A Canadian doctors’ association has released a report warning patients to stay away from pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Transcript
A Canadian doctors’ association has released a report warning patients to stay away from
pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
The Ontario College of Family Physicians considered 250 scientific studies of humans
between 1990 and 2003. The group found consistent links between exposure to pesticides
and a number of illnesses, including brain tumors, prostate cancer and leukemia.
Dr. Rinna Bray chairs the college’s environmental health committee. She recommends
people limit pesticide exposure on what they eat, what they put on their lawns and what
they use in their homes.
“The writing’s on the wall. And it is our obligation to let the public know and warn
people that pesticides are dangerous at chronic low doses that you find in your home and
your garden.”
Bray says children are the most vulnerable, in part because their bodies have more
difficulty excreting the chemicals. The study comes as many communities, including
Toronto and the province of Quebec, ban the cosmetic use of pesticides.
Pesticide manufacturers maintain that exposure to the chemicals does not pose an
unacceptable risk to people’s health.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly