Last week, 25 children in India died — and many others sickened — as a result of organophosphate pesticide poisoning which contaminated the children’s school lunches. It is suspected that the rice or cooking oil used to prepare the food contained lethal levels of the neurotoxin. This is even more of a tragedy given that this school lunch program was developed by the government in an effort to confront the malnutrition problem in India, which affects half of all Indian children.
Sadly, but not unexpectedly, anti-chemical scare groups have wasted no time in turning this tragedy into an excuse to attack our own use in the United States of certain organophosphate pesticides on agricultural crops. One anti-pesticide scare group in particular, calling themselves Beyond Pesticides, had the temerity to cite a 2012 study in which authors claimed to have found that long-term, low-dose exposure to this class of chemicals can result in adverse effects on neurological and cognitive functions. They also cite other studies claiming links to ADHD, reduced IQs, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Furthermore, they go on to claim that these chemicals may be harmful in some way to the environment. ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross had this to say. “This is an especially disgusting.....To Read More.....
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