WWI Chemical Weapon Used to Grow Calif. Strawberries

[donnay]

WWI Chemical Weapon Used to Grow Calif. Strawberries
$2.6B industry is bolstered by that and other dangerous fumigants: investigation


By Jenn Gidman, Newser Staff
Posted Nov 11, 2014 1:12 PM CST

A school surrounded by strawberry fields sounds charming—unless it's in the middle of a California farming community that still relies on potentially dangerous pesticides to keep its lucrative cash crop growing. An in-depth look by the Center for Investigative Reporting at this $2.6 billion industry and its reliance on fumigants makes some startling revelations:

California provides nine out of 10 of the strawberries consumed by Americans, but strawberries are notoriously difficult to grow. Fumigants—including methyl bromide, 1,3-Dichloropropene, and chloropicrin, a chemical weapon used in World War I—are pumped underground to prevent future plagues, and while the residue doesn't stay on the fruit itself, it wafts into the air and has been linked to cancer, developmental issues, and ozone layer depletion.

Dow AgroSciences (which manufactures 1,3-D) and state regulators supported a 2002 pesticide policy that let growers ignore restrictions against 1,3-D. The rationale: People can be exposed to more 1,3-D in any given year as long as it "evens out over time." A Harvard associate professor calls that nonsense, saying that's like driving sober one time, then driving with a BAC that's twice the legal limit and averaging out the two incidents to "say everything is fine."

All developed countries (including the US) that signed 1987's Montreal Protocol agreed that no methyl bromide would be used by 2005. However, California strawberry growers are tapping into a crucial exemption that allows them to keep using the pesticide if they can prove there's no acceptable alternative and it would hurt the industry financially.

Continued...

[Zippyjuan]

Interesting related article from last year. http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/sa...t-bromide.html

Growing Berries Without Bromide

The scarecrows perched in Santa Cruz strawberry fields do little to scare away the birds, much less the insects and fungi harbored in the soil. Everything likes to eat strawberries, which makes growing them a risky business.

This predicament led UC Santa Cruz professor Carol Shennan to take an unconventional approach to pest management. Nine years ago, the fatal plant disease Verticillium wilt was wiping out strawberry plants at the university farm. Chemicals hardly phase the pathogen, and Shennan saw little improvement with crop rotation, which is typically used to treat infested fields. A visiting plant pathologist from the Netherlands recommended a little-known organic technique called anaerobic soil disinfestation, and, with so few other options, Shennan decided to give it a try.

“After the first treatment we almost entirely eliminated Verticillium from the soil,” says Shennan. The number of disease spores dropped from 20 per gram of soil to zero or one—a success story that earned Shennan and her collaborators a $725,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2007.

Shennan is currently compiling nearly a decade of results comparing anaerobic soil disinfestation to chemical fumigation. The results, which will be submitted for publication this summer, show that after disinfestation, the number of Verticillium disease spores consistently drops by 80 to 100 percent. “This is similar to the levels we have achieved with fumigation,” says Shennan.

Kill-all fumigants like methyl bromide have been a staple of the local berry industry for decades. Twenty years ago most California strawberry crops were treated with methyl bromide, and after the ozone-depleting chemical was banned by the Montreal Protocol, the United States lagged behind other nations in the phase-out process. This year, with the Environmental Protection Agency starting to crack down, only 8,000 acres of California berries will be treated with methyl bromide, and next year critical use exemptions will permit only 5,000 acres.

“Farmers have tried other fumigants, but there aren’t a lot of good options,” says Carolyn O’Donnell, of the California Strawberry Commission. Methyl iodide could have been used on berry farms, but it was pulled from the market last year after national environmental campaigns raised concerns over toxicity. Many of the few remaining fumigants have been criticized for increasing plant disease.

Determining best practices for growing strawberries is a vital question for California, where there are more than 40,000 acres of strawberries. Half of the state’s crop is grown in Watsonville and Salinas, where the average berry farm spans 80 acres. In Santa Cruz County’s agriculture-driven economy, the sweet red berries remain the highest valued crop, raking in more than $198 million in 2011.

