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Safer
Alternatives
Safer Alternatives for Safer Pest Control
PAN ALERT:
Tell FDA
LINDANE HAS TO GO!
Pesticides & the World Crime Epidemic
by
A.A.Gomez
The title is strong and may alarm the Chemical
Corporations and an array of others including those not familiar
with the fact that chemical damage to brain and nerve cells
causes behavioural dysfunction. Brain and nerve cells compose
mechanisms that control behaviour, including reactions and interactions
between people and they become dysfunctional through chemical damage.
Pesticides are the primary chemicals responsible for this damage and
billions of pounds are used to poison our homes, schools,
workplaces, day care centres, and our food sources. Learning disorders
and alzheimer’s disease are other ramifications of pesticide exposure
and these are also explained.
Our modern cultures are now experiencing serious crime problems. People are
exhibiting behavioral
disorders descending from the order and standards of preceding cultures.
People concerned of this
phenomenon have been perplexed as to the causes of these changes in
behavior.
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Important
health effects research regarding common pesticides are reported in
these medical journal summaries. The majority of information was
acquired by extensive research from the University of Florida and
University of South Florida Medical Libraries.
The information provides solid evidence linking common pesticides to
early onset of major health problems. Some individuals have lower
levels of cytochrome P-450 liver detoxification enzymes which would
predispose them to accelerated damage from exposure to synthetic
chemicals (Harry Gelboin - National Cancer Institute).
In the News
No Spray Settlement of Lawsuit
Against Giuliani, et. al.
Feds Approve and Judge Daniels Signs Agreement on April 12, 2007
New York City admits that pesticides may remain in the environment beyond
their intended purpose and may cause adverse health effects
Coalition Wins Eighty-Thousand Dollars for NY Grassroots Environmental
Groups
For seven years, the No Spray Coalition has battled the City of New York in
Federal Court in opposition to the Giuliani administration's massive and
indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides, including Malathion.
On April 12, a federal judge signed a settlement agreement in which New York
City admits that the pesticides sprayed may indeed be dangerous to human
health as well as to the natural environment.
The settlement agreement states that, contrary to the City's prior
statements, pesticides may remain in the environment beyond their intended
purpose, cause adverse health effects, kill mosquitoes' natural predators,
increase mosquito resistance to the sprays, and are not presently approved
for direct application to waterways.
Mitchel Cohen, the coordinator of the No Spray Coalition and an individual
plaintiff in the lawsuit, sees the settlement agreement as a "tremendous
victory" for health and environmental advocates.
"Thousands of New Yorkers were made seriously sick by the spraying," Cohen
said. "A number of members of our coalition, including several of the
plaintiffs, died from pesticide-related illnesses. Many suffer from Multiple
Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) or Asthma caused or exacerbated by the
spraying. We are very glad that the new City administration has to some
degree acknowledged that pesticides are extremely dangerous to human health.
They need to be rejected as a way of killing mosquitoes."
"In particular," Cohen continued, "the use of insect repellents containing
DEET should never be used, especially on children."
Read Complete
Article
Cancer Prevention Society - Preventing Cancer at its source
Pesticide Poisoning - Physician's Guide
PATIENT MANAGEMENT
This section provides a general overview of pesticide poisoning, toxicology,
recognition and management by pesticide categories.
Regardless of the poisoning, there are certain precautions that all
providers must take with a potential pesticide exposure.
Sodium fluosilicate: Uses and Health Effects
Insecticide, Wood preservative, US EPA List 3 Inert (Inorganic)
The major use is as a fluoridation agent for drinking water.
Are Pesticides Causing Changes in DNA?
With modern science DNA profiles are increasingly being used to determine
the possible susceptibility of individuals to disease but what of the risk
that chemicals can damage the DNA?
Could science simply be finding changes in human DNA which are caused by
pesticides in general and organophosphorus chemicals in particular?
Are
Pesticides the Real Killer in Tobacco?
The premise here is simple: it may not be tobacco that's killing all those
smokers. Has anyone else noticed that the Surgeon General's warnings never
mention tobacco - only smoking? In this section I suggest that almost all
smoking-related death is preventable without depriving people who like to
smoke of the pleasure of doing so simply by eliminating chemical
contaminants and poisonous synthetic materials and requiring manufacturers
to use 100% natural tobacco leaf.
