Is McKay Jenkins providing Misinformation in his quotes below, you decide :
I wondered: would the lawn care guy, who was just doing his job, be interested in the research I had discovered? Would he want to know of a study that showed a three-fold increase in lung cancer in lawn care workers who used a common chemical known as 2,4-D, or another that found a higher rate of birth defects among the children of chemical appliers?
The National Institute of Health Sciences lists 2,4-D as a suspected endocrine disruptor, and several studies point to its possible contribution to genetic mutations and problems with reproductive health. Although the EPA continues to list 2,4-D as lacking enough evidence to be classed as a carcinogen, a growing body of research has begun to link it to a variety of cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A 1986 National Cancer Institute study found that farmers in Kansas exposed to 2,4-D for 20 or more days a year had a six-fold higher risk for developing non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Five years later, another National Cancer Institute study showed that dogs were twice as likely to contract lymphoma if their owners used 2,4-D on their lawns.
HUMANS
Pesticide Truths about McKay Jenkins findings:
A 1986 National Cancer Institute study found that farmers in Kansas exposed to 2,4-D for 20 or more days a year had a six-fold higher risk for developing non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Hoar, SK. et. al. 1986. Agricultural Herbicide Use and Risk of Lymphoma and Soft-tissue Sarcoma, JAMA. 256:1141-7 see also correction, JAMA 256:3351
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2 quick Abstracts of Studies Refering to McKay Jenkins Pesticide (2,4-D) Cancer Reference:
Methodologic issues in exposure assessment for case-control studies of cancer and herbicides
Article first published online: 19 JAN 2007
DOI: 10.1002/ajim.4700180308
Abstract
Epidemiologic studies of cancer and exposure to herbicides have shown puzzling inconsistencies. Exposure-response gradients have been reported for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Sweden and Kansas, but no significant associations were seen in New Zealand or Washington State. Subjects in these studies were categorized by exposure using information obtained primarily by interview. A number of questions can be raised regarding the reliability and validity of such an exposure assessment. We examined procedures used to assess pesticide exposures in case-control studies of cancer to evaluate their limitations and their probable effects on risk estimates. Except for case recall bias, problems of misclassification in these studies would tend to bias risk estimates toward the null and dilute exposure-response gradients. These problems are, therefore, unlikely explanations for the positive associations between cancer and herbicide use noted in some investigations. A tendency for false-negative findings, however, is not reassuring, and improvements in exposure assessment are needed if epidemiologic investigations are to continue to provide reliable information on the relationships of cancer and pesticide exposure.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajim.4700180308/abstract
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Integrative assessment of multiple pesticides as risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among men
A J De Roos, S H Zahm, K P Cantor, D D Weisenburger, F F Holmes, L F Burmeister,
A Blair
Much attention in NHL research has focused on the herbicide 2,4-D as a potential risk factor, and several studies have
observed positive associations with 2,4-D exposure.6 8 9 Whereas an indicated effect of 2,4-D exposure on NHL was reported in NCI’s Nebraska and Kansas studies,(5)(7) this analysis of the pooled data found no association with having ever used 2,4-D. The null association does not result from adjustment for other pesticides, missing data, or from the hierarchical regression modelling approach, but is rather due to pooling data from the Iowa and Minnesota study, in which no association of 2,4-D with NHL incidence was observed, with data from the Nebraska and Kansas studies. The literature on the relation between 2,4-D and NHL is not consistent.32 52 Some recent studies have reported excess risk among manufacturers 53 and farmers,8 while others have not.51 The study in Nebraska,5 however, observed that NHL risk increased by number of days per year of 2,4-D use,which we were unable to duplicate in the pooled analysis because of lack of such data from the other two studies. It is possible that a more refined metric incorporating frequency of use better captures relevant exposure. Some recent studies may shed light on potential mechanisms of 2,4-D in relation to NHL.
A study of 10 farmers who applied 2,4-D and MCPA observed a significant reduction of several immune parameters, including CD4, CD8, natural killer cells, and activated CD8 cells (expressing the surface antigen HLA-DR), and a reduction in lymphoproliferative response.54 Furthermore, a study of professional 2,4-D applicators in Kansas observed an increase in the lymphocyte replication index following application.33 This pooled study of multiple agricultural pesticides provided an opportunity to estimate the effect of each specific pesticide and certain pesticide combinations on NHL incidence, adjusted for the use of other pesticides. Overall, few pesticides and pesticide combinations were associated with increased NHL risk;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1740618/pdf/v060p00e11.pdf
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DOGS
Pesticide Truths about McKay Jenkins findings:
Five years later, another National Cancer Institute study showed that dogs were twice as likely to contract lymphoma if their owners used 2,4-D on their lawns.
Case-control study of canine malignant lymphoma: positive association with dog owner's use of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicides.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1870148
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1 quick Abstract of a Study Refering to McKay Jenkins Pesticide (2,4-D) Cancer Reference:
The Boss (Kaneene JB) of the Authors above (Hayes HM, Tarone RE, Cantor KP, Jessen CR, McCurnin DM, Richardson RC) responds with:
Variables describing animal care and pesticide use were either not associated with the disease [CML] or were uninformative.
