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European Rain Full of Deadly Pesticides
Rain in some parts of Europe contains so much deadly pesticide residue that it would be illegal to distribute it as drinking water.
Start Date: 4/10/99
The New Scientist (www.newscientist.com) of March 31, 1999 reports a new study showing that rain in some parts of Europe contains so much deadly pesticide residue that it would be illegal to distribute it as drinking water.
"Drinking water standards are regularly exceeded in rain," says Stephan Muller, a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology in Dubendorf. Studies in Switzerland have found that rain is laced with toxic levels of atrazine, alachlor and other commonly used crop sprays, which evidently evaporate from fields and circulate into the clouds.
Swiss and European Union statutes set a legal limit of 100 nanograms of any one pesticide in a liter of drinking water. But rain, particularly the first few minutes of new rain, often contains many times that level. One sample of rainwater contained almost 4000 nanograms per litre of 2,4-dinitrophenol, a widely used pesticide.
Meanwhile, Swedish researchers have linked pesticides to one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in the Western world. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which has risen by 73 per cent in the U.S. since 1973, is probably caused by several commonly used crop sprays, the scientists said. The researchers suggest that pesticide chemicals may suppress the human immune system, allowing viruses such as Epstein-Barr to trigger cancer.
Chemicals particularly linked to the incidence of cancer include MCPA, a widely used weedkiller marketed under the name Target; and glyphosate, a herbicide sold as Round-Up by Monsanto. Use of glyphosate is expected to greatly increase as Monsanto brings its new line of herbicide-resistant "terminator seeds" to market worldwide. [GSReport thanks Dan Drasin for bringing this story to our attention.]
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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