How Chemicals Used in Agriculture Affect Health

This is the second of three papers presented at these hearings by members of the American Academy of Applied nutrition. We feel indebted to them for these efforts made in behalf of all humanity. Informed lay people should also take an active part in their own behalf to urge greater restrictions in use of agricultural chemicals.

As past president of the Academy of Applied Nutrition and one of the members of the board of directors of the International College of Applied Nutrition I wish to thank you for the opportunity to present to you my point of view, which is based upon my study of nutrition throughout my practice of medicine.

I wish to give a little historical background and then confine my statements to my experience with the chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides.

Lead and Arsenic

Pesticide poisoning from agricultural products is not new. In the thirties, lead and arsenic were so heavily used as to constitute a real hazard and much of the summer diarrhea frequently resulted from its usage. In the mid 30s we had an epidemic at Pottenger Sanatorium in which 80 patients were stricken with arsenic poisoning, one of whom almost lost her life. Stool samples from this epidemic as well as other occurrences were analyzed for arsenic and diagnoses established. From that time on, at the suggestion of Dr Stone, Los Angeles County Health Department, I recommended to my patients the use of washing all fruits and vegetables first in sal soda, running water, then in vinegar, and again in running water. This method of control practically eliminated the recurrent gastrointestinal upsets which we had previously experienced. However, following World War II and the release of the chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides to agriculture, we were confronted with a new situation. We found that the simple washing with sal soda and vinegar no longer was effective, and again we began to see gastrointestinal problems.

Among the fruits and vegetables that we found particularly hazardous were apples, pears, and many of the leafy vegetables. We sent several samples in the State for analysis with the reports that pesticides were present within legal limits.

Symptoms

There were certain things that were noticeable in these early cases, namely, patients would frequently state that they ate something, usually salad, or a fruit, which caused a burning in the throat and was accompanied within the next few hours with a gastrointestinal upset and on numerous occasions in about ten days to two weeks with a pulmonary episode.

Fat samples were taken from some of these patients. The samples were analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and were reported by Edwin P. Laug, Frieda Kunze, and C. S. Prickett in A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine, March 1951, Vol. 3, pp. 245 and 246. I have also run many fat samples in private laboratories. In this particular series, the titer of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides varied from 0 to 34 p.p.m. DDT.

Over the years I have taken numerous fat samples and I find that the general average chlorinated hydrocarbon storage in the fat of my patients today is much higher than it was formerly. For that reason it is very difficult to establish that a given episode of burning in the throat, gastrointestinal upset, diarrhea, exhaustion, cough, disturbances in locomotion, etc., which I frequently see, is due to a recent chlorinated hydrocarbon exposure. (There are very few people in my practice who have not had numerous gastrointestinal upsets since the first of the year.) But on the basis of information obtained prior to the widespread use of these chemicals, it was possible to assume with a reasonable degree of certainty that the accumulation of organic chloride in the fat was from immediate origin. Now one can only infer that the episode was acute and probably of pesticide origin.

Body Storage of DDT Increasing

It has been my general finding that the degree of storage of chlorinated hydrocarbons in the fats of individuals is increasing over the years, which would correspond to the finding of Hays, et al. who reported that it is impossible to get a meal without having some pesticide in it.

I have cared for patients who have been poisoned by chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides both from agriculture usage and domestic. The most successful elimination of chlorinated hydrocarbon from a given individual occurred in a woman nursing her infant and during this period of lactation she dropped her titer from 30 p.p.m. to 0. She lived in an agricultural area and suffered as a result of agricultural sprays.