Potential and
Definite Chronic Heath Effects
Dr Doris J. Rapp M.D.
Pyrethrins are considered by the EPA to be “likely human carcinogens”.
Farmers who use pyrethrins have a 3.7 fold increased risk of leukemia. If
the pesticide sprayers in Maricopa County develop cancer in a few years, who
will suspect it was the spray?
What about the children? Under the age of 5 years, there has been a 53%
increase in brain cancer, and an 18% increase in leukemia. Other reports
state there is a 25% increase in the past 25 years of brain tumors in
children. (The Politics of Cancer Revisited by Dr. Samuel Epstein.) Simply
using garden pesticides can increase by six fold the chances of a child
developing leukemia. Flea preparations can increase the chances of a brain
cancer in children by 2 to 4 fold. (National Cancer Institute 1987) Can we
really afford to wait and see what the pyrethroid spray does to the children
in the Phoenix community?
Some will have a decreased sperm count. Will infertile couples consider this
when they cannot conceive during the next few months or years?
Pesticides and Parkinson's Disease
It was revealed that much of the fruit and
vegetables we eat - including free fruit given out in
schools - is tainted by pesticides.
There are 120,000 Parkinson's patients in Britain, with
10,000 new cases each year. Worldwide, one per cent of those
over the age of 65 are affected. Michael J Fox and Muhammad
Ali are among those with the degenerative brain disease.
UB Pesticide Report 2000
The Environmental Task Force -
University of New York at Buffalo
This report addresses the University at buffalo's practice of
spraying lawn pesticides on campus. the Environmental Task force
understands that decisions to apply pesticides are made to
satisfy primarily aesthetic concerns. This report will address
scientific findings pointing to serious human health and
environmental effects that call these decisions into question.
ROYAL
COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
CROP SPRAYING AND THE HEALTH OF RESIDENTS AND BYSTANDERS
This report focuses on resident
and bystander exposure primarily in the United Kingdom but takes
account of experiences elsewhere in the world. We have received
evidence on resident and bystander exposure from a number of
countries and it is clear that the level of concern and activity
surrounding the issue varies considerably between countries.
Governments in the United States, parts of Europe, New Zealand
and Canada appear to have shown some interest, many others not
so.
* What are the biological effects of pesticides on humans?
* Can science currently explain the health effects that
people are attributing to agricultural pesticide
use?
* Are current systems able to pick up health effects that
are not well defined in the scientific literature?
* Are general practitioners and clinicians responding
effectively to health problems reported to them?
* How important is it to adopt a more precautionary
approach to exposure?
Pesticide Perils
Urban Children at Risk
"In 1999," commercial pesticide applicators applied 4.1 million
pounds of dry pesticides and 820,000 gallons of liquid pesticide
to homes, apartments, schools, parks and day care centers,
senior centers, hospitals, offices and office buildings across
New York State. Homeowners, landlords and apartment dwellers
purchased many additional thousands of pounds of pesticides for
private application. The pesticides used in New York include
carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, chemicals capable of causing
birth defects, and chemicals that can cause brain damage....
Pesticide Reduction Resource Guide
Concern over the adverse health and environmental effects of
pesticide is motivating municipalities
nationwide to act to reduce the amount of pesticides applied to their lands.
This guide is a step-by-step manual to help concerned citizens,
cities, and towns begin local pesticide use reduction programs.
There are many ways to achieve pesticide reduction, but this
manual focuses on two straightforward, concrete goals:
1) educate the town’s citizens.
2) adopt a municipal pesticide
reduction policy.
U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Right to Sue for
Pesticide Harm
Petitioner Texas peanut farmers allege that their crops were severely
damaged by the application of respondent’s (Dow) “Strongarm” pesticide,
which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered pursuant to its
authority under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Petitioners gave Dow notice of their intent to sue, claiming that
Strongarm’s label recommended its use in all peanut-growing areas when Dow
knew or should have known that it would stunt the growth of peanuts in their
soil, which had pH levels of at least 7.0.
