Insecticides & Pesticides
Fast Facts:
– Technically, insecticides are a type of pesticide
– Pesticides are chemical or biological agents that deter, incapacitate or kill pests
– Insecticides are substances that specifically kill insects
– Herbicides (which kill plants) account for about 80% of all pesticides
– May cause acute and delayed health effects in people who are exposed
– In developing countries poisoning from short-term very high level of exposure is the most common
– In developed countries it is the opposite, long-term low-level poison exposure is more common
– Suicide by pesticide self-poisoning accounts for approximately one-third of all suicides worldwide
– Famous for the Vending Machine Murders in Japan
– Interestingly, while a murder weapon in itself, the use of pesticides also incites many to murder (using other murder weapons)
Pesticides include a range of poisons. They are a chemical or biological agent used to deter, incapacitate or kill pests; this includes insecticides (insects), herbicides (plants), rodenticide (rodents), fungicide (fungus) etc. Approximately 80% of all pesticides are herbicides.
From: Ken Research Report
Studies in the USA have shown pesticide uses increases crop yield fourfold. However, there are many costs associated with pesticide use – most significantly, the impact on the health of people and the environment.
The organochlorine pesticides accumulate in fatty tissue, resulting in bioaccumulation (small amounts increase as it moves up the food chain), large amounts can accumulate in top species, like humans. For example, DDT interferes with hormonal function. Organophosphate pesticides are most common in occupationally related pesticide poisonings around the world. Besides acute symptoms, some have long been known to cause a delayed-onset toxicity to nerve cells, which is often irreversible.
Pesticides have been used in many homicides. Manufacturers even take this into consideration, for example, Paraquat (a herbicide) is odourless and if ingested its symptoms mimick viral pneumonitis, making it ideal for homicide. Parathion (an insecticide) has a colouring agent added to it. However, the colour isn’t added everywhere. In India it isn’t added, and by adding Toddy (a popular strong liquer) the poison is masked. In February this year (in India) an eighteen year old male killed a girl who’d rejected his proposal, mixing the pesticide into water. Her two sisters also drank the water and died.
The most famous case of pesticide use to murder was the Vending Machine Murders in Japan. The first death occurred on 30th April, 1985. A can of drink, poisoned with paraquat, was found on top of the vending machine. There were 11 more murders between September and November that year. Most of the victims had found the drinks outside of the vending machines, resulting in vending machine operators putting warnings on machines not t o take drinks able to be accessed without purchase. After this the poisonings stopped, but the murderer was never found.
A Chinese woman used a herbicide to try to kill her husband after a fight. She soaked her husband’s underpants in a solution of paraquat and after they had dried gave them to him to wear (to their daughter’s wedding). Her husband was rushed to hospital when he noticed his genitals were “rotting” and he had some difficulties breathing. After three weeks in hospital he recovered.
The illegal use of pesticides has also resulted in murder. A case in Argentina centred on the death of a 5-year-old boy and the sever injuries to his 4-year-old cousin. The children went outside to play and two days later the boy was dead and his cousin fighting for her life. An autopsy revealed cause of death was the inhalation of the toxic pesticide endosulfan, illegal across the world for its harmful side-effects, which a farmer had used on his neighboring farm. The difference between life and death was simply that the boy splashed in a puddle with poisoned runoff, which the girl did not. Argentina banned the chemical two months later.
Pesticide use has also resulted in murder. An argument between two farmers on the border of Arkansas and Missouri erupted over the use of a pesticide called dicamba. Mike Wallace, a soybean and cotton farmer accused Allan Jones of damaging his crops because of dicamba use on the farm Jones worked on. Wallace claimed the dicamba (a broad-spectrum herbicide) had drifted onto his crops. The farmers arranged to meet and an argument ensued, resulting in Jones pulling out a gun and killing Wallace. Jones was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 24 years in jail.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide#Health_effects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide_poisoning
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284501312_Pesticides_used_as_a_Weapon_for_suicide_or_homicide_purpose_in_developing_country
https://modernfarmer.com/2016/11/pesticide-drift-leads-alleged-murder/
https://www.thebubble.com/farmer-facing-murder-charges-for-pesticide-use-after-death-of-young-boy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Richardson
https://thelogicalindian.com/trending/unnao-horror-dalit-girl-murder-26938?infinitescroll=1
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15274959/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/may/27/knickers-in-a-twist-the-case-of-the-poisoned-pants-paraquat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraquat_murders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Richardson
April 10, 2021 at 9:51 pm
Ooo lots of stories of death this week! But WOW to that underpants story! Dddaaannnngggggg like can you imagine?! Haha
There are probably lots of unintentional deaths though. Considering how much of this is sprayed over crops every year 🤭😬
April 11, 2021 at 7:51 am
Yeah, I wonder if they stayed married, lol.
April 11, 2021 at 7:52 am
Haha I’m gonna go out on a limb and say probably not? 😂
April 11, 2021 at 7:57 am
I wouldn’t want to bet against you 😉
April 11, 2021 at 12:13 am
Great poison and a very complicated topic.
