No mention of harmful effects

Australian Water Association, Volume 37 #5, August 2010, Page 10, Tasmania

“An independent panel investigating water quality at St Helens in Tasmania’s north-east has found no evidence that the town’s water is harmful to human health. The final report into water quality in the George River says toxins found in the river foam are present at such low concentrations they pose no risk to public health.

The Tasmanian government is set to establish water quality guidelines for Tasmania in a move designed to improve the management and control of river catchments across the state. However the state goverment stopped short of banning the use of some chemicals in rivers that were the source of major drinking water supplies.“

No mention of harmful effects to the environment or aquaculture industry … and what were the concentrations of toxins they found and exactly what effects do they have? Apparently the Tasmanian Government does not feel it needs to answer these questions and has taken no action to be able to provide answers.

And when did the Government decide to “stop(ped) short of banning the use of some chemicals in rivers that were the source of major drinking water supplies”?

Which water consumers agreed to this and how will these pesticides (many on the most dangerous pesticide list e.g. MCPA, 2,4-D, simazine,) be removed from drinking water supplies? Our children drink and bathe in this water …

And,

Dear Ministers,
Chronic sequelae and irreversible injuries following acute pyrethroid intoxication.

Another paper of interest, published in 1999 (eleven years ago), detailing the long term effects of acute pyrethroid intoxication.
These insecticides are listed on the National Toxic Network’s list of the most dangerous pesticides in use in Australia (http://ntn.org.au/2010/07/18/toxic-hit-list-shows-australians-exposed-to-dangerous-pesticides/ ), and are used in Tasmania. Application methods include aerially spraying above tree-tops in water catchments often used as a source for raw drinking water.

From this paper it is obvious that the long term effects of pyrethroid intoxication are varied and affect many different body systems and functions.
More recent papers (see below) refer to the need for a holistic model to explain the origins and thus allow for measures to prevent disease and illnesses, with explicit references to immunological development and critical windows of development in foetal and peri-natal maturation of systems.

Yet again, it is obvious that from a preventative health perspective, human exposure (including by-stander exposure) to pyrethroid intoxication should be avoided at all costs. Animals may well suffer from the same type of disease processes.

Current regulatory methods should be improved by taking a more precautionary approach especially with regard to the aerial spraying of pyrethroids and dangerous pesticides, and allowing these products to be freely available to the general public and pest exterminators.

Yours sincerely,
Alison

Dr Alison Bleaney OBE
Binalong Bay
sthelensmedc@vision.net.au

Müller-Mohnssen H., 1999, Chronic sequelae and irreversible injuries following acute pyrethroid intoxication. Toxicol Lett. 107(1-3):161-76.
For patients the author has observed, the majority of complaints following an acute pyrethroid intoxication disappeared after the end of exposure. Residuals frequently observed after more than 2 years were: (1) cerebro-organic disorders (reduced intellectual performance with 20-30% reduction of endurance during mental work, personality disorder), visual disturbances, dysacousia, tinnitus; (2) sensomotor-polyneuropathy most frequently in the lower legs; (3) vegetative nervous disorders (paroxysmal tachycardia, pollakisuria, increased heat-sensitivity, orthostatic hypotonia and reduced exercise tolerance due to circulatory disorder). Non-neurological symptoms include deficiency of cellular and humoral immune system established by laboratory findings: opportunistic infections, especially Candida-infections of the gastro-intestinal tract, relapsing infections of the urinary and respiratory tract, the latter often aggravating to respiratory obstruction. Most of the patients exhibit positive epi- or intracutantest against pyrethroids or pyrethrines, and acquainted sensitivity also to other antigens. Many of these patients exhibit pathological autoimmune diagnostical findings and developed autoimmune diseases as for instance scleroderma-like syndrome, myasthenia-like syndrome with progredient muscle atrophy, autoimmun-hemolysis and autoimmun-thrombocytopenic purpura.

Ahearn A 2010, Delayed Reaction: The Fetal Basis of Adult Disease, with Deborah Cory-Slechta. Environ Health Perspect :-. doi:10.1289/ehp.trp070110

Dietert RR, DeWitt JC, Germolec DR, Zelikoff JT, 2010, Breaking Patterns of Environmentally Influenced Disease for Health Risk Reduction: Immune Perspectives. Environ Health Perspect 118(8): doi:10.1289/ehp.1001971

Feingold BJ, Vegosen L, Davis M, Leibler J, Peterson A, et al. 2010, A Niche for Infectious Disease in Environmental Health: Rethinking the Toxicological Paradigm. Environ Health Perspect 118(8): doi:10.1289/ehp.0901866

Black H, 2010, Bringing the Bugs Back In: Environmental Health Research Model Combines Toxicology and Infectious Disease. Environ Health Perspect 118(8): doi:10.1289/ehp.118-a353b

Download:
Auto-Pytrthroid-01.pdf

And,

Dear Ministers,
Pesticides: Additivity of mixtures and product formulations

Another paper of interest, which highlights that mixtures of pesticides with entirely different modes of action have greater than additive toxicity.

Interestingly this is in contrast to the addition of the pure active ingredients, which had a less than additive effect on acute toxicity to Daphnia. This is further published evidence of how the formulations (emulsifiers/solvents) can alter anticipated toxicity. And how real world mixtures and long term exposures can cause problems to the aquatic food web, and water quality generally, at lower than expected concentrations.

These effects are key when considering chemical impacts on water quality.

Water quality affects all water users, including fish and aquaculture.

Current regulatory methods could be improved to embrace this result, by taking a more precautionary approach.

Yours sincerely,
Alison

Dr Alison Bleaney OBE – spokesperson for BODCRG and a member of Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network
Binalong Bay
sthelensmedc@vision.net.au

ACUTE AND CHRONIC EFFECTS OF A MIXTURE OF FORMULATED PESTICIDES AND ITS CORRESPONDING ACTIVE INGREDIENTS IN DAPHNIA MAGNIA

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Author(s): Pereira JL (Pereira, Joana Luisa), Mendes CD (Mendes, Cristiana Duarte), Goncalves F (Goncalves, Fernando)1 Source: FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN Volume: 18 Issue: 7B Pages: 1281-1288 Published: 2009
Abstract: Agricultural practices worldwide include the use of pesticides either as single-chemical or multiple-chemical applications aiming higher efficiency in controlling grass weeds and animal pests. Pesticides may easily reach and contaminate surface waterbodies mainly through drainage 7 and spray drift, and hence are currently viewed as a major contamination issue. Following recent discussion on the ability of adjuvant chemicals added to marketed formulations to contribute for pesticide toxicity, this study focuses the acute and chronic toxicity of the insecticide Lannate (R) and the herbicide Stam Novel Flo (R), as well as that of their active ingredients Methomyl and Propanil, to the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna. Furthermore, acute and chronic toxicity of mixtures is addressed, through the evaluation of D. magna responses to joint exposures comprising both active ingredients and both commercial formulations. Regarding acute exposures, the mixture comprising commercial solutions was shown to have a more than additive action, while the opposite (less than additive action) was found when testing the joint action of the active ingredients. Chronic exposures can provide additional information on chemicals’ toxicity in reproductive endpoints, which is of particular relevance when considering that pesticides are often repeatedly applied within a single agricultural season. Life-history endpoints assessed under mixture exposures indeed indicated higher Iona-term. 17 C, than short-term toxicity, and showed a distinct pattern of joint action when compared to acute toxicity assessments. These results suggest that long-term exposures can provide relevant complementary information on mixtures’ toxicity that should be taken into account within pesticide risk assessment procedures.