We contaminate our environment, food and water
with dangerous man-made chemicals in the pursuit of quick money. These
chemicals cause cancers in our bodies. To treat these cancers we make
dangerous synthetic drugs, in the pursuit of quick money, that not only
fail to treat the cancers, but also result in a collapse of most other
body systems. This leads to a weakening and collapse of humans on
increasingly larger scales as time goes by. But we do nothing to stop
the contamination and weakening of our bodies that evolved over hundreds
of millions of years and the contamination of our environment, food and
water. Instead we continue searching for more powerful man-made
chemicals, to make more money faster, in the name of medicine for our
environment, bodies and minds believing that we are masters of nature
or, if not that, smarter than nature, whom we can fool like our gullible
fellow men...but nature is not looking to make more money faster..she
only deals in life and death...
The toxicity we build up in our environment, through repeated
application of what appears to be safe doses of pesticides, often
overlooks the fact that the environment can only break down a small
amount of this poison. The accumulation of these poisons, over long
periods of time, and from various sources that all appear to be within
safe limits, leads to the eventual crossing over of a threshold, leading
to a sudden breakdown of the ecosystem and the web of life. It is the
proverbial last straw that breaks the camel's back. Similarly, with the
chronic use of highly toxic pharmaceutical drugs, our livers and kidneys
may be able to handle small amounts, but the gradual accumulation of
these poisons in our body tissues will lead to an eventual break down.
Even a virus that we would have otherwise effortlessly handled will
appear like the most potent disease. Detoxing our environment and bodies
is the only preventive solution for the majority, and for the long
term, not 'magic bullet' cures like vaccines and wonderful new material
that will clean up the environment.
Pesticide, insecticide, herbicide and disinfectant companies must
explore cannabis as an organic option for their products. Currently the
highly toxic and environmentally damaging products of these industries
have reached every corner of the world, polluting all our natural
resources and our food chain. Many of these industries are a by-product
of the second World War's biochemical warfare initiatives. Even though
there have been widespread reports from the 1950s about the huge damage
that these products are causing to all life, governments and large
businesses continue to push their usage on an ever increasing scale.
Where they are banned in individual countries through awareness, they
are unscrupulously exported to other unwary and naive countries like DDT
is for example. The damage caused by their indiscriminate usage
accumulates in all living beings and natural resources like a ticking
time bomb which will go off when limits of their tolerance are reached.
Many lie dormant as the natural earth and life have the ability to
neutralize small quantities of these poisons but beyond a certain point
they manifest themselves as diseases causing sudden or prolonged painful deaths.
Yet governments and the agricultural community work together with powerful multinational pesticide companies to play a deadly game of harm to man and planet with the intention of making large sums of money in the short term. Highly water, energy, fertilizer and pesticide intensive crops such as cotton, wheat and paddy are grown at the cost of all other crops. Governments subsidize the growth of these crops even in areas where their cultivation is less suitable than many other crops that are beneficial to both man and planet. Huge subsidies are provided for chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Farmers are provided loans and literally arm twisted to grow these unsustainable crops and use excessive amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The cost of cultivation, inputs, damage to the land and damage to natural life are the least considerations.
The many pest-resistant, antibiotic, anti-fungal, water-efficient and disinfectant
properties of cannabis has been known for long but the cultivation of the plant has been
prohibited globally rendering the ability to use it at any scale impossible. In terms of cultivation for fabric and fibre, hemp is far less water and other input intensive. Its uses are hundreds of times more varied than cotton. As nutrition hemp compares very well with both paddy and wheat both for man and also for other animals.
Many of the world's leading nations that cultivate hemp such as China, France and the US are also some of the strongest opponents to cannabis legalization world wide. They are also some of the biggest producers of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that they export in large quantities to all parts of the world especially the poorer nations in the name of providing support for agriculture. These governments also use technicalities such as the unscientific 0.3% THC limits on the cannabis plant to classify it as legal or illegal and to bind most nations in international treaties that increase the dependency of these nations on the wealthy nations and the big corporations that they support.
The legalization of the cultivation of hemp will go a long way in sustainable agriculture. It will also enable the reduction of the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Hemp being a bio-accumulator will also help recharge the soil and make it more suitable for all kinds of agriculture.
Yes, the big pesticide and fertilizer corporations, that primarily are an offshoot of the petrochemical industry, will strongly oppose this as will the governments and big businesses that stand to gain from continuing the current way of farming and the money that they pump in. But the wise farmer and the one who cares for environmental healing and sustainability will recognize the urgent need to make the change.
Let us try to go back to natural
pesticides, organic farming and sustainable agriculture. For all this, let us legalize cannabis and
use it to replace the poisons in our environment and our bodies. The
longer we delay, the more deep rooted the poisons in the system, the
lesser the chances of survival next time...
Related articles
Listed below are a set of articles related to the above topic. Words in italics are my thoughts at the time of reading the respective article.
