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Dow Chemical Donates $1 Million to Trump, Asks Administration to Ignore Pesticide Study

  • April 21, 2017

Regardless of your views on the regulatory burden faced by businesses, the dangers of pesticides have been documented so extensively and for such a long period of time that they should fall well outside the purview of ideological disputes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a long and sordid history of colluding with pesticide manufacturers to subvert science and manipulate investigations to the benefit of their industry. 

Chemical manufacturing giants such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical have long had an outsized influence in the halls of government. It is only natural that they want to retain this level of influence with the new presidential administration.
 
This spring it was revealed that Monsanto probably used ghost written documents to prove that their product Roundup, also known as glyphosate, is safe and noncarcinogenic. Now it is Dow Chemicals that has attempted to curry favor with the executive branch. According to Vanity Fair, they donated $1 million to Donald Trump in an effort to protect their organophosphate pesticides from further regulation. 

Organophosphates were first developed as nerve gas during World War II. They work by inhibiting cholinesterase, an enzyme that regulates a key messenger in your brain called acetylcholine. The toll that these commonly used pesticides take on the environment has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Yet this is exactly what Dow Chemical wants the EPA, the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do. They have asked the heads of these organizations to ignore studies that showed their profitable pesticides to be dangerous to the environment and consumers.

A recent study illustrates the dangers of organophosphates. A study followed hundreds of pregnant women living in Salinas Valley, California, an agricultural mecca that has had up to a half-million pounds of organophosphates sprayed in the region per year. The children were followed through age 12 to assess what impact the pesticides had on their development. It turns out the impact was quite dramatic, and mothers' exposure to organophosphates during pregnancy was associated with shorter pregnancy duration, poorer neonatal reflexes, lower IQ, poor cognitive function and increased risk of attention issues in children.

As the dangers of organophosphates become clear, farmers have shifted toward other supposedly safer chemicals, like neonicotinoids and pyrethroids. The former group of chemicals is a leading suspect behind the massive bee die-offs occurring across the U.S., and the latter have shown equally concerning health effects as organophosphates.

The EPA carries a tremendous burden. Organophosphate pesticides and supposedly safer alternatives like Roundup are taking a major toll on health and life across the globe. By colluding with pesticide makers to shield them from that liability, the EPA has committed a serious crime against humanity.

If you know you have been exposed to pesticides, the lactic acid bacteria present in fermented foods can help detox the pesticides that do enter your body. Do not use synthetic pesticides in your home or garden, or in the form of insect repellant, lice shampoo, pet sprays or otherwise. There are safe and effective natural alternatives for virtually every pest problem you come across.