Pesticides have taken the blame for a variety of health scares over the years, and no matter how many scientists explain that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest the dangers of pesticides, these chemicals are continuously attacked.
Over thirty years ago, a pesticide called DDT was effective in killing disease-carrying insects, specifically mosquitoes with malaria. After its use peaked in the 60s, the pesticide was banned in the United States because it was thought to have a variety of adverse effects on humans. In reality, there is no significant evidence of DDT toxicity in humans, and the pesticide is credited with saving millions of people from malaria. Ignorance continues today as many third world countries that would benefit from the use of the malaria-preventing pesticide are told that the possible dangers outweigh the guaranteed benefits.
Anti-pesticide activists at Duke University attempted to scare parents as they claimed to have found a connection between babies born in autumn and the tendency for them to develop childhood brain cancer. Dr. Edward Halperin, the study s lead author, suspects that pesticides are to blame for the relationship between brain cancer and autumn births since the chemicals are sprayed in the spring, during the early stages of fetal development. Research done in North Carolina found that the specific type of brain tumor, medulloblastoma, was found in 38% of the children born in the fall, 28% in the summer, 18% in the spring and 17% in the winter. When Halperin and his team did not find any association between medulloblastoma and pesticide usage on the national data, he continued with the faulty logic, claiming that this data is not relevant because it groups various geographic regions together.
Most recently, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard from Senator Barbara Boxer of California as she expressed her concern with a research program in Duval County, Florida. Researchers in this area are offering parents $970 to participate in an experiment that will allow them to watch the development of children whose parents use pesticides. Senator Boxer considers this program to be the worst kind of thing; it s environmental injustice where children are the victims. Boxer jumps to the conclusion that these pesticides will be harmful to the children, even though there is no evidence to suggest it. Scientifically there is no injustice in this experiment because the participants are not being asked to do something that harms them in the interest of science. The parents are going to continue their everyday routine, using pesticides as much or as little as they normally do, and researchers are simply documenting the development of their babies.
Pesticides play an important role in fighting diseases and killing insects, but these attacks exaggerate the potential for harm. There has not been any conclusive evidence to suggest a threat associated with pesticide usage, and the only way we will know if there is any danger is to examine the results of the experiment in Florida. Thus far, pesticides serve a great purpose, while activists against pesticide usage only serve to scare people away from its benefits.