Common Insecticide Used in Homes Associated With Delayed Mental Development of Young Children

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2011) — When the EPA phased out the widespread residential use of chlorpyrifos and other organophosphorus (OP) insecticides in 2000-2001 because of risks to child neurodevelopment, these compounds were largely replaced with pyrethroid insecticides. But the safety of these replacement insecticides remained unclear, as they had never been evaluated for long-term neurotoxic effects after low-level exposure. In the first study to examine the effects of these compounds on humans and the first evaluation of their potential toxicity to the developing fetal brain, scientists of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found a significant association between piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a common additive in pyrethroid formulations, measured in personal air collected during the third trimester of pregnancy, and delayed mental development at 36 months.

Findings from the study are online in the journal, Pediatrics.

The study was conducted with a subset of 725 pregnant women participating in a prospective longitudinal study of black and Dominican women living in upper Manhattan and the South Bronx underway at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH). The insecticide permethrin was selected for the evaluation because it is one of the most common pyrethroid insecticides used in U.S. homes, as well as the most commonly sold pesticide, according to a nationally representative sample. PBO, a chemical that is added to insecticides to increase efficacy was also selected for evaluation. Any detection of PBO in air is a marker of a pyrethroid insecticide application.

In all, 342 women were studied for permethrin exposure in personal air during pregnancy; 272 for permethrin in maternal and umbilical cord plasma; and 230 were evaluated for exposure to PBO. To collect the air samples, mothers from the CCCEH Mothers and Newborns cohort wore a small backpack holding a personal ambient air monitor for 48 hours during the third trimester of pregnancy.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110210103715.htm

[mike_c]

1. piperonyl butoxide is not insecticidal-- it's an agonist of the insect mixed function oxidase system

...that detoxifies toxins, usually plant toxins (pyrethrin is derived from chrysanthemums and pyrethroids are synthetic versions). It has low mammalian toxicity, although these data obviously suggest a reevaluation might be in order. Pyrethrin itself is pretty benign, as insecticides go-- low persistence, low vertebrate toxicity, fast action (it affects neurotransmission in the insect peripheral nervous system). The pyrethrin itself could be used without piperonyl butoxide. It's addition is largely to please consumers, who expect fast and unequivocal action when they spray bugs.

[truedelphi]

2. In other words - to the layman - it is a pesticide.

Your point of the actual mechanisms of how this works is worth noting, but if you attend a few "Integrated Pest Management" meetings, you'll start to see that the "experts" consider salt a pesticide - when it is used combined with water to bloat up and kill larvae. So salt cannot be used this way in California, as it has no EPA approval for this purpose.

Vinegar works great for insect prevention - like if you have an ant infestation, vinegar will dissuade ants from coming around. (PineSol, on the other hand, is something they love, so it increases ant infestations.)

But again, according to the "experts' vinegar used as a disincentive to ants makes vinegar an unapproved pesticide, and so it cannot be used this way.

You can do whatever you want in your own home, but school boards, city governments are supposed to abide by this above mentioned nonsense.

[KT2000]

4. Yes- WA state

had a pamphlet for safer products to deter and kill pests. For example, they suggested a shallow bowl of beer in the garden would attract slugs, where they would then die.
Clorox people threatened to sue the state if they did not remove the pamphlet because beer and other suggestions were not tested to be pesticides.
They are victorious in assuring people are potentially sickened by the inadequately tested chemicals on the market.
They make me sick as well as the bureaucratic doctors who go along with them.

[truedelphi]

5. What I would like to know - isn't there a penalty for lying

To Congress?

Just watched "Gaslands" the other night. Nightmare stuff that video, and Michael Moore Move Over - Josh Fox is going to help you keep your edge.

But the experts testifying before Congress and the special committtee told that committee that there was nothing risky in the 580 + chemicals used as the Fract material in the natural gas pipeline operations. Despite every indie chemist in the country saying these things are carcinogenic, and these things are neuro toxins!

[KT2000]

6. Just saw Gasland too

Looking at all the red on the map is most discouraging - they will destroy the entire country. Wingers hope for the end times thinking it will happen in a flash. No - it will happen with more and more brain damage, chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases and younger deaths. Whoopeee!

Always thought there was a penalty for lying to Congress - as in the one they tried to pin on Clinton.

[KT2000]

3. Findings like this

make a further case for single payer health care. Inadequately tested chemicals, a fetus or child exposed through no fault of their own (obviously) and a life long disability that may limit that person's possibilities and may need medical care.
Residents of industrially polluted towns and cities may need medical care just to get from one day to the next - especially children.

We are in the midst of the blame game to rationalize denial of care. That needs to be turned around. Where corporations have engaged in cost shifting - putting costs on the government and individuals for their damage, cutbacks are in the process of denying even that care. It is a free ride for polluters.