Peter Clausing

Pesticide Action Network Germany

Cheapening labor is essential for firm competitiveness and profitability in a capitalist economy and, for the labor force to be constantly renewed, labor needs to eat cheaply. The widespread use of pesticides is a favored means to make food production more “cost-effective.” This is possible, however, only because a considerable part of the cost of...

The European Commission’s 2020 draft Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability set the ambitious goal of achieving a “Toxic-Free Environment”. Those ambitions were harshly criticised by a team based in Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (or BfR); they claimed that toxicological risks from chemicals had already been minimised and were optim...

Pesticide drift onto non-agricultural land is a common problem in intensively farmed regions, and national action plans have been established across Europe to prevent it. Here, we analyzed official data on pesticide residues in grass samples collected over six years to determine whether implemented measures to reduce pesticide drift were effective....

Background In a previous study, we found that 45% of public playgrounds near intensively managed agricultural areas were contaminated with mainly endocrine active pesticide residues in spring. Here, we investigated potential contamination over the course of a year. Methods Residue data were analyzed from 96 grass samples collected in spring, summe...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

In a correspondence to BMC Public Health, Dunn et al. (Dunn SE, Reed J and Neumann C. BMC Public Health (n.d)) respond to our review on the occurrence of unintentional, acute pesticide poisoning (UAPP). Based on a systematic review and further data sources we estimated that about 385 million cases of UAPP occur annually world-wide including around...

In this study, we present an overview of the current situation of oil palm in Mexico based on: - official data on the oil palm sector at international and national levels to contextualize oil palm cultivation and its economic importance, - the most recent publicly available mapping of oil palm fields at national level an introduction to the public...

Background Human poisoning by pesticides has long been seen as a severe public health problem. As early as 1990, a task force of the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about one million unintentional pesticide poisonings occur annually, leading to approximately 20,000 deaths. Thirty years on there is no up-to-date picture of global pest...

The regulation of pesticides in the European Union (EU) relies on a network of hard law (legislation and implementing acts) and soft law (non-legally binding guidance documents and administrative and scientific practices). Both hard and soft laws govern how risk assessments are conducted, but a significant role is left to the latter. Europe’s pesti...

Between 1992 and 2015 Argentina lost 17% of its tree cover. Regionally, deforestation continues, but net forest loss recently came to a halt. Some scholars argue that this was facilitated by industrial agricultural intensification. This view is debated, but we focus on the neglected costs associated with this intensification. An almost tenfold incr...

Glyphosate: The European Controversy – A review of civil society struggles and regulatory failures - Peter CLAUSING

The present paper scrutinises the European authorities’ assessment of the carcinogenic hazard posed by glyphosate based on Regulation (EC) 1272/2008. We use the authorities’ own criteria as a benchmark to analyse their weight of evidence (WoE) approach. Therefore, our analysis goes beyond the comparison of the assessments made by the European Food...

In view of the Aichi international policy targets to expand areas under conservation, we analyze to what extent conservation has become an inherent element of extraction. We scrutinize the Land Sparing versus Land Sharing debate by explicitly incorporating environmental justice issues of access to land an d natural resources. We contend that domina...

Dogs are sometimes referred to as "man's best friend" and with the increase in urbanization and lifestyle changes, dogs are seen by their owners as family members. Society expresses specific concerns about the experimental use of dogs, as they are sometimes perceived to have a special status for humans. This may appear somewhat conflicting with the...

In this article we review the value and utility of the minipig as an animal model in regulatory toxicity testing. Our review is based on detailed consideration of the comparative biology of the minipig, and of the practical features of toxicity testing in the minipig. The minipig presents a favourable profile as a non-rodent toxicology model, in te...

A method for inhalative exposure of minipigs to aerosols and gases has been developed. Minipigs are exposed via mask inhalation to the test substance using a computer-controlled exposure system that permits simultaneous exposure of groups of four animals in parallel to different controlled dose levels. We studied inhalation treatment of verapamil,...

The effects of preweaning experience in rats and mice on neuroendocrine and behavioral end points and their implications for prenatal drug effects are reviewed. The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and the dopaminergic system were shown to be affected. Behavior related to hippocampal, adrenocortical functions and to the benzodiazepine receptor sy...

This paper is the condensed result of the presentations and discussions held at the DIA Workshop “The Revised OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practice,” held September 3 and 4, 1998, in Brussels. The workshop brought together inspectors from compliance monitoring authorities and quality assurance units in industry, as well as study directors wor...

Brain temperature monitoring and microdialysis were performed simultaneously in the caudate/putamen (CPu) of conscious, freely moving rats dosed with d-amphetamine (AMPH). The brain temperature was determined via a thermistor inserted through a microdialysis guide cannula located in the left CPu, while the microdialysis probe was positioned in the...

d-Fenfluramine is a potent serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitor/releaser and, until its recent recall, was prescribed as an anoretic agent. This study demonstrates that 10 mg/kg d-fenfluramine i.p., when administered to rats in a warm (27 degrees C) environment, produces neuronal degeneration within select brain regions. Degeneration was detected an...