Even if all the nations of the world legalized cannabis for all purposes - medicinal, intoxicant, food and industrial purposes - TODAY, a feat not impossible as all it takes is for the UN to change global drug laws and every nation to follow suit by changing their individual national drug laws with the same alacrity that all showed in embracing the fake pandemic Covid, it would still take at least a decade for cannabis to become truly pervasive significantly reducing the footprint of the following industries: the synthetic pharmaceutical drug industry for medicine; the global synthetic recreational drug industry, alcohol and tobacco for intoxicant; unsustainable rice, wheat and cotton as agricultural crops on current scales; the chemical fertilizer industry through organic farming of climate resistant cannabis; the petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastics and synthetics industries as industrial sources of raw materials. Even then much of the damage may be irreparable, such as the omnipresent microplastics, and the contamination of land, water and air by synthetic pharmaceuticals, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuels and petrochemicals. But there is a chance that we could at least slow this down or even stall it. However, these industries - petrochemicals, synthetic pharmaceuticals, chemical fertilizers, alcohol and tobacco are the biggest industries in the world today. The world's rich to whom these industries belong, and the governments that they own and fund, will do all they can to prevent this, including the use of the arms industry who fear a peaceful world of cannabis as a threat to their existence as much as the rich and the governments. This means that what could take a decade if all are fully committed will most likely take much more time. The two years lost to the fake pandemic Covid were accelerated steps in the opposite direction to that which we should have been taking. Do we have that much time to change course? Will nature and human insanity give us the time? Today, all global leaders are floundering helplessly and aimlessly, with what is being proposed as solutions to the catastrophic problem being nothing more than cosmetic makeovers, while they work to consolidate their own positions and the rich strive to get richer. At a time when all possible options must be considered, no, pursued with great urgency, even then it may not be enough, we find humanity moving with determination like zombies towards the sixth extinction...What is overwhelmingly evident is the human delusion that man is the master of nature and an insane stubbornness to pursue natural ways...
Ever wondered why the Department of Pharmaceuticals comes under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers that also administers the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, and the Department of Fertilizers? One would think that the Department of Pharmaceuticals would come under the Ministry of Health, just as the Department of Fertilizers would come under the Ministry of Agriculture. That is, of course, if the Health Ministry was looking at holistic health that involved other options, besides synthetic pharmaceuticals, such as natural medicine. Strangely, there is a separate orphan ministry called Ministry of Ayush supposedly responsible for the research and propagation of natural medicine. Similarly, if the Agriculture Ministry was looking at holistic use of fertilizers, especially natural fertilizers and organic farming, then the Department of Fertilizers would be under it. The current organization, however, works best for the synthetic petrochemical, synthetic pharmaceutical and chemical fertilizer industries...A significant chunk of India's budget, money sucked out of its people, goes into buying petrochemicals, chemical fertilizers and active pharmaceutical ingredients, the national, and global, use of the very products that wreck havoc with the planet and public health. Along with China and Russia, two of the biggest opponents of cannabis, India forms a cartel that trades in these goods, while putting up a show of integrity, commitment to global peace, environmental sustainability and equality. Recently, the three - India, Russia and China, along with the other two champions of cannabis prohibition, the US and Britain, even went to the extent of inflicting upon the world a bio-chemical weapon, called Covid, to boost these industries, to amass wealth for their bosses who own these industries, and to fund their individual political parties. When the path of cannabis for universal healthcare, sustainable agriculture and bio-degradable industry offers solutions on a global scale for humanity and the planet, these addicts of money and power work in the opposite direction, consolidating their own positions by inflicting increasing suffering on the world's majority - its poor and working classes. In this, they are fully supported by the world's rich upper classes...They delude the masses, projecting themselves as upholders of traditional values, nationality and prosperity for all...but what they all pursue is one religion - money, one ruling party - the rich, and one language - doublespeak...
'The aim of our study was to test the immunostimulating effect of a diet with hemp extract on the resistance of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). The experiment compared the effect of supplementation between the bees receiving the extract in the form of a mixture with sugar syrup and on the strip with the extract, compared to the bees that had no contact with substance. In order to determine this effect, the biochemical indicators were analyzed: the proteolytic system (proteases, protease inhibitors, total protein concentration) responsible for the fight against pathogens/parasites, biomarkers (ALT, AST, ALP), and the basic components of metabolism (glucose and urea concentrations). Parameters were determined in the hemolymph of 2- and 7-day-old workers. Hemp extracts caused an increase in the protein concentrations. Regardless of the method of administration, proteases decreased. Protease inhibitors increased, except supplementation on strips where the activity decreased. The biomarker activities increased in the control group and workers feeding extract in syrup and decreased in workers supplemented with the extract on strips. The results of the metabolic component were as follows: glucose and urea concentrations indicate that the extract will not adversely affect metabolic changes in the insect’s organism. Hemp extract improves the natural immunity of bees. '
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/8/2190
'“What we found over the weeks that we were sampling, the amounts of CBD and THC went up proportionately in all of these different cultivars for all of these different stresses,” Toth said.
By week four, at harvest time, they found that nearly every plant (except those treated with herbicide, which were nearly dead) produced the expected ratio of CBD to THC, with high levels of CBD corresponding to levels of THC above the 0.3% THC threshold.'
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/07/hemp-goes-hot-due-genetics-not-environmental-stress
'In 1963, two years before I was born, Rachel Carson warned us in her book Silent Spring that we were doing terrible damage to our planet. She would weep to see how much worse it has become. Insect-rich wildlife habitats, such as hay meadows, marshes, heathland and tropical rainforests, have been bulldozed, burned or ploughed to destruction on a vast scale. The problems with pesticides and fertilisers, she highlighted, have become far more acute, with an estimated 3m tonnes of pesticides now going into the global environment every year. Some of these new pesticides are thousands of times more toxic to insects than any that existed in Carson’s day. Soils have been degraded, rivers choked with silt and polluted with chemicals. Climate change, a phenomenon unrecognised in her time, is now threatening to further ravage our planet. These changes have all happened in our lifetime, on our watch, and they continue to accelerate.'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/the-insect-apocalypse-our-world-will-grind-to-a-halt-without-them
'Most synthetic fertilizers don’t contain micronutrients or beneficial organisms critical to soil health. And they can be too fast-acting for their own good, leaching deep into the soil and water table where plants can’t access them.
