Fenthion: widely used pesticide kills and cripples
Dear Stephen,
Suzanne Fisher suggested I contacted you to be added to your mailing list.
She sent me an article you issued on Fenthion.
This interests me because we used to use it in a compulsory Warble fly eradication programme forced on us by the UK Government in the 1970s. The product was called Tiguvon and was poured along the spines of the cattle as an oily liquid. That liquid penetrated the skin of the cattle and entered the blood stream "as if it had been injected" rendering the entire animal toxic and killing the insects. There were, as I recall some, months during winter when we were not permitted to use the product because the grubs were too close to the spine and their decomposition could cause paralysis. The entire eradication programme was to bring greater profit to the leather industry by reducing damage to the hides. Phosmet was another chemical widely used for this purpose in the UK and it has been suggested as a possible cause of BSE. I suspect other OPs may also have played a part and a friend has put some of my information on the web at www.mapperleyplains.co.uk/oprus/
Returning to the fenthion. My friend was the herdsman and always handled the chemical. When we milked the cows after treatment we could still feel the oily substance in the hide of the animals we handled. We asked what symptoms we could expect and the veterinary surgeon made a joke of the subject. My friend developed vision and sinus problems and then lymph cancer which killed him.
I have since been made disabled after contact with another OP, pirimiphos methyl, added to the grain we eat but the UK authorities refuse to restrict the use of the chemical or to recognise safety concerns and evidence provided.
Thanks for an interesting article. I think most OPs are harmful to birds as has been admitted with pirimiphos methyl. I have often wondered if it is the grain fed to homing pigeons which is causing them to get lost due to brain damage?
To avoid confusion this is my son's e-mail system and so all programmes are registered in his name. My name is Richard Bruce and I live on the Isle of Wight, UK. I was disabled by OP pesticide exposures in January 1992 and have been fighting a corrupt system on State benefit income ever since.
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