Is the Problem About Natural Plants?...or Chemical Plants?In April 2003, the US General Accounting Office (GAO) condemned lax government oversight of pesticide residues in cigarettes.
http://www.gao.gov/atext/d03485.txt Or, if a problem there, Google up "GAO tobacco pesticides".
That is, government officials who are lately standing on their heads to show their concern for health effects of “smoking” (of what, exactly?) have been ignoring arguably the most diverse stew of toxic industrial chemicals to ever show up in any consumer product. These officials, and even “anti-smoking” activists, still ignore it all, preferring instead to cast blame onto the unpatented, public-domain, traditionally-used tobacco plant. Can’t sue Mother Nature, the scapegoat for many industrial crimes.
How convenient for those who, in virtual secret, contaminated typical cigarettes so thoroughly. How convenient for the cigarette makers who put it all together, and how convenient for the public officials who remain AWOL from their sworn and paid duties to the public welfare as they instead serve this homicidal industrial cartel.
Follow The Money:Though the under-reported, widely ignored GAO report,
“Pesticides on Tobacco”, addressed 38 (out of many more) pesticides that have been, and still are, used on tobacco, nothing was noted about what firms made and supplied the pesticides. This is important because, if one wants to follow the money trail between these businesses and our government regulators, one needs to know who gave what campaign money to whom. The next question is: how many so-called “anti-smoking” officials are “anti-smoking” (by unwitting victims) because they seek to avoid being implicated in approving, facilitating, profiting from, getting regressive taxes from, and covering up homicidal manufacturing processes ever since the dawn of the pesticides industry in the early 1900s, and onward?
Without going into this any further here, below is the list of pesticides addressed by the GAO…but with the addition of the pesticides’ manufacturers. A smattering of the pesticides seem to be no longer used on tobacco, or anything, for that matter. One pesticide was cancelled at the request of the manufacturer because they said it cost too much to do the paper work…even though that pesticide was being widely exposed as being very dangerous. If a firm self-cancels a chemical, they can’t say it’s because of bad health or environmental effects because that would open the door to those darn “trial lawyers” working to get justice and compensation for victims.
* Corporations that are noted may or may not be the only manufacturer but have been listed as the principle or main supplier. Info mostly retrieved from the invaluable Extoxnet. Googling of terms like “Extoxnet [pesticide name]” got most results.
* Pesticides are listed in order of quantity dumped on tobacco, although there are changes between surveys in 1993 and 1998.
* A while back, Pesticide Action Network said there were over 400 pesticides registered for use on tobacco. So, this is the tip of a very toxic iceberg. Thinking about the combination effects of even a couple dozen of these things reels the mind.
* Think of typical (very non-organic) cigs as
Pesticide Pegs or
Dioxin Dowels…not just “coffin nails”. Regarding the still legal use of radioactive phosphate tobacco fertilizers (Polonium 210), think also of
Radiation Rods.
* Is this potentially huge cig liability situation a top reason the Bush League is hoping to rein in “trial lawyers”?
* Is this a part of why our Corporate Media are so hot to ban tobacco and “smoking” but utterly silent on industrial parts of typical cigs? Rhetorical question.
* How many of our “anti smoking” public officials are economic allies with the firms listed here? No direct links to cig makers, of course. Too obvious.
* If we can now find what Insurance Firms invest in, and insure, these chem firms, we’ll open another heavy Pandora’s box.
(Note presence below of Bayer's, Monsanto's, Syngenta's [formerly Novartis]
imidacloprid, now a top suspect in causing collapse of honey bee populations globally. Perhaps we ought not trust Tobacco Pesticide Suppliers with our vital food supply.)
1, 3-dichlorrpropene: Niklor Chem. (Long Beach, Calif.)
Chloropicrin: Niklor Chem.
Maleic hydrazide: Drexel Chemical Co. (Tenn.)
Acephate: Valent USA (Calif.)
Methyl bromide: Great Lakes Chemical (Indiana)
Pendimethalin: American Cyanamid (Wayne, Pa.)
Chlorpyrifos: Dow; Bayer
Fenamiphos: Miles Laboratories
Mancozeb: DuPont
Flumetralin: Ciba
Metalaxyl: Ciba-Geigy
Clomazone: FMC Corp (Phila.)
Ethoprop: Bayer
Endosulfan: FMC Corp. (Phila.); Bayer
Mefenozam: Syngenta
Pebulate: Staufer Chem Co (Conn.)
Ethephon: Rhone-Poulenc (NC); Bayer
Napropamide: Zeneca (Wilmington, Del.)
Sulfentrazone: FMC Corp. (Phila.)
Imidacloprid: Bayer (KC, Mo.); Monsanto; Syngenta.
Aldicarb: Rhone-Poulenc (NC); Bayer.
Dimethomorph: American Cyanamid (Wayne, Pa.)
Methomyl: DuPont (Del.)
Disulfoton: Sanex (Ontario); Bayer
Sethoxydim: BASF (NC)
Spinosad: Dow
Carbaryl: Rhone-Poulenc (NC); Bayer
Fonofos: Zeneca (Delaware)
Benefin: Dow Elanco
Bacillus thuringiensis: Sandoz Agro & Abbott Labs
Carbofuran: FMC Corp. (Phila); Bayer
Diphenamid: Tuco Upjohn
Isopropalin: Dow Elanco
Methadathion: Ciba Geigy (NC)
Trichlorfon: Miles (KC, Mo.); Bayer
( Remember that some of these firms may change names, change owners, sell chemical rights to other firms, and may take a chemical off the market for all or some uses. So, for up-to-date info, re-check the details. )
