I am going through this grief right now and it is possibly the most painful heartache imaginable. My adult daughter has alienated herself from me over a difference of opinion on the subject of abortion. I was at one time very much into the prolife movement. But because I've grown and learned, I've changed positions. I support pro choice. My daughter, who has suffered multiple miscarriages, read a comment I made on a discussion about the subject and was offended. She refuses to speak to me. I am beyond heartbroken. I feel as if my daughter wants to control my thoughts. She posts things on social media that lead me to think they are deliberate attempts to twist the knife. So hurtful they are, and she never considers that worse than losing a pregnancy to miscarriage is the pain of having your own child reject you. I have also lost a pregnancy to miscarriage, so I know what that's like. I've also lost my husband, her dad, and that was at the time, the worst pain I'd ever experienced. But this! This child of mine has cost me a lot in terms of sacrifice. At a time when I could least afford it, because I was home from my job for medical reasons, my daughter needed help paying her rent. I committed to help her. She got engaged to a man and mom paid for the wedding. A few years went by and the marriage ended. She needed help again to pay her bills. By then, I was old enough to take early retirement. It was all I had to give. So I did. It cost me half of what I'd otherwise have been entitled to. And that's for the rest of my life. My daughter takes little responsibility for her own affairs. And yes, mom's fault for bailing her out over and over. Her sister got saddled with her cell phone bill. Her dog damages property because he's not properly housetrained, and that has cost her sister a lot of money. My daughter owns 3 cars, two of them are high dollar cars. Her payments for those, she doesn't skip. But it's okay to let everyone else pay for her bills. And she says I lie when I say I love her,

I found the study Steve posted interesting. It doesn't seem necessarily contradictory to the study Hman posted, although I understand Hman's point was overall health. From other studies I've read skin cancer (and other cancers) are higher for applicators (farmers) but overall cancer rates are lower. What I found erroneous about the skin cancer study was that the researchers assumed farmers use PPE. They don't. I've read surveys where most farmers admit the only "PPE" they wear is sun glasses, leather gloves and a ball cap. I know several commercial apple or peach growers in my area and none of them wear any PPE. Of course we talk about these things. You have to picture what it's really like. Yes, everyone can quote what's required, but the reality is there's a million things to do and PPE takes extra time and gets in the way. Most people aren't going to drag out all the PPE to get the spray on. PPE is hot. Even nitrile gloves are hot and sweaty compared to leather gloves. Even leather gloves are a problem because you can't get the "tamper proof" seals off with leather gloves, so you have to take them off bare handed (which gets the "concentrate" on your hands-concentrate much more concentrated than homeowner products). I measure the product out with a digital scale and can't work the buttons with gloves. Respirators are also hot and uncomfortable to wear. They have respirators which continually feed you air with a fan, but those are bulky and heavy. For most farmer's it's much easier just to be "careful" mixing, loading and applying, rather than wear the PPE. You just want to get the spray on before the weather changes and the wind picks up. Really it's consistent with the way farmer's have always approached occupational safety. Farmer's are still in the top 10 list of most dangerous occupations, largely because of equipment accidents. They approach equipment safety the same way. Equipment safety shields get in the way, so they take them off. If there is a grain screen to keep one's clothes/limbs out of an auger, and that screen gets plugged up a few times, the farmer's going to torch that screen off with his cutting torch. As this relates to skin cancer, for my part, I know I'm high risk, being largely of Scandinavian descent. I've had one death in my extended family due to melanoma. It wouldn't at all surprise me if that's my cause of death. I try to be careful as I get older with sunscreen, but the truth is I still get badly burned several times a summer because forget to put it on. Sometimes I get blistered from welding because I'm in a hurry and don't cover up enough. I'm not different from the way most farmers approach occupational safety. I think the study regarding skin cancer and pesticides may have some merit, but causative correlation of skin cancer by pesticides, or sun exposure is the real question. According to the article, there isn't complete consensus on this. I'm not dismissing the role pesticides could possibly play in skin cancer because it does get all over your skin, but because of all the variables, it would seem difficult to isolate them in the study. Steve, I appreciate your measured approach to this topic, which is my goal. Sounds like you and I may think similar in this regard.

Sounds like a book that SHOULD be read, and it is tempting; but I have a difficult time reading about those historical times. I surprised myself by reading Greg Iles, Spandau Phoenix, which led me into those very times and horrors....perhaps more gently because I really wasn't expecting it. Actually, I did suspect it, but finally got to the place where I had no other book to read, and he is one of my favorite authors. That time of our history does give us a view into the greatness of human adaptability, as well as the horror that our language is unable to put into simple words.

"You have to be able to love members of your own species before you can branch out and apply that to other species. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas" I like all her quotes, the one above made really an impression.