Re-analysis of 2,4-D use and the occurrence of canine malignant lymphoma.
An independent scientific review panel had concerns involving study design, analysis and interpretation of results in a case-control study investigating the relationship between canine malignant lymphoma (CML) and the use of 2,4-D herbicide. To address these concerns, a re-analysis was done to examine 2,4-D use and its association with CML. This case-control study re-analyzed the data using the exposure definition used in the original study, re-analyzed the data using a redefinition of exposure, and conducted a dose-response analysis with the redefined exposure criteria. Our results agreed with the original author's analyses that no effects were found when stratifying by survey method and geographic region, and that there were no significant differences between separated and pooled control groups. However, we did not confirm a dose-response relationship between 2,4-D use and CML. Additionally, the occurrence of CML was not found significantly associated with the use of 2,4-D.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10349709
McKay Jenkins Article:
Ah, spring. The robins are back, the cherry trees are in bloom, and the armies of lawn chemical trucks are prowling the neighborhood, looking for business. It's that time of year again.
I was startled from my work this afternoon by a knock on the door: The driver of a lawn care truck had pulled up in front of our house, and now, looking askance at our decidedly shabby-looking lawn, he gave me The Look. What you need, he said, is a two-year contract for pesticide treatments that would "really take care of the weeds."
To be fair, his timing could not have been worse. I had just finished two years of research into the health and environmental effects of synthetic chemicals, and here he was trying to convince me to spread pesticides on the lawn where my kids and dogs play every afternoon. The exchange did not last long.
I wondered: would the lawn care guy, who was just doing his job, be interested in the research I had discovered? Would he want to know of a study that showed a three-fold increase in lung cancer in lawn care workers who used a common chemical known as 2,4-D, or another that found a higher rate of birth defects among the children of chemical appliers?
Probably not. Business is business, and his business is a big. American spend roughly $40 billion a year on lawn care. In 1999, more than two-thirds of America's home lawns were being treated with chemical fertilizer or pesticides — 14 million of them through a professional lawn care company. A year later, the federal General Accounting Office reported that Americans were spraying 67 million pounds of synthetic chemicals on their lawns every year, and that annual sales of lawn care pesticides had grown to $700 million. Lawn care companies were doing an additional $1.5 billion in business.
But at what cost? 2,4-D, for example, was once used as a constituent of Agent Orange. Now in wide domestic use, 2,4-D has properties considered very attractive by lawn chemical companies: it kills broad-leaf plants, like dandelions and clover, without killing grass. Today, annual sales of 2,4-D have surpassed $300 million worldwide. Since it does not require a license to buy, or to use, 2,4-D can be found in many "weed and feed" products like Scotts Green Sweep, Ortho Weed B Gon, Salvo, Weedone, and Spectracide.
Because it is designed to mimic a plant's natural growth hormone, 2,4-D causes such rapid cell growth that a plant's normal transport systems become destroyed by abnormally fast tissue growth. The stems of plants treated with 2,4-D tend to become grotesquely twisted; the roots become swollen; the leaves turned yellow and die. Plants quickly starve to death.
Given its effects on the cell growth in plants, it should perhaps not be surprising that 2,4-D has also been shown to disrupt human hormones. The National Institute of Health Sciences lists 2,4-D as a suspected endocrine disruptor, and several studies point to its possible contribution to genetic mutations and problems with reproductive health. Although the EPA continues to list 2,4-D as lacking enough evidence to be classed as a carcinogen, a growing body of research has begun to link it to a variety of cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A 1986 National Cancer Institute study found that farmers in Kansas exposed to 2,4-D for 20 or more days a year had a six-fold higher risk for developing non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Five years later, another National Cancer Institute study showed that dogs were twice as likely to contract lymphoma if their owners used 2,4-D on their lawns.
Like flame retardants, and countless other compounds, 2,4-D also tends to accumulate inside people's homes, even days after the lawn outside has been sprayed. One study found 2,4-D present in the indoor dust of 63 percent of sampled homes; another showed levels of 2,4-D in indoor air and on indoor surfaces like floors and tables increased after lawn applications. Exposure levels for children were ten times higher than before the lawns were treated, an indication, among other things, of just how easily the chemical is tracked inside on the little feet of dogs, cats, and children.
2,4-D, of course, is just one of scores of pesticides in broad use today. Dr. David Pimentel, a professor of entomology at Cornell, has written that 110,000 people suffer from adverse health effects from pesticides each year, and that 10,000 cases of cancer may be attributable to pesticide exposure.
And it's not just our health that suffers from our cultural obsession with lawn chemicals; our environment suffers too. And not just from herbicides. Synthetic fertilizers, which are as much part of a landscaping contract as the weedkillers, accumulate in streams and rivers after heavy rains, and wash downstream into lakes and bays. Where I live, in Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay suffers catastrophic "dead zones" resulting from the excessive nutrients running off suburban lawns (and chicken farms — but that's a topic for another day.) When you consider that there are roughly 50 million square acres of tended grass in the United States — a patch of lawn the size of Nebraska — you get a sense of the volume of chemicals we're talking about. Chemicals that are absorbed into our drinking water, into our wildlife, into our bodies.
via McKay Jenkins, Ph.D.: The Lawn Chemical Ritual.
