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After the awful and sad incident at a school in Bihar, India this week, where “at least 23 children” have died and many were more hospitalized due to organophosphate poison in their school lunches, I decided to learn more about that kind of toxic exposure. What does it do? When did we start using such toxic chemicals on our foods, anyway?
Wikipedia has a great introductory discussion. Organophosphate pesticides, I learned, were developed in this country when the recipe for pesticide/nerve gas was found in post- World War II Nazi Germany. Someone decided it might be a worthwhile idea to massively produce and market that nerve gas, and Wikipedia further explained that ” Parathion was among the first marketed, followed by malathion and azinphosmethyl. The popularity of these insecticides increased after many of the organochlorine insecticides like DDT, dieldrin, and heptachlor were banned in the 1970s.”
These chemicals are acutely toxic to bees, animals, humans, and yet they are used more and more today as insecticides in agriculture and landscaping in schools, parks, and businesses, as solvents, plasticizers, and lubricants.
The New York State Department of Health information about the neurologic damage, the life-threatening criticality these agents cause is truly daunting, and yet, “According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a representative sample of produce tested by the agency, 28 percent of frozen blueberries, 20 percent of celery, 27 percent of green beans, 17 percent of peaches, 8 percent of broccoli and 25 percent of strawberries contained traces of organophosphate.“
And we wonder why we see a rise in neurological disabilities?
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Rocket Fuel for Breakfast, Gonad Soup for Lunch 