Access to all articles, new health classes, discounts in our store, and more!
Letter to the State Assembly Committee on Environmental Quality RE: Pesticides
Letter to March Fong, Chairman of the State Assembly Committee on Environmental Quality, Re: Urban and Suburban Home and Garden Use of Pesticides. November 9, 1972.
* * *
Honorable March Fong
Chairman
State Assembly Committee on Environmental Quality
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814
RE: Urban and Suburban Home and Garden Use of Pesticides
Dear Madam Fong:
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the hearing of your Committee in Los Angeles last month. However, I was informed that written testimony would be acceptable to your Committee.
My name is Granville F. Knight. I am a physician in private practice in the City of Santa Monica, specializing in allergy. I am not only a member of the Los Angeles County Medical Association and a Fellow of the American College of Allergists, but a member, or Fellow, of eight or nine allergy societies. I am also a member of the Los Angeles County Milk Commission.
I have been interested in the subject of pesticides for over 20 years and in 1952 wrote an article for public consumption warning against the dangers of DDT and other pesticides of the organochlorine type l and also those of the organophosphate types. Since then, I have had many, many cases which are typical of toxic reactions to these substances and my feelings have not changed.
Just recently I have updated this article and intend to have it reprinted in two or three weeks. I will send copies for each member of your Committee as soon as this has been done. My reason for not submitting evidence to professional journals was because the late Francis M. Pottenger, Jr.,M.D., had done so and had received a chilly audience over a period of ten years during which time his scientific observations had been turned down by one medical journal after another. Only now are his prophecies, and mine, beginning to come true.
Since I have not had time to prepare new testimony for your Committee, I am taking the liberty of sending you testimony presented in Los Angeles before a committee appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and a brief statement before the Los Angeles City Council relative to the dangers of pesticides.
My experience leads me to believe that the chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides and the organophosphates should not be used in or around houses. and that serious cases of undiagnosed poisoning are occurring from such use. This includes the use of Lindane and Chlordane beneath houses for protection from termites. The fact that these substances are often used under pressure and may work their way up between the walls of a house make them exceedingly dangerous because of their long life. If they are used in a house for roaches or impregnated in shelf paper their effect on sensitive individuals may continue for many months. This is not only the result of volatilization but from residues in house dust which continue for many months.
I know of a number of cases that have been seriously affected by the Shell “No-Pest Strips”. Whereas the Shell Company states that this compound (dichlorvos) is relatively innocuous, except for insects, reports have been made of two monkeys who chewed on their “dichlorvos” collars and suffered serious consequences, including death and virus pneumonia in one and repeated virus pneumonitis in the other.
This situation is a great deal more serious than one can possibly imagine, and I believe that the widespread use of long lasting pesticides, plus the myriad of chemicals in our food, air and water, could conceivably start a cancer epidemic which would pale that of the epidemic in our trout hatcheries some ten or twelve years ago, eventually traced to aflatoxins in cottonseed meal.
Under separate cover I am forwarding to you a copy of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Weston A. Price, D.D.S., and also copies of my testimony before the Herbicide Committee authorized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Two copies of this testimony will be sent–one for you and one for Vice-Chairman Robert Wood. I assume that you will have further copies made for other members of the Committee.
At some future time, if you deem it advisable, I would be available for direct testimony in Sacramento.
I am extremely concerned about the increasing number of cases which I am seeing who complain of extreme fatigue and inability to carry out their ordinary duties because of this or because of marked nervous tension. Others have symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia and hypoadrenocorticism and seem to be collapsing at an early age. I believe that poor nutrition plus multiple chemical contacts in our environment are playing an important part in this picture.
I hope that you and your Committee will consider, with an open mind, the evidence which is presented.
Respectfully yours,
Granville F. Knight, M.D.