Overapplication can burn plants and build up toxic concentrations in the soil.
Worse, poorly managed synthetic fertilizers can damage groundwater supply and create polluted water runoff.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/are-synthetic-or-organic-fertilizers-better-for-cannabis-plant-nutrition/
'"Hemp takes very little water, as opposed to cotton, which takes a lot to grow. Hemp also doesn't really require pesticides, and is an easy thing to grow organically," Auman says. "On the work-wear end, hemp is the strongest natural fiber on the planet, and with work wear you want fibers to be as strong as they possibly can be."
As an early advocate of legal hemp farming, Colorado has a chance to attract more business from companies like Patagonia that are interested in transitioning toward industrial hemp and away from traditional textiles, plastics and other manufacturing materials, says Polis, who visited the Wright-Oaks farm earlier this year to see the hemp for himself.'
https://www.westword.com/marijuana/patagonia-colorado-farm-governor-polis-hemp-clothing-production-11845272
“Hemp fabric is stronger, more absorbent and has better insulation against heat and cold than cotton,” Dahal explains. “Hemp is environmentally friendly.”
Given that half the pesticide sprayed worldwide is in cotton plantations, hemp is a nature-friendly alternative fabric. The plant also prevents soil erosion on mountain slopes because of its thick deep root system, and the fabric can be made into at least 100 types of products. '
https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/clothed-in-cannabis/
'And Lebanon's farmers say the change can't come too soon. As in many parts of the region, the country's farmlands have been disproportionately affected by global warming. The Bekaa Valley, nestled between Mount Lebanon and Syria, is stricken with droughts, and many wells are drying up.
Growing potatoes, onions and other produce native to the region has been harder than ever before, experts and farmers say. But cannabis is a drought-resistant crop, requiring little water and no pesticides. And it flourishes in the high altitudes of the Bekaa plains.'
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/09/middleeast/lebanon-cannabis-climate-change-intl/index.html
'To put it plainly, hemp is a bioaccumulator. It’s really good at absorbing heavy metals and can absorb a vast range of compounds from the soil – including radioactive elements, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, explosives and fuel.
These bioaccumulative properties are one of hemp’s superepowers. But they’re also a major hindrance to the industry.
Hemp is often used for phytoremediation, which is essentially nature’s way of vacuuming heavy metals and other toxins out of the soil. Hemp cleans up the mess left behind from industrial waste and poor farming practices, and it does so in three ways.'
https://hempindustrydaily.com/how-to-avoid-heavy-metal-accumulation-in-your-hemp-crop/
'Hemp is an attractive alternative to cotton due to its comparably low-resource cultivation. It takes about 2,600 gallons of water to produce 1 kilogram of cotton—or a pair of jeans and a shirt—compared to just 80 gallons to 130 gallons for the same amount of hemp.
According to a report by the Stockholm Environment Institute commissioned by the BioRegional Development Group and Worldwide Fund for Nature – Cymru, industrial hemp is “low maintenance.”
Hemp also has a short grow cycle, about 110 days to cotton’s 150-day growing season. As there are more calls for organic agriculture, hemp also boasts the benefit of being naturally pest-free and therefore pesticide-free.'
https://sourcingjournal.com/denim/denim-mills/hemp-jeans-agi-denim-cottonized-fibers-205190/
'As the hemp industry develops and more resources become available for crop production, advocates of sustainable production say farmers have a choice: Hemp can be a crop that heals – or it can follow in the same footsteps of other commodities that have caused mass erosion, soil contamination and groundwater pollution.
In the spirit of Earth Day this month, Hemp Industry Daily talked with industry insiders about how hemp farmers can maintain the crop’s green reputation and function through responsible farming practices.'
https://hempindustrydaily.com/3-ways-hemp-farmers-can-promote-earth-friendly-cultivation/
'Research by Dixon’s team is focused on controlled environment production of medical marijuana, with proprietary plant-growing technology using chambers to monitor and regulate all variables throughout the growth, including nutrient demands.
The research involves attaching sensors to the plants to see how they respond to different types of management strategies.
This approach and the systems in place allow his team to produce organically grown and pesticide-free, high-yielding strains of cannabis, which, in turn, can generate high-quality products that are consistent from batch to batch.'
http://www.atimes.com/article/canadian-lab-helps-mission-to-mars-grows-better-cannabis/
- 'What exactly is hemp used for? The better question is what can't it be used for. Hemp is a durable material that can be fashioned into everything from food and beer to clothing to beauty products. Hemp can also be used to make plastic, an alternative biofuel, cars, and an estimated 25,000 other products.
- Is it difficult to grow? Nope, hemp is a farmer's best friend. It's good for the soil, helping to remove toxins. It grows well with little fertilizer, no pesticides, and less water than many other crops. It's also extremely dense, which means it takes less valuable farmland. It's relatively profitable (Canadian farmers are reporting $300 per/acre profits). And it grows fast—that's where the name weed came from.
- So I've heard it's good for combating climate change. Why's that? While not a silver bullet for climate, hemp is one of many possible agricultural solutions for a variety of reasons. Hemp actually absorbs more CO2 than trees, needs less water than plants like cotton, and can also be used to make a sustainable biofuel.'
https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2019/01/whats-fuss-about-hemp
'The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has recently updated the list of pesticides that are allowed for use in marijuana production in Washington State, based on criteria previously established by WSDA. '
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WALCB/bulletins/2074a94
'The full scope of the dangerous interaction of chemicals is as yet little known, but disturbing findings now come regularly from scientific laboratories. Among this is the discovery that that the toxicity of an organic phosphate can be increased by a second agent that is not necessarily an insecticide. For example, one of the plasticizing agents may act even more dangerously than another insecticide to make malathion more dangerous. Again, this is because it inhibits the liver enzyme that would normally 'draw the teeth' of the poisonous insecticide.
