[Health and Medicine]
There has been increasing controversy over the herbicide
Roundup which has been in use for weed control in agriculture, commercial and
residential applications for the past 40 years.
Monsanto invented the herbicide glyphosate and
brought it to market under the trade name Roundup in 1974, after DDT was
banned. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the use of Roundup surged,
thanks to Monsanto’s ingenious marketing strategy - Genetically engineering
seeds to grow food crops that could tolerate high doses of Roundup. With
the introduction of these new GE seeds, farmers could now easily control
weeds on their corn, soy, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa
crops—crops that thrived while the weeds around them were wiped out by
Roundup.
Eager to sell more of its flagship herbicide,
Monsanto also encouraged farmers to use Roundup as a desiccant, to
dry out all of their crops so they could harvest them faster. So Roundup
is now routinely sprayed directly on a host of non-GMO crops,
including wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans
and sugar cane.
Between 1996 – 2011, the widespread use
of Roundup Ready GMO crops increased herbicide use in the
U.S. by 527 million pounds—even though Monsanto claimed its GMO crops
would reduce pesticide and herbicide use.
Let’ take a look at the some of the pro and con
arguments.
Pro Arguments
Monsanto, Roundup’s manufacturer, contends that the
methods used in studies, such as Séralini's, don’t reflect realistic conditions and that their
product, which has been sold since the 1970s, is safe when used as directed.
Hundreds of studies over the past 35 years have addressed the safety of
glyphosate.
“Roundup has one of the most extensive human health
safety and environmental data packages of any pesticide that's out there,” said
Monsanto spokesman John Combest. “It's used in public parks, it's used to
protect schools. There's been a great deal of study on Roundup, and we're very
proud of its performance.”
The EPA considers glyphosate to have low toxicity when
used at the recommended doses.
“Risk estimates for glyphosate were well below the level
of concern,” said EPA spokesman Dale Kemery. The EPA classifies glyphosate as a
Group E chemical, which means there is strong evidence that it does not cause
cancer in humans.
In fact, the NIH (National Institute of Health) proposes
that while recognizing the adjuvant properties of various formulations, and
expressly noting the effects of POEA, that toxicity studies are inconclusive.
“Experimental studies suggest that the toxicity of the surfactant,
polyoxyethyleneamine (POEA), is greater than the toxicity of glyphosate alone
and commercial formulations alone. There is insufficient evidence to conclude
that glyphosate preparations containing POEA are more toxic than those
containing alternative surfactants. Although surfactants probably contribute to
the acute toxicity of glyphosate formulations, the weight of evidence is
against surfactants potentiating the toxicity of glyphosate. “
In addition, the EPA and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture both recognize POEA as an inert ingredient. Derived from animal
fat, POEA is allowed in products certified organic by the USDA. The EPA has
concluded that it is not dangerous to public health or the environment.
What more evidence do you need regarding the safety of
Roundup, glyphosate and POEA, than the findings of our various governmental
agencies such as the EPA, FDA, USDA and the NIH? Well, that is why this is so controversial, as there are
many other findings presented via independent studies that merit our consideration.
Con Arguments
Glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, is the most
widely used herbicide in the US. About 100 million
pounds are applied to US farms and lawns every year, according to the EPA. However, until more recently, most health studies have focused on the safety
of glyphosate, rather than the mixture of ingredients found in Roundup. But in
these new studies, scientists found that Roundup’s inert ingredients significantly
amplified the toxic effect on human cells—even at concentrations much more
diluted than those used on farms and lawns.
Glyphosate has been safety tested on mammals for the
purposes of regulatory risk assessment. But the commercial formulations of
these pesticides as they are sold and used contain added ingredients
(adjuvants). These are often classified confidential and described as “inerts”.
However, they help to stabilize the chemical compound glyphosate and help it to
penetrate plants, in the manner of corrosive detergents.
The formulated herbicides (including Roundup) can affect
all living cells, especially human cells. This danger is overlooked because
glyphosate and Roundup are treated as the same by industry and regulators on
long-term studies. The supposed non-toxicity of glyphosate serves as a basis
for the commercial release of Roundup. The health and environmental agencies
and pesticide companies assess the long-term effects on mammals of glyphosate
alone, and not the full formulation. The details of this regulatory assessment
are kept confidential by companies like Monsanto and health and
environmental agencies.
