More Than 90% of Americans Have Pesticides or Their Byproducts in Their Bodies • Hacker News Board

Re: More Than 90% of Americans Have Pesticides or Their Byproducts in Their Bodies

#181

Post by alexandercrohde » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 3:28 PM UTC

xyzzy123 wrote: post #160

alexandercrohde wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, so here's the other side of the coin-- nobody actually has any idea what's definitely safe. Do you trust that because the EPA has put a number on a chemical that it can't be wrong? Why don't you guess what percent of the time when the EPA calls an exposure level safe does it go back and change its mind and decide it wasn't safe after all? Also, why are you confident the EPA knows all the long-term biological an…

Right but chemists can detect things at vanishingly small concentrations so "detected" often provides almost no information without further context. If you look hard enough you're very often going to find the molecule you're looking for. Was it detected at 0.1%, 100% or 10000% of an arbitrary EPA limit? This provides at least some quantitative indication of what's going on.

Unfortunately, some these chemicals can also have significant negative effects at vanishingly small doses, we're talking 1 part per billion. This is especially true for developing embryos (which share blood with the mother).

Re: More Than 90% of Americans Have Pesticides or Their Byproducts in Their Bodies

#182

Post by hinkley » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 9:56 PM UTC

stillbourne wrote: post #147

hinkley wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you forgotten the PBA studies already? Microdoses of some compounds can interrupt signaling in the endocrine system. We don’t know which yet, but we know the phenomenon exists. A cautious person would assume that lack of proof (or more accurately, lack of information proving or disproving) doesn’t mean lack of harm.

I am not familiar with those studies would you mind linking them or referencing the doi? I have a subscription to most science journals so I can read anything you link usually without additional cost.

Oops, that's a typo. BPA is the acronym I meant. I think a google for "endocrine disruption BPA" will turn up a lot of material.

Re: More Than 90% of Americans Have Pesticides or Their Byproducts in Their Bodies

#183

Post by BostonFern » Fri, Mar 29, 2019, 8:24 AM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #91

devmunchies wrote: post #7

Is it possible to grow enough food in your backyard to live off of (plus chickens as a yard waste disposal) if you also work full time? I can't even eat at a restaurant without knowing if they use organic produce.

Without pesticides? As an layman I doubt it. A few friends in my neighborhood started a garden and one of us said we couldn't use any pesticides that weren't organic. Bugs and fungus destroyed most of our crops. We spent hours and hours sitting on our knees rubbing soapy water on the bottom of the zucchini leaves trying to get rid of the squash bugs, to zero effect. I finally called enough and said we were dusting ev…

I don't mean to be haunting your comments, but you might want to look into organic pest control and techniques like companion planting. There's this popuar traditional American Indian one called the Three Sisters Garden, which is a method of growing three specific crops together that all benefit from each other's individual strengths to thrive and better fend off some pathogens.

Regarding your squash bugs, if I remember correctly, some ants will hunt them without hurting your crops. That's maybe a little counter-intuitive, but it might be worth looking into.

People have been farming organically for thousands of years. I'm sure much of it just comes down to knowledge about various crops and the local environment and then applying common sense and creativity.