Oh man this thread made me so angry I had to go smoke a few grams of hash or this would turned into a ten page rant. I am very surprised at the information and advice given by some of the members that I do genuinely respect on here and that I THOUGHT knew what they were doing with this sort of stuff. Before I give my opinion on
Eagle 20, let's look at the hard facts, since it is pretty obvious to me that most of the "experts" on this thread have not done their research in the slightest.
First, let's take a look at the potential health effects of
Eagle 20. Here is information I paraphrased from the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from Dow AgroSciences, the company that makes Eagle20. This is info straight from the horse's mouth, on what are the proven, established risks of using
Eagle 20, as stated by the company that makes it:
"Inhalation may cause central nervous system effects. On animals effects have been reported in the liver, testes, adrenal gland, kidney, and thyroid. Contains chemicals known to cause cancer.
Eagle 20 is considered by the EPA to pose both an immediate and a delayed health hazard." Not exactly harmless, is it? Here is the MSDS to see for yourself:
Second - let' take a look at the active ingredients in
Eagle 20 and what other sources say about them.
Eagle 20 contains two active ingredients - Naphthalene and Myclobutanil. The Pesticide Action Network (PAN), which is the most complete database for pesticides registered for use in the United States, has Mycobutanil listed as a "Bad Actor" chemical. The "Bad Actor" designation is reserved only for the most toxic of pesticides for easy identification. It is also on the California Proposition 65 list, which is a list of pesticides known to cause reproductive and developmental toxicity. In addition, Myclobutanil has been found to cause cancer. It is also a suspected endocrine disruptor, and is on the European Union Prioritization List of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Now that last part is important - endocrine disruptors are very, very bad for human health (I'll get to that in a minute).
According to its MSDS (again straight from the horse's mouth), Naphthalene, the other chemical in
Eagle 20, is harmful if swallowed, may cause respiratory, skin or eye irritation and cancer. It is very toxic to aquatic organisms and may cause long-term harm in the environment. It is also listed as a "Bad Actor" chemical on the PAN database just like Mycobutanil. According to the EPA, it has acute health effects associated with hemolytic anemia, damage to the liver, and, in infants, neurological damage. Symptoms of exposure include headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convulsions, and coma.
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/naphthal.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/NA/naphthalene.html
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_ChemUse.jsp?Rec_Id=PC120#ChemID
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35114
Out of all the possible health hazards of
Eagle 20, it is the fact that it is a endocrine disruptor that is the most concerning. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with endocrine (the hormone system) in animals and humans even at extremely low doses. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and developmental disorders such as learning disabilities, severe attention deficit disorder, cognitive and brain development problems, deformations of the body, sexual development problems, feminizing of males, and masculine effects on females. Not only that, but if a developing fetus is exposed to and affected by endocrine disruptors, it can take decades for adverse effects to manifest. Even more disturbing, it appears that the effects of endocrine disruptors are passed from generation to generation through epigenetic modification of our DNA. Some research indicates that the effects are trans-generational, meaning that the hazardous health effects can be passed on for multiple generations. So not only can exposure to products like
Eagle 20 cause hazardous health effects in you, but they can also cause hazardous health effects in your children, and possibly even you grand-children, decades after you were initially exposed.
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/qendoc.asp
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm
So this leads us to the next question - how long does
Eagle 20 remain chemically active? The answer: a hell of a lot longer than two weeks. According to EPA data, a single half life for Myclobutanil is between 61 and 71 days. Even at one full year between 29 and 33% of the Myclobutanil residue remained when tested. Indoors, where there is less UV light, and no weather to speed the break-down of the chemical, this will be even longer. So not only
Eagle 20 still chemically active two week later - it is still active YEARS later. Every time you walk into your grow room, you are likely exposing yourself, since I highly doubt the
Eagle 20 users on here wear protective gear for a full year when they enter their rooms after applying it. Also just because you are seeing the disease resurface within a few weeks after applications of
Eagle 20 it does NOT mean the chemical is no longer active - in fact all that really means is you are probably breeding yourself some pesticide resistance mildew. Not only that but having the attitude of "well it hasn't gotten me sick so it must be fine" is so dangerous and irresponsible it is almost incomprehensible to me. Do you REALLY want to find out first-hand how much exposure of
Eagle 20 it takes to get terminal cancer, or liver failure, or to give you kids birth defects, or any of the numerous, horrible other ways it can kill you?
http://www.epa.gov/espp/litstatus/effects/redleg-frog/myclobutanil/appendix-c.pdf
Finally, this brings us to the issues of resistance. Any pest, whether it be mildew or mites or whatever, will develop resistance to whatever pesticide is used again them repeatedly. This is one of the corner stones of proper Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and I am absolutely flooded that ANYONE claiming to know something about dealing with pests would claim that this problem does not exists. The arrogant, lazy, and down-right dangerous attitudes expressed on this thread are EXACTLY why mites and mildew are becoming more and more difficult to deal with. The vast majority of growers always uses the same pesticide for the same pest over, and over and over again, not even realizing they are shooting themselves in the foot by doing so. Pesticide resistant pests is a very real problem both in legit agriculture and in the cannabis community at large, and this thread is a great example of WHY so many people are ignorant about it. In fact, as Seamaiden already pointed out, it very clearly states on the
Eagle 20 label that it WILL create resistant strain of mildew if used in excess (which is only 2-3 times a year). The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture has it's risk of resistance rated as "moderate." Here is the full list to check out (this is also a good read on proper pest management in turf grass and fungicide management in general).
So in conclusion: if you use
Eagle 20 on cannabis, you very obviously lack the understanding and knowledge to properly use such a dangerous chemical, period.
Eagle 20 is quite literally one of the most hazardous, toxic, and dangerous pesticides one can spray on their cannabis plants. General Rippers concerns are 100% accurate and valid, and if anything, were understated. One drop of this stuff really can give you cancer down the road - heck it can even give your kids cancer 30 years from now. Applying something like this so what is supposed to be medicine is absolutely insane.
I'm trying to be nice about this, but to you growers (especially supposed "medical" growers!!) that use
Eagle 20: please stop using it. Seriously. Stop. You are poisoning yourself. You are poisoning the people who smoke your buds. You are poisoning the environment. You are poisoning future generations. You are breeding resistant strains of powdery mildew. Knock that shit off. It's bad for everyone, OK?