Sunday, April 28, 2013

Don't use Roundup, please ... by gimleteye


Roundup, An Herbicide, Could Be Linked To Parkinson's, Cancer And Other Health Issues, Study Shows

April 25 (Reuters) - Heavy use of the world's most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson's, infertility and cancers, according to a new study.

The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates that residues of "glyphosate," the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.

Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body," the study says.

We "have hit upon something very important that needs to be taken seriously and further investigated," Seneff said.

Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries have warned that heavy use of glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals. The EPA is conducting a standard registration review of glyphosate and has set a deadline of 2015 for determining if glyphosate use should be limited. The study is among many comments submitted to the agency.

Monsanto is the developer of both Roundup herbicide and a suite of crops that are genetically altered to withstand being sprayed with the Roundup weed killer.

These biotech crops, including corn, soybeans, canola and sugarbeets, are planted on millions of acres in the United States annually. Farmers like them because they can spray Roundup weed killer directly on the crops to kill weeds in the fields without harming the crops.

Roundup is also popularly used on lawns, gardens and golf courses.

Monsanto and other leading industry experts have said for years that glyphosate is proven safe, and has a less damaging impact on the environment than other commonly used chemicals. Jerry Steiner, Monsanto's executive vice president of sustainability, reiterated that in a recent interview when questioned about the study.

"We are very confident in the long track record that glyphosate has. It has been very, very extensively studied," he said.

Of the more than two dozen top herbicides on the market, glyphosate is the most popular. In 2007, as much as 185 million pounds of glyphosate was used by U.S. farmers, double the amount used six years ago, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if herbicides are heavily used in the EAA? Do they do large scale application there?

And I just heard on an interesting MHP show on MSNBC that as a result of the use of genetically modified crops around the world between 1996-2011, the use of herbicides increased by 511 million pounds. I thought GMO crops were supposed to reduce the use of herbicides?

100panthers said...

I would be shocked if large amounts of Round Up were NOT used in EAA. Increases harvest yield. Bet is that all conventional non-organic crops in EAA use Round Up. Brainless to use it. Organic crops sell for money. Yield less, but sell for more.

Mayor Philip Stoddard said...

Cytochrome P450 enzymes are the major family of detoxifying enzymes in your liver. They are also involved in drug metabolism. One of them is responsible for the final step of estradiol (estrogen) synthesis. NOT GOOD to mess with these enzymes at any stage of life.

Here's the original paper:
http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416


Here are two papers you can read describing teratogenicity (development problems) of glyphosate:

Antoniou et al., J Environ Anal Toxicol 2012, S:4 http://www.omicsonline.org/2161-0525/2161-0525-S4-006.pdf

Paganelli et al. Chem Res Toxicol. 2010, 23, 1586-1595.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/carrasco_0.pdf

Anonymous said...

Big bad Monsanto is terrorizing at lands with roundup-ready crops. And where do we imagine most of the residue ends up? That's right, our water!

Anonymous said...

That surely sounds desirable so long as governments find
a way to permit farmers and citizens to obtain arable land on which to farm.
It turns out, the fruits and vegetables we eat
today were consistently lower than the ones from half a century ago in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2 and vitamin C levels.
He's also worked for Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Besides this, it should also be noted that organic
products either fall in three categories. avoids overheating of
the farming land.

my blog post; organic farming (Lifeintherapids.com)