Four injections (intraperitoneal) of 3 mg/kg amphetamine (2 hr apart) produced pronounced hyperthermia and sustained decreases in dopamine levels and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) protein levels in the striatum of 15-month-old male rats. A partial recovery of striatal dopamine levels was observed at 4 months after amphetamine. In contrast, TH mRNA and...

The relationship between dose, frontal cortex (brain) microdialysate and brain tissue levels of fenfluramine (FEN) and norfenfluramine (NF), as well as the effect that these levels have on body temperature, was determined after systemic d-FEN. FEN and NF levels were monitored continuously in the microdialysate of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats dose...

A HPLC method is described for the simultaneous determination of D-fenfluramine (FEN), D-norfenfluramine (NF) and fluoxetine (FLX) using fluorometric detection after precolumn derivatization with dansyl-chloride. The method has limits of quantitation of 200 fmol for FEN and NF, 500 fmol for FLX in brain microdialysate, and 1 pmol for NF and FEN, an...

C57BL/6 mice were intubated on gestational days 14-18 twice daily with 1.58 g/kg ethanol, 4.2 g/kg sucrose, or remained untreated. Offspring of ethanol-treated or lab chow control groups were raised either by group-housed dams and weaned on postnatal day (PND) 28 (enriched condition), or by individually housed dams and weaned on PND 21 (standard co...

On day 2 after delivery, dams of the DBA/1 mouse inbred strain (n = 20/group) with their litter were allocated to one of the following groups: NH21, nonhandling, housed 1 litter/cage, weaned on postnatal day (PND) 21;H21, handling, housed 1 litter/cage, weaned on PND 21; NH30, nonhandling, group-housed (5 litters/cage), weaned on PND 30; H30, handl...

To investigate changes in striatal dopamine release over a series of brief methamphetamine (METH) exposures, METH was pulsed three times at 2-h intervals, with the first exposure occurring 2 h after microdialysis probe insertion. Whether METH was administered directly into the striatum via the microdialysate (20 microM of METH for 10 min), or via p...

It has been postulated that differences in pharmacokinetics do not contribute to the well-known individual variability in response to amphetamine (AMPH), but this is yet to be investigated thoroughly. Therefore, rotational behavior of outbred rats (Sprague-Dawley, 4 months old) was recorded during microdialysis sessions and striatal microdialysate...

In contrast to the well known effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on the central nervous system, data about its peripheral effects are scarce. Here, Sprague Dawley rats were fed a liquid diet (gestational days 0-20) containing 36% ethanol-derived calories (EDCs, group H) or were pair-fed with 18% EDCs (group L) or 0% EDCs (group C). On postnatal d...

The combined effects of amphetamine (AMPH) and 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA) were investigated to determine how the energy depletion proposed to be produced by AMPH interacts with an inhibitor of mitochondrial respiration to produce striatal neurotoxicity. Neither two doses (2 h apart) of 3.75 mg/kg AMPH alone nor a single dose of 30 mg/kg 3-NPA i....

-C57BL/6 mice were intubated from gestational day 14-18 twice daily with 1.58 g/kg ethanol, 4.2 g/kg sucrose, or remained untreated. Offspring of ethanol treated or lab chow control groups were raised either by group-housed dams and weaned on postnatal day (PND) 28 or by individually housed dams and weaned on PND 21. Offspring of the sucrose contro...

A possible role for NO modulation of dopamine (DA) release in the caudate/putamen (CPU) during methamphetamine (METH) exposure was investigated using in vivo microdialysis in rats. Inclusion of the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitors NG-nitro-L-arginine (NOARG), NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) or D-NAME (less potent inhibitor) in the m...

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a liquid diet containing either 0% (group C), 18% (group L), or 36% (group H) ethanol-derived calories (EDC) from gestational day 1 to 20. Male offspring were assessed under a conditioned taste aversion paradigm (PND 35-45), in a complex maze (PND 68-80), and for operant behavior (temporal response differentiat...

Extracellular levels of d-amphetamine (AMPH) in caudate/putamen were determined using microdialysis and HPLC quantitation after s.c. doses that produced increased motor activity (1 mg/kg), stereotypic behavior (2.5 mg/kg) or dopamine depletion in the caudate/putamen (4 x 5 mg/kg). In 6-mo-old rats exposed to neurotoxic doses of AMPH sulfate (4 x 5...

An HPLC method is described for the determination of amphetamine using fluorometric detection after derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde and 3-mercaptopropionic acid. This procedure is more sensitive (detection limit 370 fmol in microdialysate buffer standards, 1.5 pmol in extracted plasma and tissue samples) than most of the previous methods des...

