Donate to the Ecotoxicology Research Fund

The need

The world cannot afford to raise a generation of children with high proportions of altered aggression levels and reduced learning abilities. Congress has consistently denied money for substantial biological research, especially in the areas described above. There are small token programs, but no major thrusts to explore neurological, immune and endocrine impacts of agricultural chemicals, especially those that generate very large income for their producers. Less than 1% of the agriculture budget goes to alternative agriculture.

Only about 10-15 percent of proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health in the basic biological sciences are funded. This is despite the fact that program directors and review panels in these agencies deem approximately 85 percent of the proposals submitted to be worthy of funding.

Federal food safety legislation passed by Congress almost five years ago mandate that pesticide registration include tests for neurological, endocrine, and immune function. Those laws have never been enforced. There are more than 77,000 pesticides registered in this country. Almost none have been tested for neurological, endocrine, AND immune effects combined. Researchers who choose to pursue this work are often confronted with threats to job security and threats to the financial security of their immediate family.

A shift in market share toward more ecologically and biologically secure methods of pest control will solve this need. The only way market share shift will be through public education and change in purchasing habits of consumers. Those changes will not occur until sufficient evidence has accumulated to show the true costs of using these chemicals. These costs include the added educational, health and public safety costs to deal with the biological and behavioral defects indicated by this research. The Ecotoxicology Research Fund is directed toward careful peer reviewed scientific research that is the basis for disseminating the research findings to the public as we are now doing. These findings may then stimulate the needed dialog in research on finding healthier, safer ways to grow food in the future.

The nature of the fund

The fund is a fully tax deductible fund in the University of Wisconsin Foundation. Its purpose is solely to provide support for research into neurological, immune and endocrine impacts of environmental chemicals on animal and human health. The goal is to build the fund to a level where it will provide an endowed salary and guaranteed research and personnel support for two faculty positions: ecotoxicology and developmental toxicology.

The research

RESEARCH ON NERVE, ENDOCRINE, IMMUNE SYSTEM, BEHAVIORAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS OF MIXTURES OF PESTICIDES AND FERTILIZERS AT ENVIRONMENTAL CONCENTRATIONS

Dr. Warren Porter, Prof. of Zoology, Prof. of Environmental Toxicology, U. of Wisconsin, Madison
Pesticide research that we have been doing has revealed that the most common mixture of pesticides in groundwater today at concentrations measurable in groundwater across United States is capable of altering neurological, endocrine, and immune parameters in rats and mice. Data that we are accumulating and epidemiological research of others are suggesting that we may be raising a generation of children that has altered aggression levels and more learning disabilities. Further information on our research program and my credentials can be found at:
http://www.wisc.edu/zoology/faculty/fac/Por/Por.html

We are concerned that mixtures of herbicides, insecticides and nitrate fertilizers in groundwater, in our air, on our lawns, and in the foods we eat may be affecting fetal development and endocrine, immune and neurological function, especially aggressive behavior in human children, adults, marine, freshwater and terrestrial organisms.

There have been recent observations off the coast of Australia of very aggressive behavior in porpoises, including infanticide. Animal rage used to be unusual. Wild mountain lions suddenly have attacked or threatened children and domestic animals even in the immediate presence of adults trying to frighten them away in Colorado. "Aircraft rage", where humans have exhibited uncontrollable aggression, have quadrupled in frequency in the last few years. These people sometimes try to kick out windows of airliners in which they are passengers. Children exposed in utero to pesticides in Mexico show unusually high levels of aggression.

Federal childcount data show that increases in emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, and orthopedic problems have all nearly doubled from 1990 to 1995 in the Madison, WI school district. This is despite a very clean environment and seven national schools of excellence in the city. These observations cannot be attributed to changing diagnostics or immigration patterns. These trends are occurring at state, national and international levels.

With no changes in the diagnostic criteria for many years, and in a system that has been ascertaining autism since 1970, the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) recently released the following data on the number of new cases of fully diagnosed DSM IV (Level One) AUTISM (NOT including other autism spectrum disorder such as PDD, NOS, or Asperger's, or other rare "autism like" genetic diseases): An all time one year (1970-2001) record number of cases (2,725) were added to California's system in 2001. This number represents a 20% increase in one year over the previous record year of 2000. The just completed 4th Quarter of 2001 (Oct. 4, 2001 to Jan. 3, 2002) also set an all time record for numbers of new cases for any 4th Quarter in the history of the system. During 2001, each of the four quarters posted all time record setting increases. There were more cases of level one autism added in 2001 then in all of 1994, 1995, and 1996 combined.

Proposed research

We propose to use the technologies that we have already published to study neurological, endocrine, immune, and developmental effects of chemicals that children in particular might contact. These include but are not limited to common lawn chemical mixtures, herbicides dissolved in sprays on plants genetically engineered to resist them, and pesticide mixtures used on foods that are consumed in large quantities by children. We will follow our established procedures of applying these chemicals via natural routes of entry. For example, commercial lawn chemical formulations would be applied via dermal contact. Herbicides expected to contaminate genetically engineered food plants would be mixed in food offered to mice and rats. We would also grow and spray such crops according to directions and feed their seeds to test animals. We would determine the concentration of spray contents in the seeds by standard chemical assays for active and "inactive" ingredients. We will use statistical experimental designs like those we have already used for multiple variable experiments. Replicate experiments will be done to verify repeatability. Sample sizes will be determined to maximize statistical reliability and resolution. All research results will be published in peer reviewed journals and then communicated to the public via the media, local, regional and national meetings.

Your Contributions

Contributions should be made out to The University of Wisconsin Foundation with a notation that it is for the Ecotoxicology Research Fund of the Dept. of Zoology, U. of Wisconsin, Madison.

They may be mailed either directly to:

The University of Wisconsin Foundation
Attn: Teresa Midthun to:
1848 University Ave Dept. of Zoology, U. of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706

(or)

Peggy Nowicki, Financial Specialist
Dept. of Zoology, U. of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706 250 N. Mills St.