What of other chemicals in the normal human environment? What, in particular, of drugs? A bare beginning has been made on this subject, but already it is known that some organic phosphates (parathion and malathion) increase the toxicity of some drugs used as muscle relaxants, and that several others (again including malathion) markedly increase the sleeping time of barbiturates.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Unfortunately for all of us, opportunities for this sort of thing to happen are legion. A few years ago a team of Food and Drug Administration scientists discovered that when malathion and certain other organic phosphates are administered simultaneously a massive poisoning results - up to 50 times as severe as would be predicted on the basis of adding the toxicities of the two. In other words, 1/100 of the lethal dose of each compound may be fatal when the two are combined.
The discovery led to the testing of other combinations. It is now known that many pairs of organic phosphate insecticides are highly dangerous, the toxicity being stepped up or 'potentiated' through the combined action. Potentiation seems to take place when one compound destroys the liver enzyme responsible for detoxifying the other. The two need not be given simultaneously. The hazard exists not only for the man who must spray this week with one insecticide and the next week with another; it exists also for the consumer of sprayed products. The common salad bowl may easily present a combination of organic phosphate insecticides. Residues well within the legally permissible limits may interact.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Malathion, another of the organic phosphates, is almost as familiar to the public as DDT, being widely used by gardeners, in household insecticides, in mosquito spraying, and in such blanket attacks on insects as the spraying of nearly a million acres of Florida communities for the Mediterranean fruit fly. It is considered the least toxic of this group of chemicals and many people assume they may use it freely and without fear of harm. Commercial advertising encourages this comfortable attitude.
The alleged 'safety' of malathion rests on rather precarious ground, although - as often happens - this was not discovered until the chemical had been in use for several years. Malathion is 'safe' only because the mammalian liver, an organ with extraordinary protective powers, renders it relatively harmless. The detoxification is accomplished by one of the enzymes of the liver. If, however, something destroys this enzyme or interferes with its action, the person exposed to malathion receives the full force of the poison.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Thus, through the circumstances of their lives, and the nature of our own wants, all these have been our allies in keeping the balance of nature tilted in our favor. Yet we have turned our artillery against our friends. The terrible danger is that we have grossly underestimated their value in keeping at bay a dark tide of enemies that, without their help, can overrun us.
The prospect of a general and permanent lowering of environmental resistance becomes grimly and increasingly real with each passing year as the number, variety, and destructiveness of insecticides grows. With the passing of time we may expect progressively more serious outbreaks of insects, both disease-carrying and crop-destroying species, in excess of anything we have ever known.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Why does the spider mite appear to thrive on insecticides? Besides the obvious fact that it is relatively insensitive to them, there seems to be two other reasons. In nature it is kept in check by various predators such as ladybugs, a gall midge, predaceous mites and several pirate bugs, all of them extremely sensitive to insecticides. The third reason has to do with population pressure within the spider mite colonies. An undisturbed colony of mites is a densely settled community, huddled under a protective webbing for concealment from its enemies. When sprayed, the colonies disperse as the mites, irritated though not killed by the chemicals, scatter out in search of places where they will not be disturbed. In so doing they find a far greater abundance of space and food than was available in the former colonies. Their enemies are now dead so there is no need for the mites to spend their energy in secreting protective webbing. Instead, they pour all their energies into producing more mites. It is not uncommon for their egg production to be increased threefold - all through the beneficient effect of insecticides.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'The current vogue for poisons has failed utterly to take into account these most fundamental considerations. As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life - a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no 'high-minded orientation', no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Where pesticides are involved, the chemicals that figure most prominently in the case histories are DDT, lindane, benzene hexachloride, the nitrophenols, the common moth crystal paradichlorobenzene, chlordane, and, of course, the solvents in which they are carried. As this physician emphasizes, pure exposure to a single chemical is the exception, rather than the rule. The commercial product usually contains combinations of several chemicals, suspended in a petroleum distillate plus some dispersing agent. The aromatic cyclic and unsaturated hydrocarbons of the vehicle may themselves be a factor in the damage done [to] the blood-forming organs. From the practical rather than the medical standpoint this distinction is of little importance, however, because these petroleum solvents are an inseparable part of most common spraying practices.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Measured by the standards established by Warburg, most pesticides meet the criterion of the perfect carcinogen too well for comfort. As we have seen in the preceding chapter, many of the chlorinated hydrocarbons, the phenols, and some herbicides interfere with oxidation and energy production within the cell. By this means they may be creating sleeping cancer cells, in which an irreversible malignancy will slumber undetected until finally - its cause long forgotten and even unsuspected - it flares into the open as recognizable cancer.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Today we find our world filled with cancer-producing agents. An attack on cancer that is concentrated wholly or even largely on therapeutic measures (even assuming a 'cure' could be found) in Dr. Heuper's opinion will fail because it leaves untouched the great reservoirs of carcinogenic agents which would continue to claim new victims faster than the as yet 'elusive' cure could allay the disease.
