THE FOREST AND PESTICIDES

October 16, 2015

Assorted notes from the winter of 2014-2015, not complete coverage of the subject.

The 1970 Canadian Government spraying for Spruce Budworm used organophosphate Fenitrothion on tens of thousands of acres of New Brunswick which just happened to be in Blueberry areas.  The Bumblebees were killed. The area’s Blueberry production took years to recover. Nearby Nova Scotia did not spray, lost no Bumblebees and kept their Blueberry production

Subject: saving Northern Ontario from Chemical Contamination 8/23/2007, National Aboriginal Association,  Ottawa.

“A number of individuals have joined together requesting that government agencies including:

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, OMNR;  Provincial and Federal Ministries of Environment;  Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans; and The Environmental Commission of Ontario, take appropriate steps to sample water quality before and after herbicide applications expected to occur in Northern Ontario during the summer of 2007.  “

‘Currently such testing is not routinely performed.”

The letter goes on to say that at that time, 2007,  “the issue of herbicide application is one which is non-negotiable with the companies.” 

The NAFA  (National Aboriginal Forestry Association) believes it is for” financial reasons alone” that the companies do not use other “ tools” to manage the vegetation.

The NAFA states, “ The residents in Northern Ontario are literally being exposed to toxic chemicals “ (banned elsewhere) “ for the sake of increasing shareholders profits.”

The letter goes on to say: “If this notion bothers you…express your opinion.”

“ It is important to remember that this environmental degradation affects First Nations, Metis and all other communities in Northern Ontario alike.  No one should feel excluded or immune from this chemical contamination of air, water , fish and wildlife.

“The Report submitted in July 2007 cites empirical evidence indicative that spray drift is routinely exceeding the currently required buffer zones for herbicide application.  In addition to risks of herbicide entering the waterways by spray drift, evidence is mounting that groundwater may also become contaminated, later mixing with surface water holding fish.”

“In Northern Ontario (2007) the two main herbicides being used include glyphosate and 2,4-D as their base chemical, Round-Up and Killex respectively. Evidence of glyphosate contaminating ground water in Cochrane, Ontario, is consistent with findings in European countries such as Denmark. 2,4-D ground water contamination is well recognized globally.”

According to Lorraine A. Rekmans, the Aboriginal Affairs Advocate for the  Green Party of Canada, “ The systematic application of chemical herbicides in Ontario and the contamination of waterways is in violation of The Treaties signed with the original peoples of Ontario and impacts directly on basic human rights to healthy food sources.  This is a violation of our Constitutionally protected rights as Aboriginal Peoples.  In fact a violation of all people’s rights.  As a member of Confederation, Ontario has to take its responsibility to uphold treaties seriously.”

SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS

“ Notably, study of the synergistic effects of 2,4-D and glyphosate mixtures, either intentional or unintentional, is not required by governments in Canada, and thus testing of synergistic impacts is limited.” Pg. 7

DRIFT

“Glyphosate drift-damage is likely to be much more extensive and more persistent than with many other herbicides.” Pg 8  “This herbicide can be extensively mobile in the soil…”  Run-off into the water.

HEALTH

Continued herbicide use will result in significant contamination with human health implications.

“Numerous laboratory studies have shown the ability of glyphosate and glyphosate containing herbicide products to cause genetic damage.”

“In the specific study examined, Round-Up, and its active ingredient glyphosate, were tested in the same battery of assays for the induction of DNA damage and chromosomal effects invivo and in vitro.”

Damage was noted in mice – bone marrow, lover and kidney.

“Furthermore, when testing the effects of the pesticide compounds on human lymphocytes it was shown that after treatment, both glyphosate and Round-Up significantly induced Chromatid exchanges. These chromatid exchanges could result in mutagenic effects.”

“In addition, glyphosate has also been proven to have carcinogenetic effects.” “Three studies found a link between glyphosate exposure  and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

“Furthermore, another study from the University of Minnesota demonstrates that both glyphosate and Round-Up caused a rapid increase in cell division in human breast cancer cells.”

“Furthermore, glyphosate exposure has been linked to increased risk of pregnancy problems, but the mechanism of action in mammals is questionable.”

Joel Theriault, White Moose petition –re the earlier  request for water quality  testing:

Petition rejected by Government due to lack of documentation of Glyphosate in Water, 2007.

The White Moose site has much of Joel Theriaults’ earlier writings re pesticides.

After the final rejection by the government Joel Theriault  now works in the legal department of EcoJustice and stays away from pesticides.

The current herbicide used in Canada forestry cornering 90% of the market is Glyphosate.

100,000 (one hundred thousand)  hectares treated annually in Ontario predominantly areal spray.

Glyphosate, aka:

Round-Up

Roundup original

Round-up Biactive

Vision

Vision Max

Weather Max

Touchdown, and

Catena.

