Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 30 May 2018
Study: Deadly pesticide use increases at illegal pot farms

DON THOMPSON Spanish, Gabriel said.
Associated Press Scott said it is being
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) smuggled in from Mexico
— Researchers and federal by drug cartels and the
authorities are finding what itinerant laborers hired
they say is an alarming to clear forestland and
increase in the use of a replant it with marijuana.
powerful pesticide at illegal The laborers have to pack
marijuana farms hidden on in the plants, fertilizer,
public land in California. irrigation hose and
The pesticide residue is camping supplies for the
showing up in about 30 summer growing season.
percent of the plants Laborers apprehended by
themselves, researcher authorities tell Gabriel the
Mourad Gabriel told The remoteness of the growing
Associated Press. sites is one reason highly
Most of the illegally grown toxic Carbofuran is so
California pot is destined popular.
for Midwestern and Eastern "What they are saying to us
states, federal prosecutors is this is extremely effective
said. Federal and state — it takes a little amount to
authorities are announcing kill a deer or a bear — so we
Tuesday that they will target don't need to bring a lot of
the illegal grows with $2.5 In this Jan. 23, 2018, file photo, McGregor Scott, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District it to last a season," he said.
million in federal money. of California, speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. At normal levels, a typical
Researchers found the Associated Press bottle containing less than
highly toxic pesticide 1 liter should be diluted with
Carbofuran at 72 percent Attorney McGregor Scott One of the dangers before Gabriel said. Research by up to 5,000 gallons (18,927
of grow sites last year, up will continue to enforce legalization was that users Gabriel and colleagues liters) of water, he said. But
from 15 percent in 2012, said federal marijuana laws, could not be sure what previously showed that illegal growers are diluting
Gabriel, executive director he said he is targeting was in the product they the use of pesticides at it with just 3 to 5 gallons
and senior ecologist at illicit grows on public were smoking or eating, illegal marijuana farms (11 to 19 liters) of water to
Integral Ecology Research land with cooperation but authorities say the rise is poisoning significant spray plants, or using the
Center and one of the few from California's attorney in Carbofuran use poses an numbers of California's few concentrate directly to kill
researchers studying the general and the state's increased danger. hundred remaining fishers, wildlife.
ecological impact of illicit National Guard. The chemical is intended a threatened carnivore. At that concentration, the
grow sites. "What is happening here for use as an insecticide Carbofuran can't legally be chemical takes at least 2
California has long allowed is illegal for all purposes but is so powerful that a used in the United States, ½ years to dissipate instead
medicinal marijuana, under anybody's law," he quarter of a teaspoon and every bottle found of roughly a month if it is
and this year legalized said in an interview before can kill a 300-pound at the grow sites since used at recommended
recreational pot. While U.S. Tuesday's announcement. (136-kilogram) bear, 2012 has been labeled in dilutions.q

Pompeii: New find shows man crushed

trying to flee eruption

MILAN (AP) — Officials at protruding from beneath a tibia, which may have
the Pompeii archaeologi- large block of stone that caused walking difficulties,
cal site have announced may have been a door impeding his escape.
a dramatic new discov- jamb that had been "vio- The archaeological site's
ery, the skeleton of a man lently thrown by the volca- general director, Massimo
crushed by an enormous nic cloud." Osanna, called it "an ex-
stone while trying to flee The victim, who was over ceptional find," that con-
the explosion of Mt. Vesu- 30, had his thorax crushed. tributes to a better "picture
vius in 79 A.D. Archaeologists have not of the history and civiliza-
Pompeii officials on Tues- found the victim's head. tion of the age."q
day released a photo- Officials said the man suf-
graph showing the skeleton fered an infection of the
The legs of a skeleton emerge
from the ground beneath a
large rock believed to have
crushed the victim's bust
during the eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius in A.D. 79, which
destroyed the ancient town
of Pompeii, at Pompeii's
archeological site, near
Naples, on Tuesday, May 29,
2018.
Associated Press