Who is insecticides poisoned?

The use of pesticides in everyday life increases the risk of leukemia. The use of pesticides in the household increases the likelihood of leukemia in children, the survey conducted by the National Institute for Medical Research of France INSERM is evidenced.

During the study, the results of which are published in the journal OCCUPUATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE, parents of 280 children with the primary diagnosis of leukemia and 288 healthy children of the same age were proposed to answer in detail the questions of doctors. They were interested in the details of the employment of both parents and the features of the family life, in particular, the use of insecticides and pesticides of the house and in the garden, including sprays for plants, “anti -glove” collars on pets, herbicides for the destruction of weeds in the yard, as well as mosquitoes.

It turned out that the mothers of sick children in almost all cases, affirmatively answered questions about the use of chemicals in everyday life. French doctors concluded that "the risk of leukemia in children whose mothers admitted to the use of insecticides and pesticides in the household during pregnancy or at the first time after birth, doubles."

Doctors believe that such a degree of risk is high enough for the government bodies to seriously think about the need to introduce preventive measures to protect children's health. In their opinion, one should especially carefully approach the further use of carbamates in the life of pesticides, which are most often used in sprays from mosquitoes and plants for plant processing.

The head of the research group Florence Menoh says that due to insufficient knowledge of the issue, one substance leading to the emergence of leukemia cannot name the issue, but it recommends that the government now develop measures that allow children to expose pesticides.

Pesticides include a huge number of substances. They are divided into subgroups, depending on who their action is directed against: insecticides are against insects, algicides - against algae, herbicides - against weeds, etc. Pesticides also include defoliants that cause falling leaves, desicants that dry the plant in the root, and plant growth regulators.

Interestingly, pesticides are not a man, but nature. Many plants in the struggle for survival began to develop substances that adversely affect the neighbors, as well as on insects that can eat this plant. According to the estimates of scientists of the University of California, the plants themselves synthesize 99.99% of all pesticides on Earth. A person accounts for only 0.01%, and substances synthesized by plants can cause various diseases and even provoke cancer.

The leader in the use of pesticides is Japan, where more than 10 kg of pesticides are introduced to the hectare of arable land. No more than 100 grams per hectare is introduced in Russia.

The danger of pesticides for humans is in their acute toxicity. When accumulating in the human body, pesticides lead to the destruction of the liver, impaired functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, and the psyche disorder. For a long time, doctors argue about whether the pesticides of leukemia in children cause pesticides. The deputy director of the Federal Center for Pediatric Hematology, Roszdrava, Galina Novichkova, says that so far this issue has not been carefully investigated and it is too early to draw certain conclusions.

“It is well known that the use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing, while the number of leukemia diseases in Russia has not grown for many years and is approximately 15-17 children per 100 thousand. We have about 30 million children, so it turns out that annually, about 5 thousand small Russians falls into leukemia. Scientists still cannot determine exactly what is the cause of this disease. Perhaps the environment and the number of pesticides around us also play a role, but this is not scientifically proven that the spread of pesticides is not directly related to leukemia, ”she explained to the newspaper.

And French scientists argue that although pesticides intended for use in everyday life are carefully tested, their mixtures can cause numerous problems, while the simultaneous use of several drugs is not subject to testing.

02/14/2006 / Galina Antonova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 25 of 02/15/2006.