Tweet Log for TheOptimisticFuturist.com 

Note: Because “Tweets” cannot be longer than 140 characters, our tweets are often truncated from the original to allow the content to be tweeted.  Below you will find the quote that we derived the tweet content from, as well as the complete source so that you can verify our accuracy, and read further on the subject.

#1:  Kids with above average levels of pesticides in urine twice as likely to be diagnosis ADHD”

The actual quote is “Children with above average levels of pesticide in their urine were twice as likely to have a diagnosis of ADHD” – this statement is from Raising Elijah, by Sandra Steinggrabber, Da Capo Press, 2011. Locally implementable, replicable, and profitable solutions to this problem can be found on this website.

#2:  The DNA of children whose pregnant mom’s inhaled common pollution showed 40% of them had subtle DNA damage causing learning issues.

The actual quote is: “Five hundred pregnant women …. wore….air monitors continuously measuring levels of a type of pollution called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs.  PAHs come from vehicle exhaust….cigarettes…and factory smokestacks.  A check of the monitors revealed that 100 percent of the women were exposed to PAHs during their pregnancies.  …….analysis of umbilical cord blood of 60 of the infants showed that 40% had subtle DNA damage from PAHs.  ….those exposed (infants) were more than twice as likely to be cognitively delayed by age 3,at age five, these children scored lower on IQ tests”.

This factoid came from Origins, by Annie Murphy Paul, page 100-101; Free Press 2010

#3:  “One third of all expectant mothers carry a gene that puts their baby at higher risk for brain damage from pesticides “

The actual quote is "Nearly a third of the mothers in this study carried the PON1 genotype that would put their children at highest risk of negative effects from organophosphate pesticide exposure," said Dr. Engel, who is currently Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "These highly susceptible individuals may account for the majority of exposure-related cognitive impairment”

This quote is from New Mount Sinai Study Shows Exposure to Certain Pesticides Impacts Cognitive Development, a press release dated April 21, 2011, by Mount Sinai Hospital New York New York.  You can find the original press release here:

http://www.mssm.edu/about-us/news-and-events/new-mount-sinai-study-shows-exposure-to-certain-pesticides-impacts-child-cognitive-development 

#4  “Clean” natural gas may cause more climate change than “dirty” coal, scientist calculates.

The actual quote is “Mr. Howarth and his collegues conclude that the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas can be as much as 20 percent greater than, and perhaps twice as high as coal per unit of energy” (Mr. Howarth is a professor at Cornell University).  The complete article is from The New York Times, April 11, 2011, by Tom Zeller Jr.

You can find the complete article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/business/energy-environment/12gas.html

#5  “If every U.S. household replaced just ONE light bulb with a screw in fluorescent, we would save a  total of $600 million a year in costs, save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars, thus strengthening our nation while making smart investments.”

The actual quote is ” If every household in the U.S. replaced ONE light bulb with a GE Energy Smart bulb, we would save...

1. A combined national total of $600 million a year in energy costs.
2. Enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Explanation of how savings are calculated based on replacing a 60 watt bulb, and are found at this URL:         http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/energy_smart.htm

#6 “Kids of pregnant moms who had high farm pesticide exposure during pregnancy have I.Q. 7 points lower than non-exposed kids”

The actual quote is “The researchers screened women for exposure to organophosphate compounds such as chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion.  These bug killers, which can cross the human placenta, work by inhibiting brain signaling compounds.  Although the pesticides residential use was phased out in 2000, spraying on a farm field remains legal……In more than 300….families…exposures came mostly from farm work.   Among the …families, the average IQ for the 20 percent of children with the highest pre-natal organophosphate exposure was 7 point lower compared to the least exposed group. 

The complete article can be found in SCIENCE NEWS, May 21, 2011, page 15.