Glyph formulations with inert ingredient POEA are highly toxic to many larval amphibian species.

Inert ingredients are not toxic to plants.

Since chemical formulas are usually secret they (the companies) are not required to list inert ingredients.

As the article I was reading says, any good lab can analyze the product and tell what’s in it.  The only people kept in the dark are the general public.

Recreational Reading, sidetracked

RECREATIONAL READING

October 15, 2015  B. J. Brill

Usually, when this world is too much with me, I like to read of others.

In the process of sorting through several thousand of Sylvia’s paperbacks I came upon “When Worlds Collide,” by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, Dell 1933. It was in company with three other Philip Wylie books:

The Gladiator (a man of steel has Forrest Gump –like adventures), Manor Books, 1976, copyright 1930;

The Smuggled Atom Bomb, Lancer Books 1965 , copyright 1948; and

Tomorrow, Popular Library, 1963, copyright 1954. Dedicated to the men and women of the Federal Civil Defense Administration  and those other true patriots and volunteers who are doing their best to save the sum of things.

In 1963 Popular Library’s Editorial Board considered Philip Wylie to be one of this world’s greatest authors.

By the time I was old enough to read, this genre (Black Utopias) was not something I would check out of the Library. However, NOW, having grown up in the “time” he writes about, I can identify , surprisingly,  with the feelings and attitudes he describes so vividly.  I can recall instructions given on “what to do” in the event of “the Bomb”. As I grew older and learned  “more” I thought, “ A hell of a lot of good that will do!”

But at the time it did scare me.

We also had to live with the jets that routinely broke the sound barrier over Lake Huron. At first that scared me, but then in the vast skies over Lake Huron we could watch the contrails and try and guess when the sonic boom would come.

The radio news listed how much “TNT” was used in the latest “test”. That scared me.

 This past year there has been some concern shown that “families” or parents and children are participating in pickets and demonstrations. The concern is that the children are “too young” to be exposed to concerns of adults? I’ll tell you the world we face as children is a lot less scary than the world we can  Imagine! I hated fire. When the hay- barns would ignite by spontaneous combustion I would imagine the Black Donnellys were riding again – even though they had been dead for half a century

 

And then they built a Candu Nuclear Power Plant just eight miles away. I don’t know if any locals protested its building.  ‘Refrain’:  It scared me.

Eventually our whole family moved more than a thousand kilometres  North.

Within two years of our arrival a proposal of a Nuclear Power Plant to be built on our “doorstep” elicited an “Open House/Town Hall”  meeting where the community (myself included) protested. It never did find a taker in all of the North.

And then, 40 years later, the spent fuel bundles (Nuclear Waste) stored at the site I moved away from, was being offered to my new home!

And city council said, “Why not? “  “Let’s get on the list of possible sites and be wined and dined and educate the people so they know how safe it will be and the employment opportunities…”

The loss of forest industry mills had left many northern communities so desperate for employment opportunities that they are/were willing to consider Nuclear Waste storage.  It took almost three years of protest by a more active, younger, generation to have the city council officially withdraw their offer of candidacy.

(Big Sigh)

Actually none of the four books has anything about Nuclear Waste. Nuclear Power Plants had not yet come on line to create it.

The Nuclear Waste described was more the result of “the impact” or “impending impact”, physically and mentally upon world population and the earth itself.

 When Worlds Collide was written before the Bomb.  The use of Nuclear Power (atomic pile) to power the space ship would have been science fiction at that date, most likely. A few years later Wylie did get arrested for writing about “the bomb” before the “bomb” was fully developed and public knowledge. Some science fiction writers could add two and two most accurately.

When Worlds Collide is not man destroying the earth.  It is man trying to escape the doomed planet so that “man” would survive.

Years ago I saw the movie.  The only “memory clip” I have is of people running to board the ship. After reading this book for the first time I wonder what the movie was about?  The book is quite dramatic and descriptive.  I will have to keep an eye on the Movie Channel.

However dramatic and devastating the story line, it was the contents of the list of what to take when they escaped that caught my eye.

Page 205: quote “ Our first and most necessary unit for self-preservation proved to be the common honey bee, to secure the pollination of flowering plants, trees and so on. Keppler says that of some twenty thousand nectar insects, this one species pollinates more than the rest put together. The honey bee would take care of practically all of this work, as his range is tremendous.  There are a few plants, Kepplar tells me, such as the red clover, which he cannot work on, but his cousin the bumblebee , with his longer proboscis, could attend to them.  So first and foremost among living things , we bring bees.” End quote.

Now, I wonder, do the chemists of the deadly pesticides tell themselves “Why worry about destroying honey bees with neonicotinoids when there are twenty thousand other pollinators out there.”

However – “pollination” is becoming a suicide mission for the majority of those twenty thousand, too.