Why have we been so slow to adopt this common-sense approach to the cancer problem? Probably 'the goal of curing victims of cancer is more exciting, more tangible, more glamourous and rewarding than prevention,' says Dr. Heuper. Yet to prevent cancer from ever being formed is 'definitely more humane' and can be 'much more effective than cancer cures'. Dr. Heuper has little patience with the wishful thinking that promises 'a magic pill that we shall take every morning before breakfast' as protection against cancer. Part of the public trust in such an eventual outcome results from the misconception that cancer is a single, though mysterious disease, with a single cause and, hopefully, a single cure. This of course is far from the known truth. Just as environmental cancers are induced by a wide variety of chemical and physical agents, so the malignant condition itself is manifested in many different and biologically distinct ways.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Over the past decade these problems have cast long shadows, but we have been slow to recognize them. Most of those best fitted to develop natural controls and assist in putting them into effect have been too busy laboring in the exciting vineyards of chemical control. It was reported in 1950 that only 2 per cent of all the economic entomologists in the country were then working in the field of biological controls. A substantial number of the remaining 98 per cent were engaged in research on chemical insecticides.
Why should this be? The major chemical companies are pouring money into the universities to support research on insecticides. This creates attractive fellowships for graduate students and attractive staff positions. Biological control studies, on the other hand, are never so endowed - for the simple reason that they do not promise anyone the fortunes that are to be made in the chemical industry. These are left to state and federal agencies, where the salaries paid are far less.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Dr. Pickett uses special care to select chemicals that will do as little harm as possible to insect parasites and predators. 'When we reach the point of using DDT, parathion, chlordane, and other new insecticides as routine control measures in the same way that we have used the inorganic chemicals in the past, entomologists interested in biological controls may as well throw in the sponge,' he says. Instead of these highly toxic, broad spectrum insecticides, he places chief reliance on ryania (derived from ground stems of a tropical plant), nicotine sulphate, and lead arsenate. In certain situations very weak concentrations of DDT or malathion are used (1 or 2 ounces per 100 gallons in contrast to the usual 1 or 2 pounds per 100 gallons). Although these two are the least toxic of the modern insecticides, Dr. Pickett hopes by further research to replace them with safer and more selective materials.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'But it was the advent of DDT, and all its many relatives that ushered in the true Age of Resistance. It need have surprised no one with even the simplest knowledge of insects or of the dynamics of animal populations that within a matter of a very few years an ugly and dangerous problem had clearly defined itself. Yet awareness of the fact that insects possess an effective counterweapon to aggressive chemical attack seems to have dawned slowly. Only those concerned with disease-carrying insects seem by now to have been thoroughly aroused to the alarming nature of the situation; the agriculturists still for the most part blightly put their faith in the development of new and even more toxic chemicals, although the present difficulties have been born of just such specious reasoning.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Agencies concerned with vector-borne disease are at present coping with their problems by switching from one insecticide to another as resistance develops. But this cannot go on indefinitely, despite the ingenuity of the chemists in supplying new materials. Dr. Brown has pointed out that we are traveling 'a one-way street. No one knows how long the street is. If the dead end is reached before control of disease-carrying insects is achieved, our situation will indeed be critical.
With insects that infest crops the story is the same.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Dr. Briejer says:
It is more than clear that we are traveling a dangerous road....We are going to have to do some very energetic research on other control measures, measures that will have to be biological, not chemical. Our aim should be to guide natural processes as cautiously as possible in the desired direction rather than to use brute force...
We need a more high-minded orientation and a deeper insight, which I miss in many researchers. Life is a miracle beyond our comprehension, and we should reverence it even where we have to struggle against it...The resort to weapons such as insecticides to control it is a proof of insufficient knowledge and of an incapacity so to guide the processes of nature that brute force becomes unnecessary. Humbleness is in order; there is no excuse for scientific conceit here.'- Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'There is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits. It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged. When the public protests, confronted with some obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth. We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can only do so when it is in full possesion of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand, 'The obligation to endure gives us the right to know.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'As ground and surface waters are contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals, there is danger that not only poisonous but also cancer-producing substances are being introduced into public water supplies. Dr. W. C. Hueper of the National Cancer Institute has warned that 'the danger of cancer hazards from the consumption of contaminated drinking water will grow considerably within the foreseeable future.' And indeed a study made in Holland in the early 1950s provides support for the view that polluted waterways may carry a cancer hazard. Cities recieving their drinking water from rivers had a higher death rate from cancer than did those whose water came from sources presumably less susceptible to pollution such as wells.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'These insecticides are not selective poisons; they do not single out the one species of which we desire to be rid. Each of them is used for the simple reason that it is a deadly poison. It therefore poisons all life with which it comes in contact: the cat beloved of some family, the farmer's cattle, the rabbit in the field, and the horned lark out of the sky. These creatures are innocent of any harm to man. Indeed by their very existence they and their fellows make his life more pleasant. Yet he rewards them with a death that is not only sudden but horrible.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'In each of these situations one turns away to ponder the question: Who has made the decision that sets in motion these chains of poisonings, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out, like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a still pond? Who has placed in one pan of the scales the leaves that might have been eaten by the beetles and in the other the pitiful heaps of many-hued feathers, the lifeless remains of the birds that fell before the unselective bludgeon of insecticidal poisons? Who has decided - who has the right to decide - for the countless legions of people who were not consulted that the supreme value is a world without insects, even though it be also a sterile world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight? The decision is that of the authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power; he has made it during a period of inattention by millions to whom beauty and the ordered world of nature still have a meaning that is deep and imperative.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'The fisheries of fresh and salt water are a resource of great importance, involving the interests and the welfare of a very large number of people. That they are now seriously threatened by the chemicals entering our waters can no longer be doubted. If we could divert to constructive research even a small fraction of the money spent each year on the development of even more toxic sprays, we could find ways to use less dangerous materials and to keep poisons out of our waterways. When will the public become sufficiently aware of the facts to demand such action? - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'In short the Department of Agriculture embarked on its program without even elementary investigation of what was already known about the chemical to be used - or if it investigated, it ignored the findings. It must also have failed to do the preliminary research to discover the minimum amount of the chemical that would accomplish its purpose. After three years of heavy dosages, it abruptly reduced the rate of application of heptachlor from 2 pounds to 1 and 1/4 pounds per acre in 1959; later on to 1/2 pound per acre, applied in two treatments of 1/4 pound each, 3 to 6 months apart. An official of the Department explained that 'an aggressive methods improvement program' showed the lower rate to be effective. Had this information been acquired before the program was launched, a vast amount of damage could have been avoided and the taxpayers could have been saved a great deal of money.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'This system, however - deliberately poisoning our food, then policing the result - is too reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's White Knight who thought of 'a plan to dye one's whiskers green, and always use so large a fan that they could not be seen.' The ultimate answer is to use less toxic chemicals so that the public hazard from their misuse is greatly reduced.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'We know that even single exposures to these chemicals, if the amount is large enough, can precipitate acute poisoning. But this is not the major problem. The sudden illness or death of farmers, spraymen, pilots, and others exposed to appreciable quantities of pesticides are tragic and should not occur. For the population as a whole, we must be more concerned with the delayed effects of absorbing small amounts of pesticides that invisibly contaminate our world.