Pesticide Reduction By-law
A study published earlier this year concludes that communities that pass
local by-laws or ordinances
that restrict the cosmetic use of pesticides for
home lawns and gardens are more effective in reducing the use of pesticides
than those that rely solely on public education or social marketing.
Canola Oil a Pesticide - Factsheet
NCAP Pesticide Fumigant Factsheet - Sulfuryl Fluoride
Jon Rappoport
This is a boycott against the eight biggest pesticide companies in
the world, but it is much more than that. It's a boycott against THE
POWER and against a way of life represented by all the gigantic
multinational corporations, which every day extend their control
over the planet. By the time you finish reading this material you'll
realize how destructive their power is, in detail. You'll understand
more clearly why these simple stark things need to be done:
1. stop buying these corporations' products;
2. don't buy their stock on whatever exchanges they're traded;
3. demand that others including institutions sell their stock in
these companies;
4. don't work for these corporations;
5. find a way to personally pass on the word.
Pesticides - Adverse Medical Effects by Daniel McKeel MD Washington
University School of Medicine
The unfortunate practice about which I am writing is the excess
aerial spraying from trucks of pesticides such as permethrin,
sumithrin, DEET and the synergist, PBO or piperonyl butoxide. The
latter agent, PBO, inhibits liver detoxifying enzymes and thus
markedly prolongs the primary pesticide effects on the body. PBO is
suspected of causing anorexia (loss of appetite), coma, convulsions,
possibly cancer, skin irritation, liver and kidney damage,
prostration due to circulatory collapse, tearing of the eyes,
unsteadiness, vomiting and weight loss. Liver and kidney damage are
the chronic effects of PBO.
Using these “safe” pesticides is far from innocuous, despite some
claims by the manufacturer’s and agencies that conduct the massive
mosquito spraying campaigns. [1] In addition, the toxic compounds
are not the most effective way to control culex vector populations.
The pesticides of concern also are extremely toxic to fish and some
bird species.
PESTICIDES AND CHILDRENS HEALTH
Dr John McLaren Howard - Biolab Medical Unit
PESTICIDES PRESENT THE MOST WORRYING CHEMICAL EXPOSURES - THEY ARE
DESIGNEDTO DISRUPT ENZYME SYSTEMS OR DAMAGE CELL MEMBRANES.
Pesticides & the World Crime Epidemic by A.A.Gomez
The title is strong and may alarm the
Chemical Corporations and an array of others including those
not familiar with the fact that chemical damage to brain
and nerve cells causes behavioural dysfunction. Brain and
nerve cells compose mechanisms that control behaviour, including
reactions and interactions between people and they become
dysfunctional through chemical damage.
Pesticides are the primary chemicals responsible for this
damage and billions of pounds are used to poison our
homes, schools, workplaces, day care centres, and our food
sources. Learning disorders and alzheimer’s disease are other
ramifications of pesticide exposure and these are also
explained.
Our modern cultures
are now experiencing serious crime problems. People are exhibiting
behavioral
disorders descending from the order and standards of preceding
cultures. People concerned of this
phenomenon have been perplexed as to the causes of these changes in
behavior.
Pesticides in Schools; Reducing the Risks: Attorney General of New
York
Pesticides, a diverse group of toxic chemicals, are widely used in
agricultural production, in factories and offices, in homes and
restaurants, and in schools.(1) Schools, with their kitchens and
cafeterias, athletic fields and playgrounds, classrooms and offices,
are regularly treated with a variety of pesticides. An increasing
body of scientific data on the potentially harmful effects of
pesticide exposure on people and the environment rightfully raises
concern about the broad use of these toxic substances. According to
the United States Environmental Protection Agency, "All pesticides
are toxic to some degree. This means they can pose some risk to you,
to your children and pets...."(2) The commonplace, widespread use of
pesticides is both a major environmental problem and a public health
issue.
Silent Spring Pesticides
This section offers a general discussion on pesticides, the potential
health effects of pesticide exposure, pesticide symptomatology, and
mechanisms used to detect pesticides in humans. Emphasis is given to the
impact of pesticides on environmental quality and human health risks.
