Monday, July 26, 2004

"NATURAL" PRODUCTS CAN KILL YOU

Excerpt from an article in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of July 25, 2004 -- not apparently online. The article was written by Daryl Passmore and appeared under the heading: "How that 'natural' pesticide harms us"

"Consumers had a mistaken notion that natural had to be better and safer, said Professor John Trumble... "In fact, these natural materials contain toxic chemicals that are often far more dangerous to humans and animals than the pesticides available from chemical companies". Hazards included skin diseases, exposure to carcinogens, mutagens, neurotoxins and substances known to cause organ failure.

The University of California insect expert will be one of the speakers at the International Congress on Entomology at the Brisbane Convention Centre from August 15 to 24. "Given the size of the market and an increasing interest in all things natural, it is not surprising that commercial products are being developed for a wide range of human and animal uses," he wrote in a paper for The American Entomologist. "Unfortunately, most natural products including those used for insect control are not always subject to rigorous testing." While some serious research was being done and some of the solutions worked as promised, he was alarmed by the lack of scientific work to back up many claims. "For a scientist, reading the new-age literature or some of the holistic writing is roughly equivalent of suddenly entering a parallel universe where the rules of physics and chemistry do not apply. Biology is replaced by mysticism," Professor Trumble said. "Plants contain many toxins ... Some of these toxins can cause significant human or animal health effects and many deaths have been reported."

*****************************************

Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Comments? Email me or here. My Home Page is here or here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

*****************************************

No comments: