Thursday, April 17, 2014

      

New Study Finds Roundup Herbicide To Be 125X More Toxic Than Regulators Claim

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UE-AGRICULTURE-ENVIRONNEMENT-SANTE-RECHERCHE-OGMRoundup herbicide was manufactured by Monsanto and is one of the worlds most widely used herbicides around the world. Within the past few years, numerous studies have emerged linking its main ingredient, glyphosate, to a number of health ailments that include cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and more. Sri Lanka recently joined the long list ( and growing) of countries who have completely banned it, citing a link to deadly kidney disease. You can read more about that and view other studies here. Russia also became the latest country to completely ban GMOs, you can read more about that here.
A new study published in the journal Biomedical Research International  shows that Roundup herbicide is 125 times more toxic than its active ingredient glyphosate studied in isolation.(1)  The eye opening abstract reads as follows:
“Pesticides are used throughout the world as mixtures called formulations. They contain adjuvants, which are often kept confidential and are called inerts by the manufacturing companies, plus a declared active principle, which is usually tested alone. We tested the toxicity of 9 pesticides, comparing active principles and their formulations, on three human cell lines. Glyphosate, isoproturon, fluroxypyr, pirimicarb, imidacloprid, acetamiprid, tebuconazole, epoxiconazole, and prochloraz constitute, respectively, the active principles of 3 major herbicides, 3 insecticides, and 3 fungicides.  Despite its relatively benign reputation, Roundup was among the most toxic herbicides and insecticides tested. Most importantly, 8 formulations out of 9 were up to one thousand times more toxic than their active principles. Our results challenge the relevance of the acceptable daily intake for pesticides because this norm is calculated from the toxicity of the active principle alone. Chronic tests on pesticides may not reflect relevant environmental exposures if only one ingredient of these mixtures is tested alone.” (1)
Greenmedinfo describes it perfectly, stating that this just further illustrates the “deceptive semantics of pesticide formulations and their regulation.” This paper does indeed prove that the agrochemical industry conceals the truth about how toxic their chemicals really are, is this not a crime? Is this not mass poisoning through deception? Who exactly is setting the ‘acceptable’ amount when it’s clear there should be no acceptable amount at all?
It’s also worth mentioning here that the African Center for Bio-safety orders Monsanto to stop making false claims about GMOs, you can find out more about that here.
“The problem of underestimated toxicological risk is so severe that the researchers describe previous research which found unexpected toxicity in so-called ‘inert’ adjuvants that were up to 10,000 times more toxic than the so-called active principle glyphosate itself, revealing them to be a greater source for secondary side effects than the main ingredient itself. They also note that this ‘synergistic toxicity’ may explain the results of previous long-term animal research where glyphosate-based formulations showed toxicity in the parts per trillion range that could not be explained by glyphosate alone” (2)(3)
If you think about it, it seems insidious that Roundup herbicide is still heavily used in North America despite the numerous studies that have surfaced illustrating its extreme toxicity. It’s time for North America to do what what many other countries have already done, completely ban these pesticides and the GMOs that go with them.
Sources:

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