The main premise offered is that to a significant extent, pesticide
exposure is the function of human (cultural and political)
decision-making. Instead of blaming the victims of agrochemical
exposure, the research looks specifically at agribusiness and the
agrochemical industry, and how they contribute to environmental quality
and human health deterioration. It looks at human decision making, both
on field and in government offices, and how policies affecting human
health and environmental quality are made in relatively uncertain
environments. In the context of the study region, this uncertainty
occurs because decision makers have incomplete knowledge about the
region’s intermountain environment and the interplay between pesticides,
human behavior and health.
Pesticides and How To Prevent Breast Cancer - Female Intelligence Agency
Pesticides, organochlorines, and radiation as breast cancer risks.
Organochlorines are man-made chemicals containing chlorine and
carbon. They include many chemicals present in pesticides, plastics,
PCBs, pulp and paper manufacturing, sewage treatment and solvents. Many
of them are xenoestrogens or estrogens mimics, which means that like
estrogen, they promote the growth of breast cancer in the human body.
Some of them are not estrogenic but are toxic and carcinogenic in
general.
Organochlorines don't easily break down and accumulate in the fat
tissues of humans and animals, becoming more and more concentrated as
one moves up the food chain. They are highly toxic, causing for example
birth defects and neurological damage. It has been found that
organochlorines act synergistic in promoting breast cancer.
Toxic
encephalopathy associated with use of DEET insect repellents
A case analysis of its toxicity in children.
The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that the
potential toxicity of DEET is high and that available repellents
containing DEET, irrespective of their strength, are not safe when
applied to children's skin.
India - Coca Cola Contains
Dangerous Pesticides
How long will it take before the powers that be in India refuse to allow
multinationals to treat Indians as guinea pigs? In what can only be
characterized as arrogance and impunity, we are learning that Coca-Cola
and Pepsi have continued to sell soft drinks in India with dangerously
high levels of pesticides - three years after even the government of
India confirmed that these products were dangerous. Perhaps the cola
companies know something that we do not? Are Indians immune to high
levels of pesticides? It is time for the cola companies to provide
details of the studies they must have conducted to convince themselves
that the average Indian can consume pesticides safely at levels 24 times
the average American and European.
Pesticides and
Birds: From DDT to Today's Poisons
By Caroline Cox
During the three decades that DDT, the organochlorine insecticide that
has been called "the most widespread and pernicious of global
pollutants,~' was used in the United States, its effects on birds were
both devastating and notorious. However, the pesticides used in the lest
twenty years, since DDT's registrations were cancelled in 1972,5
continue to impact birds. Some are acutely toxic enough that small doses
kill birds; others cause a variety of less lethal, but still damaging,
effects. Pesticides injure birds both directly and indirectly, and birds
are often affected by a combination of different kinds of effects. For
the birds' own sake, and because, like the miner's canary, they can warn
us when our own health or the health of our ecosystem is threatened,
these effects are worth our attention and action.
Environmental Causes of Learning Disabilities and Child Neurological
Disorders
Recent information has shown the unborn child is far more vulnerable to
developing neurological damage during pregnancy than previously thought
- the human brain is growing at over 4,000 cells per second beginning in
the fourth week of pregnancy. An increasing number of neurotoxic
compounds are being identified in today's modern society (not present
30-50 years ago) which can weaken or damage this brain development
process. The effects of these chemical exposures can then become evident
in later years as learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders,
mental retardation or personality and behavior difficulties such as
shyness, hyperactivity, aggression or even violent tendencies and lack
of conscience.
Researching Effects of
Chemicals and Pesticides upon Health
Petroleum based chemicals are being found to cause
significant attritional effects to the nervous system and immune system
after prolonged exposure. Illnesses identified in the medical research
include adult and child cancers, numerous neurological disorders, immune
system weakening, autoimmune disorders, asthma, allergies, infertility,
miscarriage, and child behavior disorders including learning disabilities,
mental retardation, hyperactivity and ADD (attention deficit disorders).
