Humans emit more than 250 billion tonnes of chemical substances a year in a toxic avalanche

2-7-2017   Humans emit more than 250 billion tonnes of chemical substances a year in a toxic avalanche that is harming people and life everywhere on the planet.  "Earth, and all life on it, are being saturated with man-made chemicals in an event unlike anything in the planet's entire history," says Julian Cribb, author of 'Surviving the 21st Century' (Springer International 2017).  "Every moment of our lives we are exposed to thousands of these substances. They enter our bodies with each breath, meal or drink we take, the clothes and cosmetics we wear, the things we encounter every day in our homes, workplaces and travel.  Mr Cribb says that the poisoning of the planet through man-made chemical emissions is probably the largest human impact – and the one that is least understood or regulated.  https://phys.org/news/2017-02-scientists-categorize-earth-toxic-planet.html

.......................

  USA, Brazil and India use tremendous amounts of chemical poisons, and the inhabitants' immune systems suffer greatly.  Hence there is much less resistance to a virus pandemic.  -r

.......................................................

  Smoking just doesn’t cause cancer, it also can weaken your immune system, making you more prone to infections. Think of it this way: Tobacco is like a Pac-Man that will eventually chew up every organ in your body. Your immune system, included.  https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/quit-stay-quit/take-back-immune-system

………………

  neonicotinoids, or neonics, the most commonly used class of insecticides in the world--neonics are of course meant to kill insects, but they are marketed as safe for insects that aren’t being directly targeted. VanEngelsdorp and Pettis found that even at nonlethal doses, the bees in the trial became much more vulnerable to fungal infection.  Bees carrying an infection will often fly off to die, a virtuous form of suicide designed to protect the larger hive from contagion.

  “We exposed whole colonies to very low levels of neonicotinoids in this case, and then challenged bees from those colonies with Nosema, a pathogen, a gut pathogen,” said Pettis, speaking to filmmaker Mark Daniels in his documentary, “The Strange Disappearance of the Bees,” at Apimondia. “And we saw an increase, even if we fed the pesticide at very low levels — an increase in Nosema levels — in direct response to the low-level feeding of neonicotinoids.”

  The dosages of the pesticide were so miniscule, said vanEngelsdorp, that it was “below the limit of detection.” The only reason they knew the bees had consumed the neonicotinoids, he added, was “because we exposed them.”…

  In the U.S. however industry dug in, seeking not only to discredit the research but to cast pesticide companies as a solution to the problem. Lobbying documents and emails, many of which were obtained through open records requests, show a sophisticated effort over the last decade by the pesticide industry to obstruct any effort to restrict the use of neonicotinoids.  Bayer and Syngenta, the largest manufacturers of neonics, and Monsanto, one of the leading producers of seeds pretreated with neonics, cultivated ties with prominent academics, including vanEngelsdorp, and other scientists who had once called for a greater focus on the threat posed by pesticides….

  “Position the industry as an active promoter of bee health, and advance best management practices which emphasize bee safety,” noted an internal planning memo from CropLife America, the lobby group for the largest pesticide companies in America, including Bayer and Syngenta….The stunningly successful campaign has kept most neonic products in wide circulation in commercial agriculture as well as in home gardens. The result is a world awash in neonics — and massive profits for companies such as Syngenta and Bayer, which now counts Monsanto as a subsidiary.

  Millions of pounds of the chemical are applied to 140 commercial crops every year.  In the U.S. nearly all field-planted corn and two-thirds of soybean use neonic-coated seeds.   https://theintercept.com/2020/01/18/bees-insecticides-pesticides-neonicotinoids-bayer-monsanto-syngenta/