On Roundup
Thank you for your recent articles regarding the dangers of Roundup/glyphosate. I wish you would do a thorough article explaining why the World Health Organization has declared glyphosate to be a probable cause of cancer.
The recently published book, The Myths of Safe Pesticides by Andre Leu (Acres, USA, 2014. ISBN print edition: 978-60173-084-8) summarizes and documents recent, peer-reviewed scientific studies of commonly used pesticides including Roundup.
Here is some of the information:
1. Studies link Roundup to a range of health problems such as cancer, placental cell damage, miscarriages, stillbirths, endocrine disruption, and damage to various organs such as the kidney and liver. Roundup is not usually tested for the toxic cocktail of ingredients that make it effective as an herbicide. These “inerts” such as ammonium sulfate, benzisothiazolone, glycerine, osobutane, isopropylamine, polyethoxylated alkylamines, polyethoxylated talowamine POE-15, and sorbic acid make Roundup more toxic than glyphosate alone.
2. The developing fetus and young children are at special risk. The 2010 U.S. President’s Cancer Panel Annual Report found, “Cancer incidence in U. S. children under 20 years of age has increased. …Leukemia rates are consistently elevated among children who grow up on farms, among children whose parents used pesticides in the home or garden, and among children of pesticide applicators.
3. At very low levels (parts per billion, parts per trillion) many pesticide chemicals disrupt the hormone and endocrine functions causing disorders of the thyroid, immune, digestive, cardiovascular, reproductive, and metabolic systems including childhood obesity and diabetes (Press release December 12, 2013 from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization.)
4. A study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology in 2013 found that glyphosate at residue levels commonly found in people induced estrogen-sensitive human breast cancer cells to multiply.
5. Glyphosate becomes even more toxic when it breaks down into the more persistent aminomethylphosponic acid (AMPA) that has been linked to liver disease.
6. U. S. regulators have ignored years of research showing the dangers of glyphosate:
- cancers (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, gene mutation, chromosomal aberrations, and cell-cycle dysregulation).
- endocrine disruption (estrogen-sensitive breast cancer).
- disruption of metabolic pathways (gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease).
- disruption of the gut microbiome (celiac disease and gluten intolerance).
- kidney disease.
- oxidative stress and cell damage (Alzheimer’s, cancer, Parkinson’s disease).
Do we need to subject ourselves to dangerous pesticides in order to produce enough food? Not according to studies that show that organic farming has not only higher yields, but better nutrition.
Mollee Merrill
Afton
