E. Texas question: polution and birth defects

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In class yesterday, it was mentioned that there are greater numbers of live birth babies with missing brain parts (anencephalus) and the incidence of such is much greater in east Texas. The problem has been traced to agricultural toxins. Does anyone have any information on this? I'm not writing a paper or anything. I was just blown away by the statement and curious to know more.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 27, 2000

Answers

Make that: Pollution, spelling pals. No coffee yet...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 27, 2000.

Around here there is a strong belief, although no studies that I know of, that people (mostly men) who spend a great part of their day working in hog confinement buildings have a lot more problems. Mostly emtional. More depression, suicide attempts, violence towards others, that sort of thing. What genetic effects there might be are unknown and possibly unknowable. For every study that says one thing another study (or 10) can be made to say something else.

Your nearest ag college will have a lot of material on this for you to wade through. Most if it will be pro-agribiz. But they might have copies of the study you are refering to. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 27, 2000.


Hi Sheepish,

Go to the Prof. Ask him or her to give you a reference for the study. I'd be interested in getting it too. I know of studies done in Minn. which link birth defects to fathers who work for lawn care services which spray large amounts of herbicide (also of course used by farmers and perhaps becoming more of a problem with the GM foods such as Round-UP ready corn, soy beans etc.). Having said that Monsanto etc. will argue you use less herbicide with GM foods.

I would really suggest talking to the Prof. They like students who are interested!

Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 27, 2000.


When I was in Texas, I knew two ladies who were sisters, and between them they had had three anencephelitic babies. At least two of the babies died, not sure about the last one.This is an extremely rare birth defect, the chances of it occurring to two sisters, and to one of them twice,are very, very slim. One of the family members told me that the sisters both had husbands who had worked together on the Mexican border, where the pollution is a lot worse, and thought maybe it had damaged the sperm. I think that these women lived in a rural area, and that both their husbands were in construction work, not agriculture. The entire extended family was very health concious and aware, so I don't think they were using a lot of chemical farming practices.What was really sad about it was the lack of support these women received from the health care professions.They called the babies anencephalitic "monsters", and were applying heavy pressure that these women should donate the live babies for organ donors!!! Can you imagine anything so callous? The babies were not even born yet, and the doctors were giving these already upset women guilt trips about how it would be selfish not to donate the live babies for organs. They wanted to remove the organs while the babies were still alive, vital organs, WITHOUT anesthesia! Makes me sick to think about it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 27, 2000.

Rebekah, WOW. What can I say??? Horrors!

Kim, when my prof told me about this, I asked her for specifics, and she said it looked like a good thing to go look up! (that education thing, you know!) So I will surf and see what I can find. I just thought that since this forum had some E. Texas folk, they could provide some hands on info, if you will, that might help me in my search.

I am really concerned about how we pollute (two L's!)agriculturally, and since so many folk here are farmers or live near farms, thought I would check.

Gerbil, thanks for the info, too.

I have midterms starting Monday, so may not get any info in the next few days, but if/when I do, I will post.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 27, 2000.



I live in E. Texas and I haven't heard of any rash of birth defects. That's not to say it isn't happening, but I haven't heard of any, either through the papers, personal knowledge, or through the 'grapevine' (best source for news).

We do have Texas Eastman, a major 'grandfathered' polluter. Back in the early '70s they let a major spill get into our local river, the Sabine. My father fished every day his whole life, and he started seeing fish floating one day. Called the papers and tv folk, and they all had a field day. TX Eastman had turned the 'wrong valve'.

One of the lakes that are in the headwaters of the Sabine recently had a million gallon gasoline spill. With MTBE. Dallas and Fort Worth get most of their water (something like 30%?) there. They rationed water briefly, but according to the Dallas Morning News, MTBE levels are safe now. I won't be eating fish out of the river for a long while. Thank goodness I've got private ponds.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), April 27, 2000.


Where there is pesticide, herbicide and nitrate based fertilizers--people are going to die of cancer and birth defects. In my humble opinion the whole state of Iowa is doomed because the water supply is completely compromised. We are killing the entire population --one dollar at a time ! All that bull about tobacco is such a crock. If we didn't use pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers than you could smoke a carton a day and die from eating corn quicker

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 28, 2000.