Responsible public health officials have pointed out that the biological effects of chemicals are cumulative over long periods of time, and that the hazard to the individual may depend on the sum of the exposures recieved throughout his lifetime. For these very reasons the danger is easily ignored. It is human nature to shrug off what may seem to us a vague threat of future disaster. 'Men are naturally most impressed by disease which have obvious manifestations.' says a wise physician, Dr. Rene Dubos, 'yet some of their worst enemies creep on them unobtrusively.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Thamel trader Prem Dahal is acknowledged by his peers as the pioneer of the hemp trade. He was inspired to take it up 28 years ago after travelling with shepherds in western Nepal and finding that their hardy mattresses were woven from cannabis fibre.
“Hemp fabric is stronger, more absorbent and has better insulation against heat and cold than cotton,” Dahal explains. “Hemp is environmentally friendly.”
Given that half the pesticide sprayed worldwide is in cotton plantations, hemp is a nature-friendly alternative fabric. The plant also prevents soil erosion on mountain slopes because of its thick deep root system, and the fabric can be made into at least 100 types of products. '
https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/clothed-in-cannabis/
Are any precautions at all being taken as we use this disinfectant, sodium hypochlorite on a massive scale across India in the wake of COVID 19?
'US government regulations allow food processing equipment and food contact surfaces to be sanitized with solutions containing bleach, provided that the solution is allowed to drain adequately before contact with food, and that the solutions do not exceed 200 parts per million (ppm) available chlorine (for example, one tablespoon of typical household bleach containing 5.25% sodium hypochlorite, per gallon of water). If higher concentrations are used, the surface must be rinsed with potable water after sanitizing.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hypochlorite
Covid 19 disinfectant being used liberally and on a large scale all over India - sodium hypochlorite..cure more dangerous than the illness?
'In particular, mixing hypochlorite bleaches with amines (for example, cleaning products that contain or release ammonia, ammonium salts, urea, or related compounds and biological materials such as urine) produces chloramines. These gaseous products can cause acute lung injury. Chronic exposure, for example, from the air at swimming pools where chlorine is used as the disinfectant, can lead to the development of atopic asthma.
Bleach can react violently with hydrogen peroxide and produce oxygen gas:
H2O2 (aq) + NaOCl (aq) -> NaCl (aq) + H2O (aq) + O2 (g)
Explosive reactions or byproducts can also occur in industrial and laboratory settings when sodium hypochlorite is mixed with diverse organic compounds'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hypochlorite
Covid 19 disinfectant being used liberally and on a large scale all over India - sodium hypochlorite..
'However, one major concern arising from sodium hypochlorite use is that it tends to form persistent chlorinated organic compounds, including known carcinogens, that can be absorbed by organisms and enter the food chain. These compounds may be formed during household storage and use as well during industrial use. For example, when household bleach and wastewater were mixed, 1–2% of the available chlorine was observed to form organic compounds. As of 1994, not all the byproducts had been identified, but identified compounds include chloroform and carbon tetrachloride.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hypochlorite
Covid 19 disinfectant - sodium hypochlorite..
'Mixing bleach with some household cleaners can be hazardous.
Sodium hypochlorite solutions, such as liquid bleach, may release toxic chlorine gas when heated above 35 °C or mixed with an acid, such as hydrochloric acid or vinegar.
A 2008 study indicated that sodium hypochlorite and organic chemicals (e.g., surfactants, fragrances) contained in several household cleaning products can react to generate chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These chlorinated compounds are emitted during cleaning applications, some of which are toxic and probable human carcinogens. The study showed that indoor air concentrations significantly increase (8–52 times for chloroform and 1–1170 times for carbon tetrachloride, respectively, above baseline quantities in the household) during the use of bleach containing products. The increase in chlorinated volatile organic compound concentrations was the lowest for plain bleach and the highest for the products in the form of "thick liquid and gel." The significant increases observed in indoor air concentrations of several chlorinated VOCs (especially carbon tetrachloride and chloroform) indicate that the bleach use may be a source that could be important in terms of inhalation exposure to these compounds. The authors suggested that using these cleaning products may significantly increase the cancer risk.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hypochlorite
Sodium Hypochlorite, the Covid 19 disinfectant being sprayed in abundance all over India. Is this the add on disease we are inflicting on ourselves and on a much larger scale?
