Pesticides Literature

Hi there!

I've just been reading through your lawncare tips for the cheap and lazy (great name by the way).

I've never been an advocate of pesticides, but even I was caught off guard by the statement, "A quantity of 2-4D that would be about the same as a roll of life savers rubbed on the skin of four kindergarten children would kill two of them."

I would love to read the report that found this. Do you happen to know where this study was done, or where it was published?

Thank you! (for the question and all the great advice)
Julie

I did a quick search, and turned up this regarding 2, 4-D and this re: glyphosate.

On glyphosate:

"It is practically nontoxic by skin exposure, with reported dermal LD50 values of greater than 5000 mg/kg for the acid and isopropylamine salt."

So a group of four kindergarteners might weight 20 kilos each. The LD50 dose would work out to >100 grams, id est the mass of >50 Lifesavers candies. The definition of LD50 is that it is the dose statistically expected to kill 50%, and so exposing these four hypothetical children at such a rate would, on average, kill two of them.

DuPont says 2, 4-D has an acute dermal LD50 of >2000 mg/kg based on rabbit studies, so the same math would work out to 80 grams, or the mass of 40 Lifesavers.

All of this is based on the assumption that lab animals respond similarly to humans, which is often a decent assumption to make.