Gale Hawkins
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Risk Article about spaying for weeds.
- Thread starter Gale Hawkins
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JimRB
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WilliamBos
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And the lack of milk weed is killing off the Monarch Butterfly.
OP
Gale Hawkins
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My FIL passed in 2009 but had lost all of his hives more like 10 years earlier so what ever the cause of the bee kill-off it is serious.
forgeblast
Elite Member
My bee die off was caused by a bear, smashed 3 hives. I normally can catch a swarm but I heard the guy down the road from me lost 19 of 20 hives. Bad year for die off. Spring took forever to come.
MotorSeven
Elite Member
I bet you can't get one guy that claims any herbicide is perfectly safe to drink one 8 oz glass of the stuff.
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Gale Hawkins
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Pilot
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That herbicide article, as reported would not meet any scientific tests and of no use, so don't believe a bit of it.
First, they made no distinction between the many herbicides on the market--there are huge differences between the many herbicides available. Some herbicides us arsenic as an ingredient. Roundup, OTOH, has no arsenic and affects an enzyme that only plants use. 2,4-d simply makes a small rearrangement of a part of the indole acetic acid molecule, changing a normal plant hormone into an herbicide. Was the predominant crop in the study area one in which one of the more toxic herbicides is frequently used? Secondly, the sample size was too small--those results could easily come by chance--you need large numbers to make valid conclusions. Nothing was said about the location--were the farmers dispersed across France, or was it a local area where those with problems may have had wells drawn from one location vs. another location for the healthy location. A little thought could find many more faults with this "study", but dinner is ready.
First, they made no distinction between the many herbicides on the market--there are huge differences between the many herbicides available. Some herbicides us arsenic as an ingredient. Roundup, OTOH, has no arsenic and affects an enzyme that only plants use. 2,4-d simply makes a small rearrangement of a part of the indole acetic acid molecule, changing a normal plant hormone into an herbicide. Was the predominant crop in the study area one in which one of the more toxic herbicides is frequently used? Secondly, the sample size was too small--those results could easily come by chance--you need large numbers to make valid conclusions. Nothing was said about the location--were the farmers dispersed across France, or was it a local area where those with problems may have had wells drawn from one location vs. another location for the healthy location. A little thought could find many more faults with this "study", but dinner is ready.
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greasemonkeyok
Veteran Member
Interesting article. I wonder if a study of the pilots that fly aerial sprayers would show any correlation.
charlz
Elite Member
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Farmers who used weedkillers were more than twice as likely to be treated for depression than farmers who didn't use the chemicals in a new study from France.
Whether the weedkillers are causing depression "is not clear," said Marc Weisskopf, the study's lead author and an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But (the result) suggests we should not be ignoring herbicides just because they're targeting plants."
Or maybe farmers with a lot of weeds are just depressed because, well they have a lot of weeds
Or maybe farmers who care enough to spray their weeds have more stress and are more likely to get depressed. Where as farmers with a Laissez-Faire attitude about weeds are more stress-free
Whether the weedkillers are causing depression "is not clear," said Marc Weisskopf, the study's lead author and an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But (the result) suggests we should not be ignoring herbicides just because they're targeting plants."
Or maybe farmers with a lot of weeds are just depressed because, well they have a lot of weeds
Or maybe farmers who care enough to spray their weeds have more stress and are more likely to get depressed. Where as farmers with a Laissez-Faire attitude about weeds are more stress-free