Pesticides And ADHD Link

A study published in May 2010 in the US Journal Pediatrics, shows a pesticides and ADHD link, and that children exposed to pesticides found in commercially grown fruit and veggies, in particular organophosphates (an ingredient in Monsanto’s notorious RoundUp) were more likely to exhibit symptoms of ADHD.

In the study, children between eight and fifteen were more likely to have ADHD, with the likelihood of ADHD increasing with the levels of the pesticides in the bloodstream.

Although residential use of these compounds is common, according to the [US] National Academy of Sciences the main source of exposure was through food.

In a variety of foods tested 28% of frozen blueberries, 20% of celery and 25% of strawberries contained traces of an organophospate known as malathion.

In 2007 the number of kids in the US diagnosed with ADHD reached 4.5 million.

Whether all these kids have anything really wrong with them or whether they have simply been overdiagnosed by doctors getting kickbacks from big pharma is another matter.

The interesting thing is that even in the litigious US nobody has thus challenged the pesticide manufacturers in court. Perhaps this study is the opening parents need.

Taken from Pesticide link to hyperactivity: study  May 18, 2010

Comment

One wonders how the National Academy of Sciences can categorically say, as they have done, that exposure to organophosphates is mainly through the diet and not through residential use.

RoundUp is often sprayed on patios and driveways where kids walk barefooted, where even pets walk barefooted over RoundUp and then come in contact with kids who, particularly younger kids, somehow put their fingers in their mouths.

RoundUp is often used as weed control in gardens, and kids can be exposed there. RoundUp is clearly dangerous, and if it were an alternative health product, it would be banned imediately

My own experience of when RoundUp is sprayed at my local sports field (around light towers, goal posts, where the mower cannot reach) which happens twice a year, against the protests of a small group of parents who know about it, my dog would often show symptoms of ill health, be lethargic, go off his food etc.

I no longer allow him on the fields for a week after the spraying.

The use of pesticides has become so ubiquitous that nobody even thinks about whether it is a good thing or not, when clearly if one uses a poison for anything, and it has the potential to enter the food chain, or come in contact with children (anyone really, plus pets, or livestock), then it will act like it is meant to and poison the system.

What this study highlights also is the fact that at least in the US there are studies in the public interest.

It is exceedingly rare for research in Australia like this to be conducted as there is simply not the educational organisations with sufficient independent funding to do it.

Since the Australian Government’s push to make universities less financially dependent upon government support where they then had to enter partnerships with big business, there is simply no research done where the outcome may go against big business.

Worldwide it is like this, where those researchers interested in studying the negative effects of something are on budgets that relegate their work to the fringes of any discussion, whereas the company that has something to sell for large amounts of money will fund its own research.

By Mark O’Brien

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