The problem has turned the spotlight to fumigant-free alternatives like anaerobic soil disinfestation. While disease organisms decline after treatment, the total number of soil bacteria increase. Disinfestation appears to alter microbial communities, but it likely does not kill as many organisms. Disinfestation is also less toxic to humans than chemical fumigation as the active ingredients are inert.

As part of the treatment, carbon sources like rice bran, molasses and grape skins are mixed into the soil. A tarp is placed over the field, and drip irrigation is used to saturate the planting beds. This triggers the growth of anaerobic bacteria. “We don’t know the exact mechanism by which this kills pathogens, but it likely involves the organic acids produced by anaerobic bacteria,” says Shennan.

While disinfestation uses more water than fumigation, the technique is primarily criticized for being new—no one knows which pathogens the method kills, or whether treatment will work on a large, industrial farm.

So far, treatment has been limited to much smaller plots. This growing season, Watsonville-based Farm Fuel Inc. treated more than 130 acres in Santa Cruz and Monterey with the disinfestation method. The largest treated plot was 25 acres, but Farm Fuel Inc. CEO Stefanie Bourcier says she isn’t afraid to treat bigger sites. “We started offering treatments as a commercial service in 2011, and each year we have done larger and larger plots,” she says.

Bourcier looked into the technique after Fusarium wilt infected perennial herbs at an affiliated farm. She and her colleagues treated two sites with anaerobic soil disinfestation, and results were promising. “The plants did really well after treatment, and we didn’t see big die-offs,” says Bourcier. “However the neighboring block of plants was not treated, and it had significant disease.”

According to Bourcier, the treatment is also cost effective. It currently costs $3,900 per acre to treat strawberries with methyl bromide, while anaerobic soil disinfestation totals $2,700 an acre. While other fumigants are a little cheaper, disinfestation will enter the market at the middle-range price.

“This is very important in the berry industry because you have to invest a lot of money before you can make money,” says Shennan. A farmer can earn $50,000 an acre growing berries, but they will likely spend $25,000 to plant.

More at link.

According to the above piece, in 2014 (this year) only 5,000 acres were granted an exemption by the EPA (out of 40,000 acres of strawberries grown in CA http://www.californiastrawberries.co...t_strawberries )for methyl bromide.

[donnay]

Bromide Dominance Theory
How Competitive Inhibition Causes Iodine Deficiency

A bromide dominance condition may develop when bromine,
acquired through environmental, occupational, iatrogenic or dietary
exposure, causes bromide levels in the body to rise high enough to
inhibit iodine enzyme metabolism.

Iodine supplementation alters the competitive bromine-iodine
relationship causing bromide excretion. Thus, bromide dominance is
diminished and proper iodine enzyme metabolism may be restored.

In the toxic 21st Century, these questions must be raised:

Would we have such a severe iodine deficiency without bromide
dominance?


If iodine deficiency is the underlying cause of many diseases,

is bromide "the underlying cause of the underlying cause?"


Is bromide dominance creating a public health crisis?


Where Does Bromide Dominance Come From?

Bromide is an insidious, additive used in many common products, and as a
pesticide. Because of the sheer amount of bromide-supplemented
products, exposure to this man-made additive has caused a depletion of
iodine in human populations. Studies in lab animals provide alarming
evidence that even small amounts of bromide exposure can be toxic. (1)

What products contain bromide?

Currently, bromide is found in pesticides (methyl bromide), some bread
products (potassium bromate), brominated vegetable oil that may be
added to citrus-flavored drinks, hot tub cleansers, certain asthma inhalers
and prescription drugs, plastic products, some personal care products,
and some fabric dyes.

Continued...

[donnay]

Avoid This If You Want To Keep Your Thyroid Healthy

Dr. Joseph Mercola

If you are like most people, you probably haven't spent much time thinking about how much bromine you're absorbing from your car upholstery or your Mountain Dew. But bromine toxicity is a definite danger from some surprising sources, and it can wreak havoc on your health.

