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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 21. September 3 1979

Birth Defects Human Health

Birth Defects Human Health

The use of 2,4,5-T is not hazardous to human health. The technical product itself is about half as toxic as caffeine, twice as toxic as aspirin, and about 10 times as toxic as salt. 2,4,5-T is not found either in our food or drinking water, but if it did occur at the most sensitive levels of detection, the acute toxicity safety margin would be at least two million.

Conventional applications of 2,4,5-T will not cause cancer. 2,4,5-T is not a carcinogen. TCDD is a weak carcinogen causing cancer in rats only when given amounts sufficient to produce severe, easily discernable toxicity. Since TCDD is not a mutagen, it will not be a carcinogen at nontoxic concentrations. Even when inappropriately regarded as having no safe level with respect to carcinogenicity, the probability of 2,4,5-T causing cancer (as calculated by the methods currently employed by EPA) is much less than from drinking diet soda or eating peanut butter. Specifically, the risk of contracting cancer from 2,4.5-T calculated for a backpack sprayer working five days a week for 30 years is about one chance in 2,500,000. This risk is about 1/25th the risk from drinking one diet soda per day (exposure to saccharin), and 1/100th the risk from eating four tablespoons of peanut butter per day (exposure to aflatoxin.)

The highest exposure to 2,4,5-T during conventional use is that of a backpack sprayer. The safety margin with respect to fetotoxicity for a female backpack sprayer is in excess of 500. The safety margin for accidental exposure to a Conventional 2,4,5- T spray is approximately 17,500. By contrast, the safety margin for normal consumption of aspirin is three, and for Vitamin A, it is 40.