Humans

Acetamiprid is a potent and a relatively new neonicotinoid insecticide. Animal studies have indicated that it has a low toxicity to mammals. Despite wide usage, human exposure resulting in toxicity is quite limited, and this is the first report in the English literature about acute acetamiprid poisoning in humans. Case Details. We herein describe two cases of acute poisoning with an insecticide formulation containing acetamiprid for suicidal purposes. Both cases experienced severe nausea and vomiting, muscle weakness, hypothermia, convulsions, and clinical manifestations including tachycardia, hypotension, electrocardiogram changes, hypoxia, and thirst in the case with the higher serum concentration of acetamiprid. The symptoms were partially similar to acute organophosphate intoxication. Supportive treatments for a variety of symptoms were sufficient for recovery, and both individuals were discharged without any complications 2 days after ingestion.

Neonicotinoids are a relatively newer class of insecticide. Used primarily in agriculture, neonicotinoids are also used for flea control in domestic animals. Information on human exposures to neonicotinoids is limited. Neonicotinoid exposures reported to Texas poison centers during 2000–2012 were identified and the distribution by selected factors examined. Of 1,142 total exposures, most products contained imidacloprid (77%) or dinotefuran (17%). The exposures were seasonal with half reported during May–August. The most common routes of exposure were ingestion (51%), dermal (44%), and ocular (11%). The distribution by patient age was 5 years or less (28%), 6–19 years (9%), 20 years or more (61%), and unknown (2%); and 64% of the patients were female. Of all, 97% of the exposures were unintentional and 97% occurred at the patient’s own residence. The management site was on-site (92%), already at/en route to a health care facility (6%), and referred to a health care facility (2%). The medical outcomes included no effect (22%), minor effect (11%), moderate effect (1%), not followed judged nontoxic (14%), not followed minimal effects (46%), unable to follow potentially toxic (1%), and unrelated effect (4%). The most commonly reported adverse clinical effects were ocular irritation (6%), dermal irritation (5%), nausea (3%), vomiting (2%), oral irritation (2%), erythema (2%), and red eye (2%). The most frequently reported treatments were dilution/wash (85%) and food (6%). In summary, these data suggest that the majority of neonicotinoid exposures reported to the poison centers may be managed outside of health care facilities with few clinical effects expected

You hear a lot these days about genetically modified organisms, with many people arguing that they’ll be a necessity in the not-so-distant future, as climate change stresses agriculture, and as a growing, and increasingly affluent, population consumes more food, and more inefficient animal-based foods. Others argue that we’ll need GMOs to reduce global warming emissions, harm to biodiversity from pesticides, pollution from fertilizers (such as coastal “dead zones”), and overuse of scarce resources like fresh water by industrial agriculture. You might have seen one such argument a few months ago from David Rotman, the editor of MIT Technology Review, in his feature called “Why We Will Need Genetically Modified Foods.” But all these arguments rest on certain assumptions, and these assumptions are flawed, at best. Rotman, for example, argued that we’ll need GMOs because simpler, less controversial options such as breeding are simply too slow. He thinks breeding doesn’t give growers access to enough genetic diversity to allow adaptation to climate challenges and to sufficiently increase yields. Many breeders and molecular biologists disagree.

The eradication of hunger and malnutrition is an achievable goal. Reaching it requires, however, that we move away from business as usual and improve coordination across sectors, across time and across levels of governance. Empowering communities at the local level, in order for them to identify the obstacles that they face and the solutions that suit them best, is a first step. This must be complemented by supportive policies at the national level that ensure the right sequencing between the various policy reforms that are needed, across all relevant sectors, including agriculture, rural development, health, education and social protection. In turn, local-level and national-level policies should benefit from an enabling international environment, in which policies that affect the ability of countries to guarantee the right to food – in the areas of trade, food aid, foreign debt alleviation and development cooperation – are realigned with the imperative of achieving food security and ensuring adequate nutrition.

Neurowissenschaftler warnen vor einer globalen, stillen Pandemie der schleichenden Vergiftung von Kindern durch Umweltchemikalien. Eine fortschreitende Verdummung und stetige Zunahme von Verhaltens- und Entwicklungsstörungen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen seien bereits messbar. In ihrer Studie belegen die Forscher eine hirnschädigende Wirkung für elf Chemikalien, darunter Blei, Mangan, Quecksilber, Fluor- und Chlorverbindungen, sowie mehrere Pestizide und Lösungsmittel. Bisherige Zulassungstests erfassen zwar akute neurotoxische Wirkungen, die Folgen einer schleichenden Belastung im Mutterleib und der frühen Kindheit bleiben aber bisher meist unerkannt. Philippe Grandjean von der Universität von Süddänemark in Odense und Philip Landrigan von der Harvard University berichten, dass mehr als jedes zehnte Kind bereits von Geburt an eine Entwicklungs- und Verhaltensstörung habe: Autismus, geistige Defizite und Hyperaktivität, aber auch eine später auftretende erhöhte Aggression und andere Verhaltensauffälligkeiten. Genetische Faktoren spielen zwar für einige der Erkrankungen eine Rolle, sie können aber nur 30% bis 40% der Fälle erklären.

A recent CNN report Saturday revealed an unusually high number of babies born with the birth defect anencephaly in a three-county area in the state of Washington. According to the article, between January 2010 and January 2013, Department of Health epidemiologists found 23 reported cases of anencephaly in those areas, which means for every 10,000 live births there were roughly eight cases. Anencephaly is a life-ending birth defect where parts of the infant's brain and skull are missing. The stunning amount of those cases reported is four times higher than the national average, which is about 2 cases per 10,000 lives.