Author Topic: Kristen Abner, Grand Forks, letter: Do chemicals contribute to Grand Forks’ canc  (Read 4598 times)

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Offline Sal Atticum

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Is it true?  I'll admit I thought spraying for mosquitoes was more than a little over the top when I got here, but how do you fight that sort of thing?

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/215773/group/Opinion/
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Offline pmp6nl

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The spraying was one of the first things I noticed when I came to North Dakota... I was actually very surprised.  From what I have read and what seems logical all of these chemicals sprayed on everything are increasing the incidences of cancer.  Studies have proven this.

Why does ND find it so necessary to spray for mosquitoes?  Are they really that bad that you are willing to risk your water and environment to get rid of them? I personally think we would be fine without the spraying... I lived in many areas that did not spray and it was not so bad.  The spraying in general needs to stop.

Similar to this I am becoming more and more aware from where my food is coming from.  I was in the store the other day and the frozen strawberries were from China (why cant we just have American strawberries?).  I thought to myself what do the people over in China and other places put on the fruit and vegetables to keep pests away?  Is the water they use for the fruits and vegetables free of compounds that could do us harm?  Are they using things that have been banned in the U.S. for years?  I think there are many things that need to be looked at and why cancer rates are rising faster than the increase in population?
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Offline gh

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Why does ND find it so necessary to spray for mosquitoes?  Are they really that bad that you are willing to risk your water and environment to get rid of them? I personally think we would be fine without the spraying... I lived in many areas that did not spray and it was not so bad.  The spraying in general needs to stop.

Good question. I think one of the reasons they spray for mosquitoes is there is so much extra water around here and the temperatures are usually perfect for breeding, so they try to keep the count down to a minimum. Also, with the risk of West Nile and other mosquito-borne diseases, there is a safety risk also. However, in the past, when the norm was to use DDT as a pesticide in the past, you would think that society would have learned to study the long-term effects of chemicals before using it over such a wide area. Maybe the chemicals effects need to be further studied?

When reading the article, I saw that the author was saying the rates of cancer are fairly high for North Dakota. However, maybe here statistics are a bit skewed? If you think about it, Grand Forks and Fargo are two of the largest towns and have larger hospitals that would be able to treat children with cancer. Maybe the people that she's met that have had or have cancer were not originally from the area, but moved to be closer to treatment, resources, and the hospital? Overall, the state of ND doesn't have as high of a cancer rate as other states, as you can see in the image below.

Another thing that seems to be happening is that with technology, health care providers are able to identify cancer at earlier and earlier stages. During past times, even 50 years ago, the coronor may have said that someone died of "natural causes" or they had some sickness, but didn't know what it was, so how do we know that statistics aren't skewed from technology also?

 

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