'SYMPTOMATOLOGY: 1. PAIN & INFLAMMATION OF MOUTH, PHARYNX, ESOPHAGUS, & STOMACH. EROSION OF MUCOUS MEMBRANES, CHIEFLY OF STOMACH. 2. VOMITING ... HEMORRHAGE ... 3. CIRCULATORY COLLAPSE, WITH COLD & CLAMMY SKIN, CYANOSIS, & SHALLOW RESPIRATIONS. 4. CONFUSION, DELIRIUM, COMA. 5. EDEMA OF PHARYNX, GLOTTIS & LARYNX, WITH STRIDOR & OBSTRUCTION. 6. PERFORATION OF ESOPHAGUS OR STOMACH, WITH MEDIASTINITIS OR PERITONITIS. 7. INHALATION OF HYPOCHLOROUS ACID FUMES CAUSES SEVERE RESP TRACT IRRITATION & PULMONARY EDEMA. 8. SKIN CONTACT MAY CAUSE VESICULAR ERUPTIONS AND ECZEMATOID DERMATITIS. /HYPOCHLORITE/
Gosselin, R.E., R.P. Smith, H.C. Hodge. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1984., p. III-204
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
INGESTION OF LETHAL DOSE OF SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE HAD CORROSIVE EFFECT & METHEMOGLOBINEMIA WAS PRESENT.
POPAL ET AL; CLUJUL MED 51 (1): 58-60 (1978)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
... An 18 month old girl who swallowed a "few tablespoons" /of liquid household bleach/ and immediately coughed, choked and vomited. Gastric lavage with a weak vinegar solution was performed within 10 min. Promptly thereafter she became lethargic and was admitted to a local hospital in a state of coma. Her temp was 103.2 °F, pulse 160, respirations 88, and blood pressure unobtainable. Rales and rhonchi were audible, & clonic convulsive movements persisted until death, which occurred, in spite of vigorous treatment, 19 hr after ingestion. Postmortem exam revealed focal necrosis, hemorrhage, and superficial erosion of the gastric mucosa, but the presumptive cause of death was an acute tracheobronchitis, & obstructive atelectasis secondary to bronchial exudates. /Hypochlorite/
Gosselin, R.E., R.P. Smith, H.C. Hodge. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1984., p. III-203
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
A 61 yr old woman was completing a hemodialysis treatment when routine cleaning of the hemodialysis machine was started. Approx 2 l of undiluted sodium hypochlorite cleaning soln was added to the dialysis bath. For less than 2 min the chlorox soaked membrane was in contact with the blood returning to the pt. This led to massive hemolysis, hyperkalemia, cyanosis, & cardiopulmonary arrest.
PMID:7294048
Hoy RH; Am J Hosp Pharm 38 (10): 1512-4 (1981)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
'Exposure to drain and sanitary cleansing vapors containing sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide provoked acute, reversible toxic alopecia. Trichograms of this depilatory type of alopecia showed signs of hair dystrophy and loss of the hair sheath. Histological exam of skin and hair showed changes in hair structures and discrete lymphocytic infiltration. The prerequisite for this effect was the improper use of cleansing agents and the relative conditions during use which led to the intense exposure of the scalp to sodium hypochlorite vapor.'
PMID:7157798
Stuttgen G et al; Wien Klin Wochenschr 94 (18): 479-84 (1982)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
The cytotoxicity of 7 soln, one being sodium hypochlorite, used in root canal therapy was tested in human fibroblast and lymphoblast cultures. The amount of cell damage was assessed by measuring the release of (51)chromium from labeled cells into the medium. The soln when applied at therapeutic concn, displayed high toxicity in vitro and differences in cytotoxicity were seen between different soln. Generally, lymphoblasts were found to be more sensitive than fibroblasts.
PMID:6940232
Koskinen KP; Scand J Dent Res 89 (1): 71-8 (1981)
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
... Ingestion causes irritation and corrosion of mucous membranes with pain and vomiting. A fall in blood pressure, delirium, and coma may occur. Inhalation of hypochlorous fumes causes coughing and choking and may cause severe resp tract irritation and pulmonary edema.
Reynolds, J.E.F., Prasad, A.B. (eds.) Martindale-The Extra Pharmacopoeia. 28th ed. London: The Pharmaceutical Press, 1982., p. 574
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
A young girl had suffered episodes of vomiting, abdominal pain, and bronchopneumonia over a period of yr which were finally traced to her habit of sucking socks bleached with sodium hypochlorite.
Reynolds, J.E.F., Prasad, A.B. (eds.) Martindale-The Extra Pharmacopoeia. 28th ed. London: The Pharmaceutical Press, 1982., p. 574 '
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/748#section=Human-Toxicity-Excerpts-(Complete)
'“It is hardly a surprise that those who elect to clandestinely cultivate cannabis on federal lands engage in practices that provide greater potential risks to both the environment and to the end product itself,” Paul Armentano, deputy director for the advocacy group NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “By contrast, a legal market provides regulatory oversight and demands that those engaged in these activities be licensed and utilize best practices.”
“While legalization itself will likely not entirely eliminate the illicit market, just as, for instance, broader alcohol legalization has not eliminated moonshining in its entirety,” Armentano added, “the reality is that it will continue to severely curtail these activities and the involvement of criminal entrepreneurs.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/feds-hire-hazmat-firm-for-marijuana-eradication-training/
'The major features of cellular organization, including, for instance, mitosis, must be much older than 500 million years old - more nearly 1000 million,' wrote Geroge Gaylord Simpson and his colleagues Pittendrigh and Tiffany in their broadly encompassing book entitled Life. 'In this sense the world of life, which is surely fragile and complex, is incredibly durable through time - more durable than mountains. This durability is wholly dependent on the almost incredible accuracy with which the inherited information is copied from generation to generation.'
