Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

Farmers and farm families are most at risk from the mixing and application process - soil residues were not measured in the study you cited. In fact, no residue measurements of any kind were taken so no conclusions regarding residues can be made. The Agricultural Health Study was based on questionaires sent to farm families to assess their potential exposure to pesticides. Your half-life table actually proves my point about breakdown over time. And note that most of the pesticides on that list are not applied to soil at all, so the amount even reaching the soil in the first place is relatively small. Most are applied to leaves and thus subject to other breakdown factors such as plant metabolism, UV, etc.before they even reach the soil. Chlordane is an exception to that but it has been banned in the U.S since 1988. It is a chlorinated hydrocarbon like DDT and most chlorinated hydrocarbons have been banned exactly for the reason that they do persist in soil and otherwise longer than most. "Those people have been gagged" - what is your evidence for that - sorry - "common knowledge" is not data and that is an extraordinary claim so you need some extraordinary proof. And it is also not up to me to provide proof that soil residues are not an issue as carcinogens - you are making the claim that they are, so that burden is on you as well.