Bromines All Around You

Bromines are common endocrine disruptors, and are part of the halide family, a group of elements that includes fluorine, chlorine and iodine. What makes it so dangerous is that it competes for the same receptors that are used to capture iodine.

If you are exposed to a lot of bromine, your body will not hold on to the iodine that it needs. And iodine affects every tissue in your body -- not just your thyroid.

You are already exposed to far too much chlorine and bromine. Bromine can be found in a number of places in your everyday world, including:

•Pesticides (specifically methyl bromide, used mainly on strawberries, predominantly in California)

•Plastics, like those used to make computers

•Bakery goods and some flours often contain a "dough conditioner" called potassium bromate

•Soft drinks (including Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Sun Drop, Squirt, Fresca and other citrus-flavored sodas), in the form of brominated vegetable oils (BVOs)

•Medications such as Atrovent Inhaler, Atrovent Nasal Spray, Pro-Banthine (for ulcers), and anesthesia agents

•Fire retardants (common one is polybromo diphenyl ethers or PBDEs) used in fabrics, carpets, upholstery, and mattresses

•Bromine-based hot tub and swimming pool treatments

According to van Leeuwen, who has extensively studied the effects of sodium bromide on thyroid function:

"Although the bromide ion is widely distributed in nature, the main route of exposure in humans stems from bromide residues in food commodities as a result of the abundant use of bromide-containing pesticides, like methylbromide and ethylene dibromide, for soil fumigation in intensive horticulture and for postharvest treatment."

One clinical consequence of overexposure to bromine is suppression of your thyroid, leading to hypothyroidism, which will be discussed shortly. Another is bromide toxicity.

Bromine -- The Bully of the Halide Group

When you ingest or absorb bromine, it displaces iodine, and this iodine deficiency leads to an increased risk for cancer of the breast, thyroid gland, ovary and prostate -- cancers that we see at alarmingly high rates today. This phenomenon is significant enough to have been given its own name -- the Bromide Dominance Theory.

Aside from its effects on your endocrine glands, bromine is toxic in and of itself. Bromide builds up in your central nervous system and results in many problems. It is a central nervous system depressant and can trigger a number of psychological symptoms such as acute paranoia and other psychotic symptoms.

In fact, in an audio interview, physician Jorge Flechas reported that, between 1920 and 1960, at least 20 percent of all hospital admissions for "acute paranoid schizophrenia" were a result of ingesting bromine-containing products.

In addition to psychiatric problems, bromine toxicity can manifest as the following:

•Skin rashes and severe acne

•Loss of appetite and abdominal pain

•Fatigue

•Metallic taste

•Cardiac arrhythmias

Baby Boomers might recall a popular product from the 1950s called Bromo-Seltzer. These effervescent granules, developed by the Emerson Drug Company of Baltimore, were used to treat heartburn, upset stomach, indigestion, headaches and hangovers.

Bromo-Selzer's original formula contained 3.2 mEq/teaspoon of sodium bromide -- hence the name. The sedative effect probably explained its popularity as a hangover remedy. Bromides were withdrawn from the American market in 1975 due to their toxicity.

Bromo-Selzer is still on the market, but no longer contains bromide.

Continued...

[Zippyjuan]

Starts with some big assumptions.

1) There is a big iodine deficiency problem

2) there is a major health problem

3) that health problem is caused by #1.

http://www.uptodate.com/contents/iod...ency-disorders

Only a few countries appear to have sustainable iodine sufficiency at the present time: the United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Bhutan, Peru, Panama, Macedonia, and Japan. Iodine intake in the United States has decreased slightly since 2007, with a median urinary iodine excretion of 144 mcg/L (1.1 µmol/L) [43]. Among women of reproductive age, the median urinary iodine excretion was 129 mcg/L, with 37 percent of women having levels <100 mcg/L. Iodine nutrition in the United States is mainly achieved by silent iodine prophylaxis [44]. A systematic survey of United States food iodine sources since the early 1990s suggests that the average United States iodine intake is currently sufficient

