Insecticides and fungicides may be dangerous in different ways. That does not necessarly mean that one is less toxic than the other (in the long run). Some pesticide problems may not show up for many years and in a way unexpected such that that "route" was never tested for. The following recent research scientific paper is just one example of "the unexected/not tested". Title: Combined exposure to endocrine disrupting pesticides impairs parturition, causes pup mortality and affects sexual differentiation in rats Authors: P. R. Jacobsen, S. Christiansen, J. Boberg, C. Nellemann and U. Hass Authors affiliation: Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark Published in: International Journal of Andrology, volume 33, pages 434��"442, (2010). ABSTRACT: "Risk assessment is currently based on the no observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs) for single compounds. Humans are exposed to a mixture of chemicals and recent studies in our laboratory have shown that combined exposure to endocrine disrupters can cause adverse effects on male sexual development, even though the doses of the single compounds are below their individual NOAELs for anti-androgenic effects. Consequently, we have initiated a large project where the purpose is to study mixture effects of endocrine disrupting pesticides at low doses. In the initial range-finding mixture studies, rats were gavaged during gestation and lactation with five doses of a mixture of the fungicides procymidone, mancozeb, epoxyconazole, tebuconazole and prochloraz. The mixture ratio was chosen according to the doses of each individual pesticide that produced no observable effects on pregnancy length and pup survival in our laboratory and the dose levels used ranged from 25 to 100% of this mixture. All dose levels caused increased gestation length and dose levels above 25% caused impaired parturition leading to markedly decreased number of live born offspring and high pup perinatal mortality. The sexual differentiation of the pups was affected at 25% and higher as anogenital distance was affected in both male and female offspring at birth and the male offspring exhibited malformations of the genital tubercle, increased nipple retention, and decreased prostate and epididymis weights at pup day 13. The results show that doses of endocrine disrupting pesticides, which appear to induce no effects on gestation length, parturition and pup mortality when judged on their own, induced marked adverse effects on these endpoints in concert with other pesticides. In addition, the sexual differentiation of the offspring was affected. This as well as the predictability of the combination effects based on dose-additivity modelling will be studied further in a large dose-response study." -------------------------------------------- The first part of the INTRODUCTION SECTION of the full paper may be of interest: "Animal laboratory experiments have shown that in utero exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) including some pesticides can cause adverse effects on male reproductive development (Foster, 2006; Gray et al., 2006; Hass et al., 2007; Metzdorff et al., 2007; Christiansen et al., 2008). Individual pesticides alone have so far not been shown to contribute to adverse human effects at relevant exposure levels. However, some studies indicate increased prevalence of cryptorchidism and decreased penile length in sons of women working as gardeners or Many EDCs have been found as mixtures in humans (Blount et al., 2000; Swan et al., 2005), including children (Brock et al., 2002; Swan et al., 2005; Main et al., 2006). Damgaard et al. (2006) observed an association between congenital cryptorchidism and the levels of certain organochlorine pesticides in mothers’ milk (Damgaard et al., 2006). Earlier, Pierik et al. (2004) identified paternal exposures to pesticides and smoking as factors associated with these congenital malformations. These initial observations in epidemiological studies points in the same direction as laboratory experiments with oestrogenic or anti-androgenic chemicals in which substantial mixture effects occurred even though each individual chemical was present at low, ineffective doses (Rajapakse et al., 2002; Silva et al., 2002; Hass et al., 2007; Metzdorff et al., 2007; Christiansen et al., 2008, 2009). Some pesticides such as vinclozolin and procymidone antagonize competitively the androgen receptor (AR) binding of androgens and affect mainly the reproductive development in male offspring (Kelce et al., 1997; Ostby et al., 1999). Other pesticides such as mancozeb and propineb act mainly via disruption of the thyroid hormones and are mainly suspected to disrupt brain development (Hurley, 1998; Hass & Axelstad, Personal Communication). Our detailed research on prochloraz, combined with studies on other azole fungicides such as tebuconazole and epoxyconazole, indicates that these pesticides have the ability to react through several endocrine disrupting mechanisms, and to induce various endocrine disrupting effects (Vinggaard et al., 2005a,b; Taxvig et al., 2007). We have shown that prochloraz induced anti-androgenic effects in rats in vivo in a Hershberger test as well as in a developmental toxicity study (Vinggaard et al., 2002, 2005a). In addition, our studies show that prochloraz increases gestation length and indicate that prochloraz may also affect thyroid hormone levels and cause effects on the sexually dimorphic development of the brain (Vinggaard et al., 2002, 2005a). Both tebuconazole and epoxyconazole increase gestation length and pup mortality and furthermore, these pesticides virilise female pups, and affect steroid hormone levels in foetuses and ⁄ or dams (Taxvig et al., 2007)."

"When your body is worn out"..... humm. We don't think it will ever happen to us until it actually heppens, but it sure does happen - it's inevitable. I was hopping around a squash court only about 5 or 6 year ago, but now at 65, getting on a treadmill only for 30 min. daily is a big deal. Once you get over the hill, down slope seems to get increasingly steeper.... ;-( Since we accumulate knowledge and become wiser through experience, it is natural that we pass them on to less experienced people. Or, we may become smart enough to hire people to have them do most of physical labor. There are few more choices I can think of; One is to establish nichey expertise. One good xample is my wife. she is specialized in prunine Japnese maple tree. She mastered it through experience and self-learning, and become a real master. And, she is expensive now. (Come to think of it, she has always been expensive.... haha). Another choice is what I am doing - to introduce something new. If you go and look at this Forum ÂÃ Professional ÂÃ Irrigation ÂÃ Electrolysis Water Agriculture, you will see one project I am introducing now. There are so many things we don't know in this world; every country has its own unique things and method. It is a real fun to introduce new things, and when and if it turns into a business, it would be even better.

Funny you should mention this. I bought the Spanx body shaper last year and wore it once back then. I decided to wear it again this past weekend at an event and ended up carrying it home in my purse. Being 53 I was trying to widdle my middle back. I don't like to wear anything that I feel I have to keep adjusting. I would rather enjoy the show than put on the show. They are supposed to stay in one place but I kept feeling the need to fix it. Back in the drawer it will go.

I love to wear perfumes and cologne and love it when others do. Especially my hubby. I have days when I'm a little sensitive to fragrances because of allergies but since taking Claritin daily, I've not noticed the sensitivity problems. It's almost painful read of others tossing bottles of perfume. When I get hooked on a certain fragrance, whether it be in liquid or lotion form, I will scour the world, literally, to find more of it. Don't even want to think about how it may be sitting in the bottom of a trash can at your home! :-) I have my daily favorites and what I wear each day depends on who I'm going to be around. If my daughter is coming for a visit, I'll wear Tuscany per donna by Aramis because it is her "Shalimar" ... she told me she will always think of me when she smells Tuscany. It's probably the most pricey of the perfumes I have. I often wear Chanel No. 5 when I retire at night as I find it soothing. I will also wear it around older friends who remember the days it was a popular scent. When I'm going to meet with people I worked with back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, I usually wear Ciara by Charles Revson because that's primarily what I wore back then and it helps them to reconnect I think. For every day use, I love Avon's Imari. I get a lot of compliments on it and it's in keeping with my rather zen lifestyle. Gosh, don't toss your bottles, send them to me. :-) Jodi-