EXCERPT: "None of that means the crop-dusting on September 22 caused any of the tic disorders, and federal regulators and the chemicals’ manufacturer say it is much safer than earlier generations of pesticides such as DDT. But the incident points to a very active pesticide-application program at the same time and place as the tic outbreak, and raises questions about why current pesticides—which are designed to disrupt the chemical and neurological functions of living things -- were not considered."
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/07/tics-and-toxins-new-evidence-raises-pesticide-concerns-in-new-york-state-outbreak.html#more
Tics and Toxins: New Evidence Raises Pesticide Concerns in New York State Outbreak
By Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill
One Thursday last September, a crop-dusting plane swooped down over a cornfield in Western New York and dipped below the tree line, spraying an insecticide engineered to paralyze the nervous system of agricultural pests called earworms. After several passes, the plane climbed, banked sharply, and flew away.
The event, captured on this video by a local resident, is noteworthy for when and where it happened: on a school day, on a field adjoining LeRoy Junior-Senior High School in Western New York, where an outbreak of tic disorders among 18 students, mostly girls, would soon gain national attention. By then two girls had developed symptoms, according to the state Health Department – one in May 2011, the other earlier in September – but the bulk of the cases would follow, including two more the next week.
“This cornfield is adjacent to the school property and uphill from the school,” the neighbor who took the video wrote in an e-mail. “The fields in our area are dusted at least twice a year.”
The “dust” that settled that day is called Tundra. Its active ingredient, bifenthrin, has been linked at high doses in animal studies to some of the same symptoms experienced by the LeRoy students. U.S. regulators regard it as much safer than earlier generations of pesticides such as DDT, but it was banned in Europe until just last week due to environmental concerns.
Most of the LeRoy girls were diagnosed by a local neurology clinic with a psychiatric illness called conversion disorder, a finding the state Health Department endorsed despite the protests of parents who said their daughters were not emotionally disturbed. Several investigations, including one made public last month, found no evidence of environmental contamination.
<...>
The video, shot by Leroy Township resident Don Dessert from his nearby home, was sent in March to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. We obtained it last week through a Freedom of Information Law request, along with supporting documents. In an e-mail accompanying the video, Dessert wrote that it showed “a crop duster spraying the cornfield on the other side of the tree stand from my house.”
<...>
Brockovich was brought in by some of the parents who scoffed at the conversion disorder diagnosis, which has its origins in the late 19th century Freudian concept of “hysteria,” in which patients, most often young women, supposedly convert mental trauma into physical symptoms. When that happens to several members of a group at once, it is called mass hysteria, or in modern parlance, a mass psychogenic event. (Based on research for our 2010 book, “The Age of Autism,” we believe the illness doesn’t really exist. See “The Crazy History of Conversion Disorder.”)
Conversion disorder is often described as a diagnosis of exclusion, in which physical causes are methodically ruled out first. Strikingly, Tundra, the pesticide sprayed on the field, has been shown to cause symptoms in animals that parallel those suffered by the girls, who in addition to tics had trouble walking and standing and suffered breathing problems, strange sensations, seizures and blackouts.
Bifenthrin, the active chemical in the pesticide, was banned in Europe until last week because of safety concerns.
When fed to rats at high doses, symptoms included “tremors, clonic [rapid muscle contraction/relaxation] convulsions, twitching, incoordination, staggered gait, splayed hind limbs, atypical posture,” according to a Technical Fact Sheet from the National Pesticide Information Center.
Bifenthrin and other high-tech pesticides have been cited as possible culprits in the collapse of bee colonies around the country. In a well-known study, a California researcher found that flea-killing pet shampoos containing pyrethrins – the class of chemicals to which bifenthrin belongs – might be linked to a risk of autism when handled by pregnant mothers.
None of that means the crop-dusting on September 22 caused any of the tic disorders, and federal regulators and the chemicals’ manufacturer say it is much safer than earlier generations of pesticides such as DDT. But the incident points to a very active pesticide-application program at the same time and place as the tic outbreak, and raises questions about why current pesticides—which are designed to disrupt the chemical and neurological functions of living things -- were not considered.
<...>
Posted by Age of Autism at July 18, 2012
= new reply since forum marked as read
