Pretty, huh?

Malathion, under a microscope.

The EPA set in place new restrictions on 3 organophosphate insecticides, to protect streams and rivers from contamination. The guidelines were put into place because experts say that the pesticides: Malathion, Chloripyrifos, and Diazanon, are disrupting the salmons' sense of smell, and threatening their existence.

I was exposed to all 3 for almost a decade through Michigan's mosquito abatement program. We had an open well, extensive food gardens and few restrictions on where or when I could go outside to play. If the mosquito truck drove through, we'd chase after it, a fresh layer of pesticide on the skin meant more play time. Funny, the mosquitoes kept biting me, apparently it doesn't work that way. It was intended that the poison cover areas where the lil critters breed.

They used more than 1 poison so that the bug wouldn't build a tolerance to the 1.  I was only 3 years old when we moved to this neighborhood and I believe it is what caused my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.  

People with MCS generally come from 4 groups:

-Industrial workers

  Acute and chronic exposure to industrial chemicals

-Tight building occupants

  Off-gassing from construction materials, office equipment/supplies, tobacco smoke, inadequate        ventilation

-Contaminated communities-like Saginaw, Mi!

  Toxic waste sites, pesticide spraying, ground water contamination, air contamination from nearby industry

-Individuals

Indoor air (domestic), consumer products, drugs, and pesticides

First used as nerve gas agent by US in WWII, organophosphates dissapate very slowly once introduced to the body.  Malathion becomes 60 times more toxic above 77 degrees F. So once it enters the body, toxicity heightens, and Malaoxon forms. Binding irreversibly with cholinesterase, which is an enzyme produced in the liver that exists primarily in the pancreas and plasma,with small amounts in the blood and all body tissues and organs, the chemical interferes with the function of the nervous system. Neurosynaptic junctions (nerve firing) to muscles, glands, and other nerves, impairing all organs.  

When the detoxification pathways of the body attempt to break it down, they are damaged, injured.  This is chemical injury, resulting in MCS.  My body is challenged when asked to break down the many chemicals I am exposed to daily.

They still spray my mom's neighborhood back in Michigan, and the US applies more than 60 million lbs. of organophosphates to over 60 million acres annually for agriculture.