April 11, 2021 at 7:51 am
It is very complicated – I only skimmed the surface.
April 11, 2021 at 1:25 am
In some parts of the world, the really deadly stuff, DDT and Chlordane, are still used. Even though they are outlawed in most first world nations, Monsanto still produces them in India.
Those are the chemicals Rachael Carson noted in Silent Spring. Toxins don’t have to murder just humans, they can murder nature.
The two things that scare me most are the pesticides that are used in medicine and that GMO crops were designed so Round-up could be used and not kill them. Round-up is an Organophosphate and has dozens of pending class action suits against it.
As the world warms use of pesticides and insecticides will increase because environmental limiting factors will be removed. The California Bark Beetle killed thousands of acres of Cedar trees in British Columbia is an example of such. We have flea problems here in Florida because we haven’t had a hard freeze in fifteen or so years.
You hit a nerve on this one.
April 11, 2021 at 7:55 am
When went to uni, I lived in dorms. On my floor there was a man with mental and physical disabilities who had been exposed to DDT as a child growing up in Papua New Guinea. It’s now banned officially, but unofficially it is still in heavy use there. The issues he had were horrid and it certainly imprinted on me the harmful effects pesticides can have.
When I worked for a particular govt agency the water samples I took in a farming region had scarily high levels of various pesticides… one dam ended up being discontinued as a drinking water source because of it.
I’m with you on this one, definitely a nerve with me too.
April 12, 2021 at 12:19 pm
Oh, you stole my senses so much that I didn’t say that I think tomorrow will be the Jellyfish. From your end of the world, that means the box jellyfish.
That is not a big subject here, but if I am right I will edify you.
April 12, 2021 at 12:49 pm
The Hub was stung by a box jellyfish in his younger years. Luckily it only just brushed him on the arm so he survived (although he has a scar from the contact reaction). It’s why sailors/surfers etc in those warmer waters wear stockings (to stop the contact). We also have the Irukandji jellyfish – a similar, also extremely venomous type of box jellyfish (as opposed to the one just called box jellyfish).
And I did consider jellyfish, but decided to go with something else (trying to avoid making Australia sound even more terrifying than I probably already have, lol). Same reason I avoided snake and spider venoms 🙂
April 11, 2021 at 4:11 am
I worry about those chemicals being used on farms and such. I didn’t realize people use them to kill people in and of themselves.
April 11, 2021 at 7:57 am
The numbers are quite scary. And I don’t want to even think about what we ingest from our fruit and veg!
April 11, 2021 at 9:55 am
My husband grew up on a farm, and there were certain pesticides that left him with a terrible headache every time they used it. Cancer is very common in that area, too, including how his mother died. It’s horrifying to me that we don’t restrict more of these chemicals.
Black and White: I for Isles
April 11, 2021 at 12:51 pm
It’s really quite concerning. I guess that’s why organic food has been able to make such inroads into consumer behaviour, even though it is more expensive.
April 11, 2021 at 3:48 pm
Wow there goes my faith in humanity again… Who would murder completely random people with soda just for the heck of it?! Also, killing girls for rejecting you. Geez. My family doesn’t really use pesticides, but our neighbors spray everything like there is no tomorrow. When it drifts over to us and covers the playground, they usually just say “it’s okay, that’s just the smell…”
The Multicolored Diary
April 12, 2021 at 7:21 am
I think the randomness is the most horrible thing about it. Usually serial killers have a type, or get off on the thrill of the kill, but they probably didn’t even see the person take the drink. Something like this is hard to comprehend.
But your neighbours! “Just the smell” sounds like they either have no clue or it’s their excuse. You need a big solid fence between you.
April 12, 2021 at 7:49 am
Yikes! Some crazy stories!
April 13, 2021 at 9:21 pm
They are really crazy aren’t they! Some scary things happen in the world.
April 12, 2021 at 6:53 pm
What sick individual goes around placing free poisoned soda cans?
I wonder what the fight was about that made the Chinese lady so mad 😉
As always another very informative post written in understandable language. Thank you!
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-z-2021-strike-while-iron-is-hot.html
April 13, 2021 at 9:22 pm
It must have been a doozy of a fight for her to want to poison her husband while they sat through their daughter’s wedding!
April 12, 2021 at 9:44 pm
Oh, dear! I can’t forget that married couple. I’m glad to hear he survived, so we can have a chuckle about that. I bet it spoiled the wedding for him all right. It’s the sort of story I would have been happy to use in my book Crime Time if it was in Australia! Kids would love it.
Greek Myths: J Is For Jason
https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2021-j-is-for.html
April 13, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Oh yeah, kids would think poisoned undies hilarious.
April 14, 2021 at 8:20 am
I knew about the public health issues surrounding insecticide/pesticide use, but I had no idea they were used to directly murder so many people! Poisoned underpants?!?! Yikes!!
April 14, 2021 at 8:12 pm
And we all keep these poisons in our house without a second thought.