A Common Pesticide Could Be Killing Idaho’s Young

Don't jump to conclusions.

Idaho uses a lot of weed killer.  A recent medical study points a finger at one particular common treatment as being a possible cause of a massive spike in colorectal cancer among the young.  I had to read through most of one story before I learned the name of the chemical, which has me wondering if the research team would like people to speculate about all weed killers.  The herbicide named picloram, in common use for 60 years, is finally cited about two-thirds of the way through the story I read.

The Explanation Needs to be Sooner in the Story.

I mentioned the story to a friend who assumed I was talking about glyphosate, which has long been manufactured by Bayer/Monsanto, and is commonly used for weed control in Idaho.  But it’s not cited in the study; as I wrote in the previous paragraph, people will hear a mention of this story and try to fill in the blanks.  A friend in the ranching business once told me that Twin Falls County uses more glyphosate than anywhere else in the country on a per-capita basis.  But I’m not sure picloram is in common use locally.

Cancer Causes are Often a Matter of Guessing

Trying to definitively say there’s a single cause for a particular cancer isn’t easy.  Younger people consume a lot more processed foods than older generations, which is often cited as a cause for cancer.  Consider we’re possibly looking at a combination of factors.