converted into more dangerous chemicals." The breakdown fate of malathion was studied by adding malathion to soil samples containing 6 species of soil bacteria known to breakdown the pesticide. After 10 days the samples were analyzed. Malathion content had reduced from 100 down to 25 micrograms, so therefore, the Florida Department of Agriculture spokes people are correct when they say it "breaks down" relatively quickly (although in this case not in a matter of hours). However, even more important, Barlas found that new chemicals were formed in this breakdown process including 14 micrograms of monocarboxylic acid and about 8 micrograms of the highly toxic malaoxon. Barlas then exposed mice to the technical grade malathion and another group to the breakdown products just mentioned. Results showed even the mice exposed to the break-down products of malathion showed significant decreases in spleen weights and significant changes in liver blood tests which were suggestive of liver damage. Barlas summarized by stating, "It may be concluded that commercial malathion and it's degradation products together have detrimental effects on mice over a period of 15 weeks of treatment."
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, Turkey

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