Lawn Care Pesticides 1.  What Are Pesticides? - A Brief History © Gracelyn Guyol 2003      “Pesticides” is a broad term for numerous substances used to kill pests that include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, algicides, and nematicides, many of which are commonly found in weed and feed products along with plant growth regulators.  All are poisons by design.        Historically speaking, pesticides are relatively new.  Made from substances developed for chemical warfare during World War II, routine testing on insects at that time showed they were quick and deadly, much more than pre-war insecticides primarily made of naturally occurring minerals or plant substances such as pyrethrum from chrysanthemums. The new synthetic pesticides were also far more complex due to technical advances in manipulation of molecules, atoms, and their arrangements.        The discovery of DDT (dicholorodiphenyl-trichloroethane) in 1939 won Paul Muller a Nobel Prize and was heralded as a triumph in the battle against typhus, yellow fever, and malaria (the latter having killed 50 million people in the first half of the 20th Century).  In the context of other scientific advances in this era-discovery of antibiotics and development of vaccines-synthetic pesticides were viewed as another major breakthrough in man's struggle against nature.  They were welcomed as saviors from disease-carrying or crop-damaging insects and wide spread hunger.  Use escalated rapidly.  Less than 10 percent of cornfields were sprayed with pesticides in 1950 but 99 percent were by 1993.      Touted by manufacturers as safe, the pesticide health risks were generally understood only by scientists and doctors until 1962 when America's then most celebrated science writer, Rachel Carson, published Silent Spring.  As a retired marine biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she observed and documented the alarming evidence of environmental damage from increasing use of DDT and other agricultural pesticides. In simple but eloquent terms, she described how insecticides alter the cellular processes of plants, animals and, by implication, man.  Although the chemical industry launched a campaign to discredit her, public outrage triggered government investigations that resulted in creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.      Part of Silent Spring presented evidence that some human cancers were linked to pesticide exposures, opening a hot scientific debate that has raged since.  Thus, the relationship between pesticides and human illnesses, complex and often requiring generations to observe, has been slowly documented.      In spite of increasing knowledge of pesticide risks, political shuffling and the complexity of regulating thousands in use today have kept government from adequately protecting consumers, says John Wargo, associate professor at Yale University (see Regional Experts list), environmental adviser to the EPA, the White House, and the World Health Organization.  His comprehensive book, Our Children's Toxic Legacy, concludes, “Since 1970, most improvements in environmental quality in the United States have occurred only after the public gained access to expert knowledge of environmental health dangers….”  One of CUSH's objectives is to help give residents to this expert knowledge as part of its effort to Clean Up Stonington Harbor. “The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set  a limit to infinite error.” -   Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo (1939) 2.  Lawn Care Pesticides Impact All Sea Life Gracelyn Guyol      Fish population declines in the last several decades are believed caused by a combination of problems:  over fishing, dams and diversions, and contamination of aquatic ecosystems that reduce fishes' food sources, impair reproduction, and lower hatch and survival rates.      Aquatic animals and plants are very susceptible to the toxic effects of pesticides via two routes:  absorbing pesticides from the water and sediment in which they live and ingesting pesticides with the food they eat.  All sea life depends on an interdependent system, a “closed loop,” beginning with “who eats whom” in the food chain.  Phytoplankton are tiny aquatic plants living in streams, rivers, lakes and oceans that provide oxygen, habitat, and food for fish.  Zooplankton are small invertebrate animals that live in the water and eat decaying organic matter, phytoplankton, and each other.  Both are primary food sources to larval fishes. A stable ecosystem requires healthy amounts of each.      Pesticides can cause permanent changes or “gaps” in this food chain, bringing it to the brink of disaster.  According to U. S. Geological Survey Circular 1155, in a water quality study done in the Connecticut, Housatonic, and Thames River Basins, numerous pesticides were found.  The herbicides atrazine, meolachlor, prometon, and simazine, and the insecticides diazinon and carbaryl were the most frequently detected compounds.      Many pesticides are xenoestrogens, substances originating outside the body that have hormone-like or estrogen-like actions inside the bodies of fish (and humans too).  Most are derived from petroleum oil, are fat soluble, non-biodegradable, and accumulate in fatty tissues.  Hormone-disrupting effects have been observed for at least 50 pesticides, including chlorpyrifos, carbaryl, ziram, maneb, malathion, vinclozolin, simazine and other triazines, and trifluralin.  In fish, endocrine-disrupting capabilities contribute to declining populations by interfering with normal development and causing male fish to have female characteristics. They reduced fertility or cause sterility, lowering hatch rates and viability of offspring.  Hormone imbalance in young fish causes defects of the skeletal system, deformities, and stunted growth.      Even “inert” ingredients in pesticides can disrupt endocrine systems.  Applications of the insecticide matacil with the inert ingredient 4-nonylphenol applied in northeastern U.S. forests caused significant Atlantic salmon smolt mortality and low salmon returns.      Toxic “spills” or accidents are obvious causes. Most fish can tolerate higher concentrations of pesticides than aquatic invertebrates, but they are still “stressed” by low levels.  “Sublethal” exposures reduce swimming ability; change schooling behavior making fish more susceptible to predators; suppress the immune systems of fish, increasing the numbers that die from disease; and impair ability of young fish to adapt to higher salinities as they migrate towards the ocean.      Some “natural” gardening substances should be avoided near water too. Copper, used in sprays to reduce algae or fungus, does not degrade over time and is acutely toxic to phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish.  Neem oil, although made from the seed of a tree, is toxic to aquatic invertebrates.       “Over-the-counter” pesticides applied by homeowners to kill ants, fleas, termites, garden pests, and growths are estimated to be 20% of total pesticide use. Run-off from lawn, garden, and home use contributes to aquatic pesticide concentrations that can easily rise above toxic levels for sensitive organisms in this food chain vital to wildlife and humans alike. 3.  Adult Health Risks from Pesticides Gracelyn Guyol      Lawn care advertisements give the impression that weed-and-feed products are essential to pretty lawns.  Nowhere in the ads or on labels are the numerous health risks given for homeowners exposed to these chemicals. Why?  Perhaps because in 1999 home and garden use represented $1.9 billion in sales - enough to pay for heavy lobbying. (Total 1999 U.S. pesticide sales were $11.1 billion.) The scenario is similar to cigarette advertising in the days before mandatory warning labels.  Consumers have been “educated” primarily by ads that tout only the cosmetic benefits of a bright green, weed-free lawn.  Without prominent warning labels and because pesticides are sold in stores that also market foods, consumers assume they are safe.  Seventy-two percent of homeowners use pesticides on lawns or trees instead of the cheap, easy, safe but unadvertised option - organic gardening. What are the known risks?  According to Dr. Marion Moses, M.D. at the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco, short-term effects include rashes, burning of the eyes and throat, breathing problems, and flu-like symptoms.  Long-term effects include cancer, infertility, birth defects, Parkinson's disease, and damage to the brain, lungs, kidneys, and liver, as well as the endocrine, nervous, and immune systems. Cancer risks include leukemia, brain cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, multiple myeloma, cancers of the pancreas, breast, prostate, kidney/bladder, eye, and colon-rectum. Risks from Lawn-Care Pesticide (Environment & Human Health, Inc., Hartford, CT $15), outlines in layman's language the many dangers and gives 25 pages of specific ingredients and brands to avoid. The most common pesticides in “weed and feed” products are 2,4-D, dicamba, and mecoprop (MCPP). Several studies have linked 2, 4-D to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Skin exposure may affect the nervous system.  In the eyes, it can cause irreversible damage. Long-term exposure may damage detoxification organs such as the kidneys and liver.  Dicamba is known to be neurotoxic to animals and suspected of causing birth defects in humans.  MCPP has been associated with soft tissue cancers.      Products such as “Bug-B-Gone” and “Turf Builder with Insect Control” contain carbaryl and diazinon.  Both are capable of harming the nervous system.  Carbaryl is suspected of altering human hormone function, contributing to cancers and other diseases.  Diazinon, an insecticide recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as a special threat to children, increases the risk of brain cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  It is scheduled to be, but is not yet, phased out for residential use.      According to Environmental Health Organization, scientists have shown that the combination of two widely used agricultural pesticides creates in mice the exact pattern of brain damage that doctors see in patients with Parkinson's disease (12/15/00 Journal of Neuroscience).  The Maastricht Aging Study found that people exposed to pesticides were five times more likely to suffer from mild brain problems compared with the general population.  Farmers and gardeners were most at risk.  According to research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, living close to areas where agricultural pesticides are applied may increase the risk of fetal death from birth defects (Epidemiology, March 2000).       The health hazards of pesticides are well known to industry and government, but strong chemical lobbying and the complexity and cost of adequately testing 200 different pesticides and hundreds of combinations permitted for lawn care use have resulted in governmental gridlock and little protection for consumers. Change will only happen if voters demand it.  4.  Pesticides Especially Toxic for Children © Gracelyn Guyol 2003      Babies in the uterus, infants, and children through age five are especially vulnerable to the effects of pesticides because their small size makes any exposure a larger percent in relation to their overall weight.  Pesticides have the greatest risk when cells are rapidly multiplying, in infancy or puberty.  Children may be more susceptible to loss of brain function if exposed to neurotoxins and may be more susceptible to damage to their reproductive systems as well.  Immature organs and body systems are less able to detoxify these chemicals and more likely to be adversely impacted. In Our Children's Toxic Legacy, author John Wargo cites several recent studies connecting pesticides and cancer in children:  “In 1981 three pediatricians in California reported in Lancet the incidence of acute leukemia in seven cases shortly following in-home exposure to organophosphate insecticides.  The interval between exposure and diagnosis ranged between one and twenty-eight weeks.   “In 1989, the Children's Cancer Study Group reported that among families of 204 children with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia, the most consistent association found in their analysis of potential causes was pesticide exposure.    “In 1985, T. H. Sinks found an elevated risk of brain cancer among children born to mothers who used aerosol pesticides during pregnancy and after birth. “In 1993, a team led by J. R. Davis…in Missouri…found that children exposed to pesticides from in-home exterminators faced a 2.3 times higher risk of brain cancer.  