Petroleum based chemicals are believed to cause these problems by a variety
of routes including - impairing proper DNA (Gene) expression, weakening DNA
Repair, accelerating gene loss, degeneration of the body's detoxification
defenses (liver and kidneys) as well as gradual weakening of the brain's
primary defense - (the Blood Brain Barrier).
Mark Purdey: Seeking the Truth through Science: BSE Origins
Besides the origins of BSE. Mark's work focused on the biological impact of
increasing cocktail of environmental oxidising agents in our modern environment,
eg, ultra violet radiation, systemic insecticides, low frequency infrasonic radiation,
radar, microwaves, etc.
Mark Purdey died peacefully at home on Sunday 12th November 2006
Messages of condolence and tributes to be published on his website may be
sent by email to:
info(at)equofax.com - Jane Barribal: Ed. Equofax
A Tribute to Mark Purdey and the accuracy of his work on the Origins of BSE
Mark Purdey was Right!
IN THE
NEWS
Monsanto
dumped toxic waste in UK
Monday February 12, 2007
Inquiry after chemicals found at site 30 years after their disposal
Evidence has emerged that the Monsanto
chemical company paid contractors to dump thousands of tonnes of highly
toxic waste in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals
were liable to contaminate wildlife and people. Yesterday the
Environment Agency said it had launched an inquiry after the chemicals
were found to be polluting underground water supplies and the
atmosphere 30 years after they were dumped.
A
previously unseen government report read by the Guardian shows that 67
chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which
could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from one unlined
porous quarry that was not authorised to take chemical wastes.
The Brofiscin quarry on the edge of the village of Groesfaen, near
Cardiff, erupted in 2003, spilling fumes over the surrounding area, but
the community has been told little about the real condition of what is
in the pit. Yesterday the government was criticised for failing to
publish information about the scale and exact nature of this
contamination. Click title for full article . . .
The EPA has begun closing its nationwide network of scientific
libraries, effectively preventing EPA scientists and the public from
accessing vast amounts of data and information on issues from
toxicology to pollution. Several libraries have already been
dismantled, with their contents either destroyed or shipped to
repositories where they are uncataloged and inaccessible.
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday December 8, 2006
The Guardian
A world-famous British scientist failed to disclose that he held a paid
consultancy with a chemical company for more than 20 years while
investigating cancer risks in the industry, the Guardian can reveal.
Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established that
smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a
day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto, then a major chemical company and
now better known for its GM crops business.
While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal
Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing
properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in the
Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the chemical
caused cancer.
Documents seen by the Guardian reveal that Sir Richard was also paid a
£15,000 fee by the Chemical Manufacturers Association and two
other major companies, Dow Chemicals and ICI, for a review that largely
cleared vinyl chloride, used in plastics, of any link with cancers
apart from liver cancer - a conclusion with which the World Health
Organisation disagrees. Sir Richard's review was used by the
manufacturers' trade association to defend the chemical for more than a
decade.
The revelations will dismay scientists and other admirers of Sir
Richard's pioneering work and fuel a rift between the majority who
support his view that the evidence shows cancer is a product of modern
lifestyles and those environmentalists who argue that chemicals and
pollution must be to blame for soaring cancer rates.
Yesterday Sir Richard Peto, the Oxford-based epidemiologist who worked
closely with him, said the allegations came from those who wanted to
damage Sir Richard's reputation for their own reasons. Sir Richard had
always been open about his links with industry and gave all his fees to
Green College, Oxford, the postgraduate institution he founded, he
said.
Professor John Toy, medical director of Cancer Research UK, which
funded much of Sir Richard's work, said times had changed and the
accusations must be put into context. "Richard Doll's lifelong service
to public health has saved millions of lives. His pioneering work
demonstrated the link between smoking and lung cancer and paved the way
towards current efforts to reduce tobacco's death toll," he said. "In
the days he was publishing it was not automatic for potential conflicts
of interest to be declared in scientific papers."
But a Swedish professor who believes that some of Sir Richard's work
has led to the underestimation of the role of chemicals in causing
cancers said that transparency was all-important. "It's OK for any
scientist to be a consultant to anybody, but then this should be
reported in the papers that you publish," said Lennart Hardell of
University Hospital, Orebro.
