What are Organophosphates – Chemical Pesticides?
Organophosphates were originally designed for chemical warfare, as nerve gas. Lovely. They didn’t even exist until World War II. There was another group called phenoxyherbicides, such as 2,4-D (now banned in North America) which were developed to destroy Japanese rice crops (later used as a component of Agent Orange, a very toxic defoliant used in jungle warfare). Organophosphates act primarily on the nervous system, destroying an enzyme called cholinesterase. This enzyme breaks down the neural transmitter called acetylcholine. As most people appreciate, the way the nervous system works is that one nerve fires and passes it’s impulse to the next nerve cell and that passes to the next and so on. Between the nerve cells are teeny chemicals called neurotransmitters which allow this passing of impulses along. Once the transmission has occurred the neurotransmitter has to be resorbed, broken down and re-formed so it can be used again when another impulse is needed down that chain of connect
