Article on weight gain and exposure too DDT prenatal relates to obesity

[Bill who putters]

Long URL below

"Babies born to normal-weight moms who had exhibited elevated blood-DDE levels (in the upper 25 percent of all participants) were twice as likely to grow rapidly during their first 6 months than were infants born to the least-exposed women (with DDE concentrations in the lowest

25 percent). By 14 months old, children whose exposures to DDE in the womb had been in the top 50 percent were four times as likely to be overweight ? as indicated by a high body-mass-index, or BMI, score ? when compared to children with lower exposures.

In fact, a growing body of data has been indicating that some pollutants ? known colloquially as obesogens ? can trigger the body to put on the pounds. In animals, these pollutants will sometimes lead a mouse to become rotund despite eating no more and exercising no less than its lean cousins. Many obesogens ? including DDE ? have a hormonal alter ego. In the body, DDE can either turn on or block the activity of natural estrogens, female sex hormones. This pollutant also can block the activity of male sex hormones. Such properties lead scientists to describe this pesticide derivative as an endocrine disrupter."

[Bill who putters]

I think that the use of DDT is a garden issue. If you read the article note that root crops years latter can give the broken down DDT to the end user. Not many of us can claim not using chemicals in the garden in the past 50 years so I think it is on topic. I do post off topic stuff often with the "_OT_" warning.

[phorbin]

Bill.

The newsgroups that are still going strong follow protocols including using OT: when topics aren't right on target.

I know I've been slack too but I think we should all adopt the discipline and make the declaration up front.

[Dan L]

I think sometimes the scientific studies have fallen into a bottomless pit of despair. Example: Obesity has all been blamed on a specific cold virus.

today is in bad shape in many ways... Time travel, worm holes, warp fields... All garbage in the realm of science. I do believe what we breath and consume can harm us. However, I want REASON included with cause and effect. Just applying cause and effect outside of a controlled environment is just not science to me. I read the same blog on the science news rss. However, I have not used pesticides in four years... I am still fat!... Lazy... Lethargic... Yes it was the common cold! Not those snicker bars with that ham and cheese with mayo sandwiches I eat all the time. I now can blame it on pesticides and a cold virus. Not eating habits... I feel better now that I learned it was not my fault for being fat!

Protocols it is, I am going miss the chaos years and flame wars... Tears...

[Bill who putters]

Well they don't look too alarmist or shabby to me.

year old science is it that old ?

I stand by the post.

[Derald]

Bill who putters wrote:

The article you cite is nothing about DDT use, at all, much less in gardens. It is not science; it is ideological FUD, the speciality of the organization that publishes "ScienceNews". It is important to note that DDT is not the only, nor even the major, source of DDE, which is the toxin under consideration. I suspect the author's direct references to DDT were for their alarmist value and little else. Face it, the item you cite was about the apparent coincidence of incipient obesity within the first two years of the lives of children born to a vanishingly small proportion of "normal weight" Spanish women -- those with "elevated" levels of DDE in their blood -- within a statistically meaningless sample in a "study" that totally to have disregarded any other variables. As I said, alarmist ideologic propaganda but not science. The citations are of old, outdated references, some as far back as 1996. The author's own most recent citation of DDT use is from 2000 and it is one of her own articles about the severely restricted and declining use of DDT for malaria control worldwide. DDT was virtually banned in North America in 1972 and completely banned in USA and Canada in early 1980's. Manufacture in Mexico ceased in 1997 and its use stopped in 2000, two years ahead of target date. It is interesting that those who most loudly advocate DDT's total elimination from the planet (among whose number, I count myself) do not live in parts of the globe where malaria is a persistent public health menace. Finally, I submit this quote from your citation:

which contains a link to this 2005 article from the same rag and by the same author:

which specifically addresses DDE, as well as other pesticide residues, and from which I quote:

Frankly, I would suggest a new OT designation: FUD; or, perhaps, TiT (Tempest in Teapot). Oh, and I can and do claim absolutely and unconditionally to not using chemicals in my garden within the past

50+ years.

[Billy]

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Antarctic Melt Releasing DDT, Tainting Penguins

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It has been a very long time since mosquitos have been a problem in Antarctica.

[Billy]

"Carried out in Spain, the new ? and still ongoing ? study recruited more than 500 women to take part, beginning in the first trimester of their pregnancies. "

You are a willfully ignorant person.

[Billy]

Thanks for the article, Bill.