Junk Science Often Based On Fears

Junk science may be winning over public opinion against the pest control industry. Counter claims in legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific reports have had little coverage.

Because several readers of PCT have called or written to urge me to continue exposing the mistruths being asserted by the anti-pesticide community, I’d like to write about the Myth Conceptions in the popular “junk science” articles and publications that are polluting the media. An ABC television program on Aug. 28, 1997, by John Stossel, highlighted examples of how public opinion is manipulated by “junk science.”

DIOXIN. Millions of dollars are being spent to dispose of dioxin. When dioxin was sprayed on roads in Times Beach, Mo., the EPA ordered the demolition of every home and the evacuation of all residents at a cost of more than $3 million.

In Italy, 20 years earlier, an explosion in a factory near Seveso released a cloud that blew dioxin at 10,000 times the safe level over much of the city. Residents complained of headaches, diarrhea and skin rashes. Fearing birth defects, 100 women had abortions. Environmentalists demanded that the town be permanently sealed off. Instead, the government covered the contaminated soil with plastic and a foot of soil. A public park was created with trees and grass. Now, more than 20 years later, Dr. Paolo Macareli of the Milan University Hospital finds no after-effects of the explosion.

The United States is still spending many millions to remove the last molecules from sites contaminated with dioxin and other toxic dump sites because of junk science.

ANIMAL TESTING. True, tiny amounts of dioxin can kill a guinea pig. Tiny amounts of penicillin also can kill a guinea pig. But not being regulated by the EPA, penicillin is permitted to be used on humans. Junk science is based on the Myth Conception that humans and rodents have the same body processes. Thalidomide has no effect on newborn rodents, but can cause gross deformities in humans.

Junk science holds that a benign tumor should be considered a cancer when label registration is involved. Junk science regards one report of a negative finding by any laboratory, accredited or not, as more important than 100 positive reports from accredited laboratories, reports which show no increase in benign tumors. Junk science is sometimes blamed on honest error. Spinach is often claimed to be extra rich in iron, even though the original researcher admitted an error in the placement of a decimal point.

Junk science is often the selection of data to support a bias while ignoring data that conflicts. Rachel Carson and dozens of other green earth writers are poisoning the minds of America with junk science theories, “what-if” scenarios, suppositions and half-truths. Junk science has festered universal concern over miniscule traces of DDT, chlordane, mirex and many other valuable toxicants that our industry has used to keep the public protected from damage to health and property. These toxicants at labeled levels are far safer than natural toxicants in many of the foods we eat. These foods could never be registered as pesticides! EPA’s one-part-in-a-million regulations to protect the public have raised the cost of food abnormally high.

Junk science is not new. In colonial days, physicians believed bloodletting was a cure for high fever. That is how George Washington died. We look down on the settlers in Salem, Mass., who conducted the witchcraft trials. I believe that future historians will look back at the folly of today’s society for its devotion to junk science in the same way.

I am indebted to several high-ranking entomologists and consultants for the data that supports these claims.

Harry Katz may be contacted at Berkshire E-3076, Deerfield Beach FL 33442.