Study Finds Almost 200 Pesticides in European Homes (theguardian.com) 25
Almost 200 pesticides have been found by a study examining dust in homes around Europe, as scientists say regulators need to take "toxic cocktails" of chemicals into account when banning or restricting the use of pesticides. From a report: Scientists say their research supports the idea that regulators should assess the risks posed by pesticides when they react with other chemicals, as well as individually. They say this should apply to substances already in use, as well as those yet to be approved.
In preliminary findings from the largest study of its kind, scientists examining household dust from homes in 10 European countries in 2021 detected 197 pesticides in total. More than 40% of the pesticides found in the dust have been linked to highly toxic effects, including cancer and disruption of the hormonal system in humans.
The number of pesticides in each home ranged between 25 and 121, and levels of pesticides tended to be higher in the homes of farmers. Prof Paul Scheepers, of the Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, said: "We have many epidemiological studies showing that diseases are associated with mixtures of pesticides."
In preliminary findings from the largest study of its kind, scientists examining household dust from homes in 10 European countries in 2021 detected 197 pesticides in total. More than 40% of the pesticides found in the dust have been linked to highly toxic effects, including cancer and disruption of the hormonal system in humans.
The number of pesticides in each home ranged between 25 and 121, and levels of pesticides tended to be higher in the homes of farmers. Prof Paul Scheepers, of the Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, said: "We have many epidemiological studies showing that diseases are associated with mixtures of pesticides."
we don't have this problem in the US (Score:1)
Because we would not have studied the negative effects of highly profitable chemicals. In fact, anyone that has these chemicals in their home effectively stole them from their rightful owner and should be paying the chemical companies and farms for all of these beautiful and safe pesticides.
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In fact, anyone that has these chemicals in their home effectively stole them from their rightful owner and should be paying the chemical companies and farms for all of these beautiful and safe pesticides.
Even worse, there might be some patented GMO pollen in the mix.
You can do better than that. (Score:2)
Get on our level, UK. We gotta pump those numbers up! It's not a home until you can smell the chemical waste wafting up out of the carpet! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Water is a pesticide (Score:2)
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https://www.dhmo.org/facts.htm... [dhmo.org]
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How many die much much sooner if they don't consume H2O?
what are the concentration levels? (Score:3)
This is just like detecting "radiation". If I crank up the sensitivity of my detector, I can show that every object on the planet emits damaging radiation.
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I'm chasing/learning that about the radon in the house. The visiting "experts" said that it can't come in from the floor drains. Yeah right, then why does my meter say it's 12x the concentration right at that spot?
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Because the joint between the drain body and the floor is not sealed?
Because the drain is at the low point of the floor?
Maybe some other reason?
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I'm not asking just to be a sophist. The top tier of molecular identification methods can detect unbelievably tiny amounts of stuff.
Quite. And what is the risk level associated with that concentration? If it's lower than my lifetime risk of being struck by lightning or bitten by a shark, we can file this under "u" for "unimportant".
The one that's got me is the spoon. (Score:2)
I've also seen cell phones blamed for declining birth rates, skin issues, and of course various mental health problems.
When I was a kid we did the exact same thing with TV. Before that they did it with Penny dreadfuls. I think before that it was just good old Satan.
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they spray pesticides in factories (Score:2)
Renaming? (Score:2)
Remember when we tested pesticides on eagles? (Score:2)
And then bees?
meaningless (Score:3)
The problem is that instrumentation has become so good in recent times, that 3 molecules in a whole house can be detected, making for great clickbait. The real question is what is the concentration of these molecules, and is that clinically significant.
Always detecting things (Score:3)
Just because you have equipment sensitive enough to detect trace amounts of something doesn't mean there are meaningful quantities sufficient to be any threat whatsoever even if that something is scary and inherently dangerous.
The other thing the paper focused on farms. The homes in question were all on farms. There was no general sampling of homes.
This is just hoarding (Score:2)
Europeans need to stop just buying a new box of pesticide each time they need some and check whether they already have some. Having 200 boxes of pesticide in each home is just excessive and wasteful.
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I don't need that many. Glyphosate, kills all plants; 2,4-D, kills broad leaves, not grass; clethodim, kills grass, not broad leaves; some insecticide I can't remember, rarely used, last use was to kill potato beetles, sadly it's ineffective against squash bugs.
I can add wasp spray too, another infrequent point use case.