187
votes
Is the decline in polio symptoms directly caused by the banning of pesticides such as DDT?
I'll address your last question first, starting with the mantra of science and statistics:
Correlation doesn't equal causation
There is a common anecdote in my home country about the mayor of a ...
- 1,011
61
votes
Do American foods contain unsafe levels of glyphosate?
According to the document Joint FAO/WHO evaluation (2004 Part II—Toxicology) with information on the acceptable daily intake of glyphosate (ADI):
(listed here)
The acceptable daily intake for ...
- 581
25
votes
Do American foods contain unsafe levels of glyphosate?
An analysis by Snopes on this claim found it to contain a mixture of both truth and undetermined information.
What is true about this claim referring to Snopes is that studies performed on lab ...
- 22.6k
14
votes
Accepted
Do supermarkets spray fruit to keep it from rotting?
Your question asks about "supermarkets", but I have interpreted that as synecdoche - that you really mean to ask about the whole fruit supply chain, and not just the retailers at the end of it.
Yes, ...
- 139k
11
votes
Is the decline in polio symptoms directly caused by the banning of pesticides such as DDT?
Just doing basic data analysis of the charts shows little relevance between DDT and polio.
Polio went up before DDT in most cases, as well as going down before DDT use was reduced, not to mention that ...
- 794
10
votes
What is the cause of Brazil's microcephaly outbreak?
Summary
Based on current evidence, the Zika virus appears to be the likely cause of Brazil's microcephaly outbreak.
There is limited evidence to support pyriproxyfen as a cause, but further, more ...
- 22.6k
6
votes
What is the cause of Brazil's microcephaly outbreak?
The CDC now say the Zika virus is the cause.
On April 13, 2016, a new report was published by doctors from the CDC in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Zika Virus and Birth Defects — Reviewing the ...
- 139k
5
votes
Does glyphosate herbicide break down into more toxic substances in the environment?
Glyphosate breaks down to aminomethylphosphonic acid.
Glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid have about the same toxicity according to PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FOOD - 1997:
AMPA was no more ...
- 103k
4
votes
Is whitewashing trees a good practice?
TL;DR: I did not find any scientific consensus on this subject.
The claim:
According to this 2014 Statesmen article,
Horticulturists from the University of California and Sunset magazine still ...
4
votes
Do prairie dogs die when they eat bubblegum?
According to Summary of Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colony Mapping Efforts at Five Colony Complexes in Central and Southeastern Montana (2012):
From our North Dakota experience, we have concluded that ...
- 103k
4
votes
Can pesticides from conventionally grown food be detected in urine samples?
Yes. Ingested pesticides are detectable in urine samples which is shown by studies such as
Pesticide residues in urine of adults living in the United States: reference range concentrations Robert H. ...
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