But in all the thousand million years envisioned by these authors no threat has struck so directly and so forcefully at that 'incredible accuracy' as the mid-20th century threat of man-made radiation and man-made and man-disseminated chemicals. Sir Macfarlane Burnet, a distinguished Australian physician and a Nobel Prize winner, considers it 'one of the most significant medical features' of our time that, 'as a by-product of more and more powerful therapeutic procedures and the production of chemical substances outside of biological experiences, the normal protective barriers that kept mutagenic agents from the internal organs have been more and more frequently penetrated.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'As yet insufficient time has elapsed to reveal the full effect of the new chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides and of the modern herbicides. Most malignancies develop so slowly that they may require a considerable segment of the victim's life to reach the stage of showing clinical symptoms. In the early 1920s women who painted luminous figures on watch dials swallowed minute amounts of radium by touching the brushes to their lips; in some of these women bone cancers developed after a lapse of 15 or more years. A period of 15 to 30 years or even more has been demonstrated for some cancers caused by occupational exposures to chemical carcinogens.
In contrast to these industrial exposures to various carcinogens the first exposures to DDT date from about 1942 for military personnel and from about 1945 for civilians, and it was not until the early fifties that a wide variety of pesticidal chemicals came into use. The full maturing of whatever seeds of malignancy have been sown by these chemicals is yet to come.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'A bizarre happening in the United States during the prohibition era around 1930 was an omen of things to come. It was caused not by an insecticide but by a substance belonging chemically to the same group as the organic phosphate insecticides. During the period some medicinal substances were being pressed into service as substitutes for liquor, being exempted from the prohibition law. One of these was Jamaica ginger. But the United States Pharmacopeia product was expensive, and bootleggers conceived the idea of making a substitute Jamaica ginger. They succeeded so well that their spurious product responded to the appropriate chemical tests and decieved the government chemists. To give their false ginger the necessary tang they had introduced a chemical known as triorthocresyl phosphate. This chemical, like parathion and its relatives, destroys the protective enzyme cholinesterase. As a consequence of drinking the bootleggers' product some 15,000 people developed a permanently crippling type of paralysis of the leg muscles, a condition called 'ginger paralysis'. The paralysis was accompanied by destruction of the nerve sheaths and by degeneration of the cells of the anterior horns of the spinal cord.' - Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962
'Results: Of 100 patients enrolled into the study, 61 were male with a mean age of 34.01 ± 14.65 years and 39 were female with a mean age of 40.6 ± 7.49 years. Sixty-five patients survived (Table 1). Mean hospitalization period was 2.69 ± 2.12 h (range; 30 min to 5.5 h) and 94.7 ± 40.4 h in non-survivors and survivors, respectively. The most common cause of poisoning was drug overdose in 78 patients.
Discussion: [L]actate concentration. However, lactate concentration is an established prognostic marker for the evaluation of patients with elevated anion gap metabolic acidosis, selected drug overdoses (metformin and acetaminophen), selected chronic drug toxicities (stadivudine), and chemical poisoning (aluminum phosphide and cyanide).
As the report of national drug and poisoning information center of Iran provided, 60% of all contacts per year are related to poisoning. Lactic acidosis is the condition where lactate concentration increase instantly to more than 5 mmol/dL. Type A lactic acidosis occurs in oxygen distribution dysfunction due to hypotension or cyanosis. Type B lactic acidosis occurs in sepsis, liver dysfunction, diabetes, and drugs such as biguanides, acetaminophen, and sorbitol.
Creatine kinase supplies energy in body organs with different types in brain (CK1), myocardium (CK2), and muscle (CK3) whose change is considered to be due to organ damages. Usually, existence of CK in blood defines the organ injuries including myocardial infarctions, rhabdomyolysis, autoimmune myositis, and kidney injuries.'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191820/
'Contrary to concerns that the use of marijuana would have a negative impact on transplant outcomes, there weren’t any noticeable differences between the groups that could be attributed to cannabis. Long-term kidney function was virtually the same and there were no discernible differences in pre- or post-operation characteristics, either.
The study, published Thursday in the Clinical Kidney Journal, concluded that it could help “increase the donor pool” if institutions start to consider allowing kidney transplants from cannabis consuming donors.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/marijuana-use-doesnt-affect-outcome-of-kidney-transplants-study-finds/
'Based on studies conducted in patients without renal impairment, those treated with nonsynthetic cannabinoids were 43% to 300% more likely to report a =30% reduction in chronic neuropathic pain compared with placebo. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to recommend nonsynthetic cannabinoids for other medical indications, although preliminary investigation into topical endocannabinoids for uremia-induced pruritus in end-stage renal disease is promising.'
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2054358119828391
'CannaSafe also tested 10 of the unregulated cartridges for pesticides. All 10 tested positive.
The products all contained myclobutanil, a fungicide that can transform into hydrogen cyanide when burned.'
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/tests-show-bootleg-marijuana-vapes-tainted-hydrogen-cyanide-n1059356
'From July 1 through Nov. 30, labs tested 23,864 batches of various products, and 3,373 failed. The test results through November showed that about 90 percent of buds are cleared for sale, suggesting a mostly clean market for growers.
The biggest reason for failure is improper claims on labels, such as overestimating a product’s potency, which blocked over 2,100 products from sale. The California Growers Association, an industry group, is among those concerned the state is forcing growers and manufacturers to hit too tiny a target when gauging levels of THC.
Pesticides, meanwhile, accounted for over 700 rejections in various products.'
https://apnews.com/b45648b55ec84f4ea3a43439f0d4b7e5
