Think That Your Gift Is Pesticide-Free? Give Organic Flowers and It Will Be

Think That Your Gift Is Pesticide-Free? Give Organic Flowers and It Will Be
by Roger Harris
NaturalNews
May 10 2008

http://www.naturalnews.com/023207.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/z023207.html

Did you know that in a 1997 study, the Environmental Working Group found that conventionally-grown flowers may be laden with up to 50 times the amount of pesticides allowed for food? And that these pesticides can easily enter your body through your skin or nose?

These facts struck me like an ice pick between the eyes when I researched for suitable bouquets to send my mother for Mother's Day. She suffers from Parkinson's Disease, a slowly debilitating illness whose onset, although multi-varied and little understood, has been linked to pesticide exposure. Of course, I wanted to nurture this wonderful woman who once had soothed my cries, salved my fears and bandaged my knees, as well as I wanted to honor Mother Earth, so I began to dig into the world of conventional flowers.

Well, to my dismay, I found that those same pesticides that I assiduously avoid by eating Organic produce are neurotoxins, immune and endocrine disruptors, as well as carcinogens that can be inhaled along with the bouquet of flowers. There are no regulations in the U.S. governing the use of pesticides on cut flowers, and therefore, importers are not required to monitor pesticide levels. In fact, the demand for unblemished, pest-free flowers actually encourages growers to use excessive amounts of highly toxic chemicals. In 1990, the Scandinavian Journal of Environmental Health quantified 127 chemicals in common use in Colombian greenhouses (the origin of 50% of U.S. imported cut flowers), including pesticides, fungicides and ozone-depleting fumigants such as methyl bromide.

Please read this full article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/023207.html