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/iodine.htm

Iodine deficiency is one of the four major deficiency diseases in the world, yet it is the easiest to control (1). In the United States, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) such as goiter, cretinism, stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, and retarded physical and intellectual development have been virtually eliminated through the iodization of salt. Recent surveys, however, have indicated that the proportion of the U.S. population with low urinary iodine levels is increasing. Although median values of urinary iodine in the U.S. population indicated adequate intake in the United States, the median decreased more than 50 percent between the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I, 1971-74) and NHANES III (1988-94). This reduction may be due, in part, to changes in food production (2).

Initial results from NHANES 2000 indicate that the median urinary iodine level of the population 6-74 years of age has not decreased since NHANES III. As shown in Table 1, the median was 16.1 mg/dL (95% CI 14.7-17.6) in 2000 compared with the 14.5 mg/dL estimate obtained from NHANES III.

Urinary iodine concentration measurement is the most widely used method for assessing the current iodine status of a population. Because most ingested iodine is excreted in the urine, urinary iodine concentration is a good indicator of iodine intake. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), median iodine levels should be greater than 10 mg/dL in "iodine sufficient" populations (2).

[donnay]

The Silent Epidemic of Iodine Deficiency
http://www.lef.org/magazine/2011/10/...ciency/Page-01

What Started our Health Epidemic in the 70s? Iodine Deficiency & MSM Sulfur Deficiency
http://smoore1.hubpages.com/hub/Iodi...n-Day-Epidemic

Iodine Deficiency and the Endocrine System
http://www.livingnaturally.com/pdfdo...l1lmvj9c42.pdf

Iodine Deficiency and Atherosclerosis
http://www.healthy-eating-politics.c...eficiency.html

[Zippyjuan]

The footnotes in link #1 indicate that the article's claim for iodine deficiency hitting 74% of the population was not about the US but Australia and India.

In the developed world, iodine deficiency has increased more than fourfold over the past 40 years. Nearly 74% of normal, “healthy” adults may no longer consume enough iodine.3,4

Link #2 does not have any evidence of insufficient iodine. Neither does #3 though both claim there is some sort of shortage. #3 also cautions:

In closing, I would like to say that although most people are significantly iodine-deficient, it is possible to take too
much iodine in the form of supplements, thereby causing unintended hyperthyroidism, a potentially dangerous
condition.

Numbers I CAN find:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/122714-overview

In the early 1900s, the Great Lakes, Appalachian, and northwestern regions of the United States were endemic regions for IDD, but since the iodization of salt and other foods in the 1920s, dietary iodine levels generally have been adequate. However, sustaining these iodization programs has become a concern.

Data collected in the United States by National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES I) for the years 1971-1974 showed that the median urinary iodine level was 320 mcg/L, reflecting adequate dietary iodine intake.[8] However, by the time of NHANES III (1988-1994), the median urinary iodine value had fallen to 145 mcg/L.

The reduction in US dietary iodine intake since the 1970s has likely been the result of the removal of iodate conditioners in store-bought breads, widely publicized recommendations for reduced salt and egg intake for blood pressure and cholesterol control, the increasing use of noniodized salt in manufactured or premade convenience foods, decreased iodine supplementation of cattle feed, poor education about the medical necessity of using iodized salt, and reduction in the number of meals made at home.[8, 9, 10]

The NHANES surveys of 2001-2002, 2005-2006, and 2007-2008 showed that US dietary iodine intake has stabilized.[9, 10] Although the most recent NHANES survey reveals adequate iodine intake in the general US population, certain groups have an insufficient intake of iodine, such as pregnant women, who were found to have a median urinary iodine concentration of 125 mcg/L).[11]

[donnay]

Iodine Protects Against Fluoride Toxicity
http://drsircus.com/medicine/iodine/...oride-toxicity