THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 17, January 16, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
INNER CITY CHILDREN'S ASTHMA LINKED TO ROUNDWORMS
By Dennis T. Avery & Alex A. Avery
PESTICIDES, POLITICAL WILL, & PUBLIC HEALTH: HOW POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THE ANTI-PESTICIDE
MOVEMENT JEOPARDIZE THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN -- WHY MANDATORY SPRAYING OF PESTICIDES SHOULD BE
WELCOMED
FULL STORY:
Do inner city children get more asthma than suburban and country kids? Or do they suffer instead from roundworm
infestations that give asthma-like symptoms? Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease specialist at George Washington
University, says that up to 23 percent of urban black children may be infested with Toxocara roundworms — a
“neglected tropical disease” that dogs and cats can pass to people through their feces. The roundworms cause a lung
disease that resembles asthma, as well as liver and brain diseases.
“Urban playgrounds in the United States have recently been shown to be a particularly rich source of Toxocara eggs
and inner-city children are at high risk of acquiring the infection,” Dr. Hotez writes, in the journal, Neglected Tropical
Diseases. He notes that children are far more likely than adults to “play in the dirt” and sometimes even to swallow
some of it. Obviously, sandboxes and feral cats are a prime source of infection.
“I believe there has been a lack of political will to study the problem,” says Dr. Hotez.
One reason for the lack of such political will on asthma factors may be that anti-pesticide activists have long claimed the
high asthma rates in the inner cities were due to the heavy use of pesticides to control cockroaches, rats and other
vermin. Dr. Philip Landrigan, of the Mount Sinai Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, has published often
in this vein.
Organizations such as Beyond Pesticides have made poorly founded claims of children being harmed by safety-tested
pesticides. Beyond Pesticides says farmers are more likely than non-farmers to suffer from asthma, implicating pesticides
as a factor. However, the Medical College of Wisconsin says farm kids are only half as likely to have asthma as kids who
live in non-farm rural areas — implying no pesticide connection.
The Environmental Protection Agency says roaches themselves can cause asthma attacks. EPA says the roaches’ urine,
feces, and shed casings contain allergens that can trigger asthma in allergic individuals.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says it has “conclusively demonstrated that the combination
of cockroach allergy and exposure to the insects is an important cause of asthma-related illness and hospitalizations
among children in the U.S. inner city.” The Institute’s skin tests showed 37 percent of inner city children tested were
allergic to cockroaches — and the allergic children exposed to high roach allergen levels were more than three times as
likely to be hospitalized with asthma.
Now, Dr. Hotez adds the roundworm factor — infestations that are transmitted by the frequent, uncontrolled wanderings of
cats and dogs around inner city playgrounds and sandboxes. One solution to the problem, of course, is to urge owners to
de-worm pets regularly and to enforce the use of “Pooper Scoopers” The second solution is to treat afflicted children with
anti-parasitic drugs; blood tests can reveal any infestation.
And, mandatory spraying for cockroaches in apartment houses should be welcomed. The pests we control with pesticides
are more infinitely more dangerous than the safety-tested chemicals available to protect inner city children from lung
disease.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org) and was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. Alex A. Avery is the
Director of Research at the Center for Global Food Issues. Readers may write them at Post Office Box 202, Churchville,
Virginia, 24421.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity