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GBlist: Re: COMPOST digest 644



compost@listproc.wsu.edu wrote:

>                             COMPOST Digest 644

> Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 19:43:06 -0400
> From: Solar Girl <solargrl@gte.net>

> Tampa-ites are being constantly reassured that malathion is
> harmless, which I find very difficult to believe, since they warn that
> it can take the paint off one's car!

It's not malathion which is dangerous to the paint, it's the bait (which
is a sticky mix involving molasses).  Not everything that's dangerous to
car paint is dangerous to humans.  Love bugs, for example.  

That isn't to say that malathion is benign, but we should have accurate
information about which to be paranoid.  I lived in California until the
early 1980s, and remember much of the hoopla, and now that I'm living in
Tampa it comes back very vividly.  I suspect that killing off beneficial
insects is an undiscussed harm as everyone focuses on the question of
toxicity in humans.  (A second issue, as local organic person Rick
Martinez has been quoted in the news, is the legal status of organic
growing establishments when a state mandates pesticides.)  

And now, to bring it back to composting, I'm sure Jim would remind us
that composting is the recommended solution for most pesticides, right?

-- 
Sherman Dorn
University of South Florida
http://www.coedu.usf.edu/~dorn
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