Weapons of mass destruction, glyphosate

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We began reporting the dangers associated with glyphosate in June 2011 (1). When a group of Anglo-Irish-Brazilian research published the report ‘Roundup and birth defects: is it maintaining the public in the dark?’ It was already late, and other evidence has since emerged, under the guilty indifference of the authorities in every part of the planet that are supposed to protect the health of citizens and animals, as well as the environment. Until when?

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide globally, in agriculture as well as in garden maintenance and gardens, urban and domestic. It was devised by Monsanto, already famous for producing Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used in the Vietnam War, which retained the patent on ‘Roundup’ until 2001. The U.S. giant has, moreover, played in advance of the ordinary Forfeiture of the international patent on glyphosate, manipulating the DNA of corn, soybean, and cotton to the precise purpose of ensuring the sole survival of its GMOs to its deadly pesticide. An operation of success, soon followed by other Franken-Food big players such as Dow Agrochemicals, Bayer, Basf. La extraordinary spread of such seeds over the past two decades has in fact allowed the development of the sales of both the poison and the seeds designed to resist it.

Asearly as 1980, U.S. authorities were aware of the malformations to laboratory animals laboratory animals caused by glyphosate, the report ‘Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?’ (2). In 1985, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) qualified glyphosate. as a potential carcinogen, following tests on rats and the collection of studies in Canada and Sweden that They associated its exposure with the occurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But thanks to the powerful lobby of Monsanto, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself transferred glyphosate to the group of ‘substances that have not demonstrated carcinogenic potential in at least two animal studies, conducted adequately on different species, or in both animal and epidemiological studies’.

In 2010 in Argentina, the government research organization Conicet published a study where it associated an high risk of birth defects in frogs and poultry to glyphosate exposure in dilutions far less than those routinely used to combat weeds. Alarming news in itself, given that even then in Argentina more than 50 percent of the land was planted with the GMO soybean glyphosate-resistant (‘Roundup Ready’). Yet the German authority ‘for consumer protection and safety’ food’ (German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, BVL), which Europe had entrusted with the risk assessment on glyphosate and other pesticides, promptly denied the evidence Argentina.

US agencies and the European Commission are very effective in protecting the poison business:

– In 2011, the European Commission decided to postpone by three years, to 2015, the review of the glyphosate safety reviews that was originally set for 2012 (3),

– In 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency even raised the tolerance thresholds of the Glyphosate residues allowed in crops. As the weeds have gradually adapted to the poison, More doses were needed to exterminate them too–and increase sales,

– Still the commission keeps the scientific paper on interference hazards under wraps endocrine (4) contained in 31 pesticides approved in Europe. The British newspaper The Guardian published an investigation in this regard, in February 2015, where it refers to dangers of deformation fetal with loss of IQ, genital mutilation, infertility and carcinogenesis (5). The Authority European Food Safety Authority had expressed its opinion back in 2013 on the criteria to be adopted for risk assessment risks, but the European roadmap is still lacking implementation (6).

In March 2015, the WHO agency for cancer research-the IARC, ‘International Agency for Research on Cancer’ – confirmed the serious dangers associated with glyphosate. The report, published in ‘The Lancet Oncology’ (7) after three years of research coordinated by 17 experts in 11 countries, reveals a strong correlation epidemiological link between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In addition to the already known increases in recurrence of childhood leukemias and neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s leading the way.

The numerous petitions launched in different countries, with input from NGOs including Greenpeace International and Friends of Earth (8), all aim to obtain a ban on the use of glyphosate, based on of the converging studies revealing its dangerousness to human, animal and environmental health. Highlighting how the poisonous pesticide has already polluted groundwater and soils everywhere, to the point of contaminating the organisms and DNAs of populations of all ages. Millions of signatures, no response.

Enough is Enough!

(Dario Dongo)

 

Notes:

(1) http://www.ilfattoalimentare.it/malformazioni-animali-diserbante-piu-diffuso-mondo-note-decenni- authority-new-scientific-report.html

(2) “Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?”, report edited by Michael

Antoniou (King’s College London School of Medicine, UK), Mohamed Ezz El-Din Mostafa Habib (Institute

of Biology, Unicamp, São Paulo, Brazil), C. Vyvyan Howard (University of Ulster, Northern Ireland),

Richard C. Jennings (University of Cambridge, UK), Carlo Leifert (Newcastle University, UK), Rubens

Onofre Nodari (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil), Claire Robinson and John Fagan (columnist and

co-founder of “Earth Open Source,” respectively), ©Earth Open Source, 2011

(3) http://www.ilfattoalimentare.it/glifosato-erbicida-malformazioni-europa-preoccupa.html

(4) An interesting documentary devoted to endocrine disruptors is available at

http://youtu.be/6ks5OSVDl00

(5) http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/02/suppressed-eu-report-could-have-banned- pesticides-worth-billions

(6) http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/impact/planned_ia/docs/2014_env_009_endocrine_disruptors_en.pdf

(7) http://http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(15)70134-8/fulltext

(8) https://secure.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_dont_silence_science_loc/?aSZsxbb,

http://www.generations-futures.fr/petition/action-demandons-le-retrait-du-glyfosate,

http://scotlandagainstmonsanto.co.uk/greenpeace-petition-glyphosate-causes-cancer,

https://www.change.org/p/round-up-glyphosate-deadly-to-all, http://inhabitat.com/tell-world-leaders-to-ban-glyphosate-which-has-been-linked-to-cancer-autism,

http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php/news/archive/2014/15425-sign-petition-protesting-flawed-glyphosate-consultation,

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/973/154/917/monsantos-roundup-pesticide-causes-birth-defects,

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/tell_the_epa_to_keep_glyphosate_off_your_plate/,

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ban-use-of-glyphosate,

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/suspend_roundup

Dario Dongo
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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.