Sheepish, I believe that your professor has his/her story mixed up a bit. There has been an abnormally large number of babies born with no brains in Texas, but it was out west, near El Paso. The Dallas Morning News had several articles on it several years ago. I don't know if it is in their archives still or not. Most of the children were born to Mexican families who lived right along the Rio Grande and on down toward Laredo. There are some of the biggest polluters in the hemisphere down there, just across the border. I believe one of them is Monsanto.

East Texas has a lot of pollution also. When the wind is blowing from the south, the sky turns a hazy gray. It isn't a cloud, it is pollution. I don't know if it blows up all the way from Houston, or if it comes from the Longview/Tyler area. I suspect the later. And while I am complaining, we have a number of coal fired generating plants here that also put out permanent clouds of smoke. (The plants like to call it steam, but if it is, it sure does drop a lot of dirt from it.)

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), April 28, 2000.


Maybe those rocky hilly places really are best, if the good flat farmland is all so polluted. Probably the only places that haven't been factory farmed and had tons of chemicals dumped on them are the areas too rough or steep for big equipment. It's pretty sobering to think about.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 28, 2000.

Hi,

I don't have a direct response to this but will offer this link for researching pleasure:

EurekAlert! Public Contents

http://www.eurekalert.org/

If you plunder around this site some, you will find links to all sorts of research sites (gov, corp, and in particular, university).

I like the site because I can read about issues directly from their source (and I have contacted some researchers directly, FWIW) and get the _entire_ content of the research; not the mass-media news-bite version for the sheep herd.

Happy Researching !!

j (who does data-mining as an *alternative* hobby)

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), April 28, 2000.



Sheepish after sending you my opinion privately, I did a little research. Not only birth defects, but asthma! Houston, was the highest polluted city this last year. There is an ozone alert today. Big money working in the chemical plants, oil refineries etc. but at what cost? Jay Leno, said something last night, George Bush Jr. just had a huge fund raiser, 21 million dollars or some such thing. Course they served spotted owl for the entree. I know he was just joshing, but how close to home is that! We all logically know that we are killing ourselves and our planet. But even with gas over a dollar, well way over a dollar! Who has ditched the thought of the bigger truck? I still look at those Lincoln Navigator's and drool! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 28, 2000.

http://www.wisc.edu/zoology/faculty/fac/Por/porlinks.html

I would suggest anyone interested in this check out the above link. Warren Porter is a world expert on pesticides. He has recently studied the effects of pesticides on growth development and learning in Mexican children. The above link is a list of sites he suggests. If you want to read more about his research just go as far as fac/Por

Sheepish, good luck on those midterms!! Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 30, 2000.


Okay I get to show my age again if not my wisdom. Kansas is also very polluted but most states are as bad, it is the water here since most of it is run-off and we hav the usual assorment of herbicides, pesticides,etc,etc. Mother Earth News back in the day did a lot of articles on this problem. But as Joel pointed out this is only getting worse and no-one is inclined to stop it. GREED is the core of this problem and I do not see an end to this in my lifetime. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), May 04, 2000.

Thanks Kim, and I will check it out. Done with midterms, whew! Did just fine. I will probably look this up this weekend after I sleep for a long time...

Karen, I agree that greed is the core problem to everything. I haven't given up that it can change, but the problem is incredibly entrenched!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 04, 2000.


I agree that there is something to it. I believe we are all exposed to some sort of health hazards due to big business, whatever business is near us.I have for a long time believed there is something wrong with my area also. People talk,people complain but nobody ever does anything,nothing ever changes.I live down river from all of that in north and east Texas...the Sabine River is about 10 miles from home. We also are between Houston and Lake Charles,nothing but refineries for as far as the eyes can see.I don't know if it's the petrochemical influence or being down river from huge agribusiness or the combination,but I know far too many people with cancer and even more people that have trouble with their kids.Most families around here have at least one kid on ritalin (sp?) or some other prescription for ADD or ADHD. I believe the huge power lines contribute also. I don't think it's just our kids that are affected.I know there is an unbelievable amount of domestic abuse around here.My family lives 400 miles away and swares to me it's only around here but I think it's more widespread than people like to talk about. This is just my opinion.I pray a lot and wonder what kind of world it's going to be for my kids.

-- LORI CATHEY (loricathey@prodigy.net), June 01, 2000.


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