Davis and his colleagues found…the use of lindane to control head lice among children between the age of seven months and diagnosis increased the odds of brain cancer 4.6-fold over controls.  The use of pesticide bombs in the home to control nuisance insects during pregnancy increased the odds of childhood cancer 6.2 times.  The use of no-pest strips for nuisance insects also caused risk to increase by 3.7 times.  Use of flea collars and flea shampoos on pets also caused elevated risk, although the compounds used as the active ingredients were not reported.  Garden use of diazinon elevated risk by 4.6 times.  Finally, use of herbicides in the yard elevated risk by a factor of 3.4.”   Exposure can also come from lawn-care pesticides tracked indoors onto carpets where children play; sprayed fruits and juices (which represent 21% of children's diets); and drinking water.      A 1998 study has shown that childhood pesticide exposure can cause impaired hand-eye coordination, decreased stamina, and memory impairment.      Risks From Lawn-Care Pesticides states,  “Childhood malignancies linked to pesticides in studies include leukemia, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, soft-tissue sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and cancers of the brain, colorectum, and testes.”      According to international research from 52 studies in children analyzed by Dr. Marion Moses, M.D. at the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco, short-term effects from pesticide exposure include rashes, burning of the eyes and throat, breathing problems, and flu-like symptoms.  Long-term effects can include cancer, birth defects, and damage to the brain, lungs, kidneys, and liver, as well as the endocrine, nervous, and immune systems.  Pesticides can aggravate or cause asthma, allergies, and multiple chemical sensitivity. 1. J. Wargo, Our Children's Toxic Legacy, pp 197-198, 1998 Yale University Press. 2. Elizabeth A. Guillette, et al, from Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol 106, #6, June 1998. 3.  Risks From Lawn-Care Pesticides, p. 24, Environment & Human Health, Inc., North Haven, CT 5.  Lawn Care Pesticides Kill Birds Gracelyn Guyol An estimated 672 million birds per year are exposed to pesticides in the United States from agricultural use alone.  Ten percent, or 67 million of them, are estimated to die as a result.  Hard data on birds killed by pesticides are difficult to determine because poisoned birds leave the area and die off-site or carcasses may be hidden by heavy vegetation and scavenged by mammals.  Controlled studies have shown that one to seventeen birds die for every five acres of pesticide treated ground. Pesticides kill birds in a number of ways.  Runoff into rivers and streams poisons the aquatic life food chain, killing waders, shorebirds, waterfowl, kingfishers, and fish-eating raptors.  Ground-feeding birds, such as robins, die from eating worms, ants, grubs, or other soil organisms poisoned directly by application of lawn-care products.  Hawks and owls can be affected by eating ground dwelling rodents.  Swallows and other birds depending on airborne or tree-top insects have a reduced food supply either from less insects being available or from herbicides killing plants relied upon by insects for food. Inhalation and skin exposure also can kill when birds are present during or shortly after pesticide applications.  Poisoning via sprayed objects-tree branches, wires, fence posts-can occur by absorption through bird's feet and skin, or from ingestion as they groom their feathers. Birds exposed to non-lethal doses develop chronic symptoms including paralysis, seizures, behavior changes, and reproductive failures.  They may lose weight, be increasingly easy targets for predators, have less disease resistance, lack interest in mating or defending territory, and abandon nestlings. They are more susceptible to poisoning than mammals because they cannot detoxify pesticides as rapidly.  For example, birds are 100 times more sensitive than mammals to diazinon. The top five selling lawn-care pesticides, 2,4-D, glyphosate, mecoprop, dicamba, and diazinon, are all listed as having the potential to contaminate groundwater and impact wildlife.   Ingredients 2,4-D (found in weed and feed products) and the insecticide diazinon, are very toxic to birds.  According to EPA, only one granule or seed treated with diazinon can kill a small bird.  Diazinon was banned for use on golf courses and sod farms in the early 1990s due to repeated kills of ducks, geese, hawks, songbirds, and woodpeckers.  Although being phased out, it is still used by homeowners unaware of the consequences.  Dead birds collected by the New York State's wildlife pathologist in 2002 for West Nile virus testing demonstrated that thousands died from pesticide use on residential lawns.  Many incidents of bird kills also have been reported after use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos on residential lawns and golf courses.  About 100 American robins were killed in Florida and 78 Canada geese were killed in New York after chlorpyrifos was used on two golf courses; 60 robins were killed in Florida after it was used on one residential lawn.        Persistent organochlorine pesticides have been banned in the U.S.  However, migratory birds are exposed to them in travels to countries where DDT and the other organochlorines are still in use.  Plus, studies of osprey in California showed eggshell thinning from DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, still occurring 20 years after DDT was banned.  A too thin shell means eggs can be crushed by the weight of the mother during incubation, resulting in low hatch rates.      The irony is that while spraying destroys insects quickly, they hatch frequently, and when a new hatch occurs, the number of birds-nature's most plentiful natural insect restraint-has been reduced by pesticides.  After 40 years of use, it has also become clear that insects readily develop a genetic immunity to pesticides, so sprays must be varied, increasingly toxic, and still become less effective over time.