Environmental Toxins and Children: Exploring the Risks : Hearing Before the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session

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Page 167 - There is also a choice to be made between using synthetic pesticides and raising the level of plants' natural toxins by breeding. It is not clear that the latter approach, even where feasible, is preferable. For example, plant breeders produced an insect-resistant potato, which has to be withdrawn from the market because of its acute toxicity to humans due to a high level of the natural plant toxins solanine and chaconine (12). This analysis on the levels of synthetic pollutants in drinking water...
Page 165 - Since there is believed to be a threshold dose below which such nonmutagenic toxins exert no effect on cell division, "At the low doses of most human exposures (where cell-killing and mitogenesis do not occur), the hazards [of nonmutagenic toxins] may be much lower than is commonly assumed and often will be zero
Page 167 - ... Certain cultivated crops have become popular in developing countries because they thrive without costly synthetic pesticides. However, the tradeoffs of cultivating some of these naturally pest-resistant crops are that they are highly toxic and require extensive processing to detoxify them. For example, cassava root, a major food crop in Africa and South America, is quite resistant to pests and disease; however, it contains cyanide at such high levels that only a laborious process of washing,...
Page 167 - For example, cholinesterase inhibitors are a common class of pesticides, both man-made and naturaL Solanine and chaconine (the main alkaloids in potatoes) are cholinesterase inhibitors and were introduced generally into the human diet about 400 years ago with the dissemination of the potato from the Andes. They can be detected in the blood of almost all people (12, 90). Total alkaloids are present at a level of 15,000 ixg per 200-g potato with not a large safety factor (about sixfold) from the toxic...
Page 77 - Canal remain suspect even when restoration is certified as satisfactory by prestigious bodies like the Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Page 144 - Effect of age at treatment on the incidence and location of neurogenic tumors induced in Wistar rats by a single dose of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea - Naito M..
Page 165 - Storks Bring Babies and Pollution Causes Cancer and Birth Defects. The number of storks in Europe has been decreasing for decades. At the same time, the European birth rate also has been decreasing. We would be foolish to accept this high correlation as evidence that storks bring babies. The science of epidemiology tries to sort out the meaningful correlations from the numerous chance correlations. That is, epidemiology attempts to determine correlations that may indicate cause and effect. However,...
Page 103 - The most potent cancer-causing agent in our food supply is a substance sprayed on apples to keep them on the trees longer and make them look better.
Page 165 - ... have been tested for carcinogenicity, 11 out of 16 are carcinogens, including aflatoxin. In addition, from cooking our food, we eat thousands of chemicals that add up to about 2,000 milligrams per day. For example, only 12 chemicals in roasted coffee have been tested; nine are carcinogens, totalling 9 milligrams per cup. Our tiny exposures to pesticide residues should be compared to an enormous background of natural substances. My colleagues and I conclude that natural and synthetic chemicals...
Page 166 - ... was remarkably non-toxic to mammals, saved millions of lives, and has not been shown to cause harm to humans. To a large extent DDT, the first major synthetic insecticide, replaced lead arsenate, a major carcinogenic pesticide used before the modern era; lead arsenate is even more persistent than DDT. When the undesirable bioconcentration and persistence of DDT and its lethal effects on some birds were recognized it was prudently phased out, and less persistent chemicals were developed to replace...

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