From a clinical standpoint there are two observations which I have made. First, immediate exposure seems to be accompanied by evidence of a slightly hypotoxic effect. In a good clear light one can notice a slight creamy yellowness or icterus, as we speak of it in medical terms, to the eyeball. Surrounding this is a yellow brown slight thickening of the skin about the eyes, and the icteric index may be just slightly elevated above normal, in the neighborhood of 8-10. On the other hand, if there has been severe exposure, it might go as high as 30. In patients whom I have had repeated cholesterols run on them, their cholesterol level may begin to climb in 2-3 weeks after their heavy exposure and gradually subside. Likewise, I find that the general run of my patient’s cholesterols in 1960 are much higher than those of 1950. You may ask if there was any relationship between these cholesterols and heart disease. I can say that I have seen individuals who have elevated chlorinated hydrocarbon titers in their fat which has increased over the years, show evidence of heart trouble that was not present before the exposure. This, however, is not proof that the chlorinated hydrocarbons cause heart trouble. It only demands further investigation. 

Accumulative Poison

I do know that the public is showing greater storage of chlorinated hydrocarbons in their fat and that if we are similar to experimental animals, over a 10 to 20 year span of our life we may expect to see serious detrimental effects. As a clinician, it is my opinion that chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide poisoning is a chronic poisoning that affects different individuals differently; that the storage rate depends upon the oxidative level of the individual, such as the low metabolic hysterectomized female who shows far greater storage than her highly active husband who is carrying on vigorous activity in the open air; that individuals who have as high a titer as 100-300 p.p.m. DDT or equivalent in their fat can go on for weeks and months, possibly years, without difficulty. But if they miss meals or are under a physiological strain of illness or partial starvation which causes them to utilize their own fat, they can be thrown into acute pesticide poisoning from the chlorinated hydrocarbons stored in their fat. In the same manner as the diabetic may show signs of hyperinsulinism if he rapidly drops from a blood sugar of 300 to 185, and can be thrown into shock. 

Drift from Parkway and Aerial Spraying

Sensitive people have been seriously injured by community spraying of trees, such as the precipitation of asthmatic attacks and extreme exhaustion. The drift from the crop dusting by airplanes cannot be controlled, and it has been necessary for me to recommend to some of my patients to leave agricultural areas during the season of heavy dusting, or to equip their homes with extensive and expensive mechanical air conditioning and filtering for both particulate matter and chemical contamination in order to enable them to live (as hermits) within their necessary environment.

I have had innocent patients who were driving along major highways run into a cloud of agricultural spray, become completely incapacitated, followed by a “pesticide pneumonia,” which continued to disturb them for not only the duration of the spraying but for a prolonged time afterward.

Recommendations

Inasmuch as Lehham, et al. showed that pigeons could not be housed in rooms that had been sprayed sometime previously with chlordane, one of the chlorinated hydrocarbons; and inasmuch as it has been shown in experimental animals that the increase in the storage of the chlorinated hydrocarbons in their tissues interfere with their general metabolism including their reproduction, and alters their longevity; inasmuch as it has been shown by many workers that there is a continual increase in storage in the fatty tissues and structures of the body, especially the brain, adrenals, liver and the fat deposits; and inasmuch as there is no positive information to date as to the long-time effect of such storage on the population in general, it would appear to me any such toxic material should be eliminated from the environment. I would like to make the following suggestions: 

1. That any application of a pesticide, such as the chlorinated hydrocarbons that can in any way escape the locality where it is applied, such as spraying of trees, markets, etc. in cities, and aerial spraying in agricultural areas or by any other means in which the drift cannot be controlled, should be prohibited.
2. That all foods that contain residual hydrocarbon pesticides should be so labeled, and the relative amounts stated.

I have continually heard the argument that our beautiful fruits and vegetables are only possible if we are willing to accept a little poison. The question is, how little poison is safe, especially one which accumulates? Second, if the housewife is aware of the fact that her child may occasionally eat an innocuous worm rather than a noxious chemical with unknown effects that may result from the continued building up of these chemicals in his body, I am sure that any intelligent woman would choose the worm rather than the poison. However, she should at least have the opportunity to know how much of these poisons are in her food and be provided with the necessary information to choose whether she prefers beauty and foods and possibly ill health or the more commonplace foods and vigorous life. 

Agricultural experts say that the “need” for pesticides arises from the fact that plants and trees are poorly nourished, and attract insects. Those grown on properly fertilized soils are strong, and repel infestation.