Sir Richard died last year. Among his papers in the Wellcome Foundation
library archive is a contract he signed with Monsanto. Dated April 29
1986, it extends for a year the consulting agreement that began on May
10 1979 and offers improved terms. "During the one-year period of this
extension your consulting fee shall be $1,500 per day," it says.
Monsanto said yesterday it did not know how much work Sir Richard did
for the company, but said he was an expert witness for Solutia, a
chemical business spun off from Monsanto, as recently as 2000.
08.12.2006: Profile: Sir Richard Doll, expert who linked smoking and cancer
08.12.2006: Company paid for published review
08.12.2006: Intervention in Vietnam inquiry
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/science/story/0,,1967386,00.html
Pesticides in Homes and Lawns showing Serious Health Risks
Common
pesticides used in homes and lawns are now being shown in medical
research to accelerate aging of the immune and nervous system resulting
in serious health problems years after exposure.
Companies which use these chemicals include TruGreen - ChemLawn - Orkin
and others. The majority of the public still believes these chemicals
are completely tested by the government. Unfortunately, this is not the
case. Chemical companies do their own testing and submit the results to
the EPA for review - setting up the potential for "selective"
reporting. Of significant concern, agriculture and consumer use
pesticides are not currently required to be tested for subtle
neurological effects (i.e. memory, depression, behavior) - child
learning disorders - pregnancy developmental studies and immune system
effects (i.e. lower white blood counts - increased infection rates and
autoimmunity).
Paraquat, an extremely toxic herbicide, poisons tens of thousands of people every year.
It is manufactured by the
world’s largest pesticide company, Swiss multinational Syngenta.
There is no antidote for this dangerous pesticide, yet it is marketed
in 100 countries and used in large quantities particularly by farmers
in the Southern Hemisphere.
Swiss NGO Berne Declaration is holding a virtual “People’s
Vote” on Syngenta’s practices and asking for your
participation. PAN groups and many others are collaborating in the
broad public campaign to bring public attention to Syngenta’s
inhuman business policies. We ask you to join in demanding that
Syngenta take responsibility for the devastating health impacts of this
highly hazardous pesticide and stop production now.
Low-Level Chemical Exposures: A Challenge for Science and Policy
Conflict of Interest in Science
Millions of children worldwide may have suffered brain damage as a
direct result of industrial pollution, scientists said yesterday.
An explosive report from American and Danish researchers talks of a
"silent pandemic" of disorders caused by toxic chemicals spilling into
the environment.
They include conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, mental retardation and cerebral palsy.
Britain sabotages EU law to control toxic chemicals.
Ministers are sabotaging laws to control toxic chemicals despite fears that they are causing a
"silent epidemic" of brain disorders in British children, a leaked document shows. London
Independent, England.
Chemicals Management may be getting Tougher
Canada is
poised to release an assessment of 23,000 chemicals, making it the
first country in the world to systematically review all of the
chemicals in current use within its borders. Coupled with the impending
adoption of a new chemicals policy in Europe, the Canadian action could
change the mix of products on store shelves worldwide, experts say.
In 1986, rules in Canada mandated that all newly introduced substances
undergo toxicity screening. At the time, 23,000 chemicals already on
the Canadian market were “grandfathered” in without proof
of their safety.
Click title for full article
Pesticides & the World Crime Epidemic
by A.A.Gomez
The title is strong and may alarm the Chemical Corporations and an array of others including those not familiar with the fact that chemical damage
to brain and nerve cells causes behavioural dysfunction.
Brain and nerve cells compose mechanisms that control behaviour,
including reactions and interactions between people and they become
dysfunctional through chemical damage.
Pesticides are the primary chemicals responsible for this damage and billions of pounds are used to poison
our homes, schools, workplaces, day care centres, and our food
sources. Learning disorders and alzheimer’s disease are
other ramifications of pesticide exposure and these are also explained.
Our modern cultures are now experiencing serious crime problems. People are exhibiting behavioral
disorders descending from the order and standards of preceding cultures. People concerned of this
phenomenon have been perplexed as to the causes of these changes in behavior.
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