To investigate the effects of social isolation on host resistance male mice were housed either individually (IH) or in groups of four or five (GH). All animals were infected with MengoM,L virus. Incubation time (INCUB), duration of illness (ILL), death rate (DR), histopathological changes, and serum corticosterone levels (CORT) were recorded. First...

The present study examined the influence of systemic administration of neuroactive drugs on delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) in C57BL/6 mice. The cholinergic agonist nicotine and the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine decreased DTH, whereas the alpha-adrenergic agonist clonidine stimulated DTH. In contrast isoprenaline, a specific beta...

The circadian rhythm of ethylmorphine N-demethylase (ND) and hexobarbital sleeping time (HBS) was studied in noninduced and dichlorophenoxy propionic acid (DP) induced adult male rats. DP was gavaged (40 mg/kg bw) at 1.00, 7.00, 13.00 or 19.00 hr. After 21 days the above mentioned parameters were determined corresponding to the time point of DP adm...

Accordingly to the subacute toxicity of chlorphacinone to Japanese quail (LC 50: 60 mg/kg feed), the uptake of Delicia-chlorphacinone-baits for several days can be lethal to birds as a matter of principle. A subchronic study resulted in a "no-observed-effect-level" of 1 mg chlorphacinon/kg feed. Reproduction is not affected until dose levels which...

AB/Jena, DBA/2Jena, C57B1/6 Jena inbred mice and ABD2F1- and B6D2F4-hybrid mice either were reared communally and weaned at day 30 or were reared by isolated mothers and weaned at day 21 (I21). On day 50 the total RNA content of pyramidal brain cells of male offspring was determined by cytophotometry. The studied brain areas were the frontal pole o...

A 21 week experiment was conducted with male SPF Ico/Shoe: WIST rats to study the influence on diagnostic parameters of toxicological studies of (i) acidification of drinking water by hydrochloric acid (untreated tap water vs. pH 3 vs. pH 2), (ii) individual vs. group caging (5 animals/cage), and (iii) ad libitum vs. 10 ml restrictive water supply....

Toxicological registration requirements for pesticides demand preferably dogs as animals of choice for non-rodent studies. In the GDR miniature swine of SPF-quality (MINI-LEWE) are available which are regarded as highly suitable for toxicological testing of pesticides. Their usefulness is due to the well-known similarities between man and swine wit...

The concentrations of dichlorprop and its leucine conjugate in serum and bile of rats have been determined at different periods after a single oral dosage of these compounds (30 or 300 mg/kg body weight). From the results it can be concluded that dichlorprop is excreted by active renal mechanisms resembling that described for 2,4,5-T. It is suggest...

Distribution of a single oral dose of methyl mercury (10 mg Hg/kg body weight) was followed from 90 min up to 120 h in plasma, erythrocytes, and brain of Japanese quails and rats. Significantly higher Hg concentrations were observed in plasma and brain of quails and red blood cells of rats. Blood/brain ratio decreased in quails from 6 to 2 at 24 h...

The concentration of dichlorprop in serum, bile and urine of rats have been analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and gas liquid chromatography at different time points after a single oral dosage of this compound (30 or 300 mg/kg body weight). The same has been done for the leucine conjugate of dichlorprop (30 or 300 mg/kg b.w.). It ca...

Iron overload in spleen, liver and kidney induced by hemolytic anaemia due to a 90-day oral exposure of rats to diuron (N-3,4-dichlorphenyl-N,N-dimethylurea), an urea herbicide, was studied by histochemistry, transmission electronmicroscopy, morphometry and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Increasing dosages of diuron provoked a hemosiderosis...

The evaluation of combined chemical effects should be based on the theoretical additive LD50 values which are derived from the LD25 values of the single substances rather than the 1/2 LD50 values. If the latter are used, misinterpretation of the character of the combined action (overestimation of antagonism/underestimation of potentiation) are not...

Acute oral toxicity to rat of phenyl-mercury acetate (with 44 mg/kg on males and between 54 mg/kg and 77 mg/kg on females several tests) was found to be almost identical with that of methyl-mercury toluenesulphamide (59 mg/kg on males, 54 mg/kg on females). Japanese quail, on the other hand, proved to much more sensitive to the methyl compounds, th...

Doses of 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg of Gamma-Falisan-Universal dry dressing agent (active ingredients including 20 per cent of Lindan and 2.5 per cent of phenyl-mercury acetate) were administered in agar suspension by stomach intubation to rats over 13 weeks, with five applications weekly. The following changes were produced: retardation in...

Often the application of fractions of the LD50 (e.g. 1/4 LD50, 1/2 LD50) is unavoidable due to technical conditions in the experiment (e.g. in case of substances with low toxicity and in case of very steep slope functions). But if ever possible, dosage of equitoxic amounts (LD10, LD50 etc.) should be prefered, because of higher reliability in the c...