One specific inert ingredient, polyethoxylated
tallowamine, or POEA, was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and
umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself – a finding the researchers call
“astonishing.”
“This clearly confirms that the [inert ingredients] in
Roundup formulations are not inert,” wrote the authors of one study from France’s
University of Caen. “Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market
could cause cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels” found on
Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and
gardens.
The researchers suspect that Roundup might cause
pregnancy problems by interfering with hormone production, possibly leading to
abnormal fetal development, low birth weights or miscarriages.
Working with plant biologists, we have learned that
glyphosate kills weeds by turning off key enzymes that produce defense
mechanisms for plants. It essentially targets and destroys their immune
systems by chelating, stripping, micronutrients like magnesium, copper and zinc
from the plant. As a result, there are fewer of these key micronutrients
in the plants and in our food supply.
This effect, according to the researchers, can contribute
to causing or worsening “…most of the diseases and conditions associated with a
Western diet which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart
disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Furthermore, this issue is more complicated than the straightforward toxicity to human cells. While Monsanto insists that Roundup is as safe to
humans as aspirin, Seneff and Samsel's research tells a different story
altogether. Their report, published in the journal Entropy, argues that
glyphosate residues, found in most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet
courtesy of GE sugar, corn, soy and wheat, "enhance the damaging effects
of other food-born chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt
normal body functions and induce disease."
Interestingly, your gut bacteria are a key component of
glyphosate's mechanism of harm.
Monsanto has steadfastly claimed that Roundup is harmless
to animals and humans because the mechanism of action it uses (which allows it
to kill weeds), called the shikimate pathway, is absent in all animals.
However, the shikimate pathway IS present in bacteria, and that's the key to
understanding how it causes such widespread systemic harm in both humans and
animals.
The bacteria in your body outnumber your cells by 10 to
1. For every cell in your body, you have 10 microbes of various kinds, and all
of them have the shikimate pathway, so they will all respond to the
presence of glyphosate!
Glyphosate causes extreme disruption of the microbe's
function and lifecycle. What's worse, glyphosate preferentially affects beneficial bacteria,
allowing pathogens to overgrow and take over. At that point, your body also has
to contend with the toxins produced by the pathogens. Once the chronic
inflammation sets in, you're well on your way toward chronic and potentially
debilitating disease.
Here is a list of health issues that are
currently correlated with Roundup and/or glyphosate:
- ADHD: In farming communities, there’s a strong
correlation between
Roundup exposure and attention deficit disorder (ADHD), likely due to
glyphosate’s capacity to disrupt thyroid hormone functions.
- Alzheimer’s disease: In the lab, Roundup causes the same
type of oxidative stress and neural cell death observed in Alzheimer’s disease. And
it affects CaMKII, an enzyme whose deregulation has also been linked to the
disease.
- Anencephaly (birth
defect):
An investigation into neural tube defects among babies born to women living
within 1,000 meters of pesticide applications showed an association for glyphosate with
anencephaly, the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull and scalp that
forms during embryonic development.
- Autism: Glyphosate has a number of known
biological effects that align with the known pathologies associated with
autism. One of these parallels is the gut dysbiosis observed in autistic
children and the toxicity of glyphosate to beneficial bacteria that suppress
pathogenic bacteria, along with pathogenic bacteria’s high resistance to
glyphosate. In addition, glyphosate’s capacity to promote aluminum accumulation in the brain may
make it the principal cause of autism in the U.S.
- Birth defects: Roundup and glyphosate can disrupt the Vitamin A (retinoic acid)
signaling pathway, which is crucial for normal fetal development. The babies of
women living within one kilometer of fields sprayed with glyphosate were more
than twice as likely to have birth defects according to a study from Paraguay. Congenital defects quadrupled in the decade after Roundup Ready
crops arrived in Chaco, a province in Argentina where glyphosate is used
roughly eight to ten times more per acre than in the U.S. A study of one farming family in the U.S.
documented elevated levels of glyphosate and birth defects in the children,
including an imperforate anus, growth hormone deficiency, hypospadias (an
abnormally placed urinary hole), a heart defect and a micro penis.
- Brain cancer: In a study of children with brain cancer compared
with healthy children, researchers found that if either parent had been exposed
to Roundup during the two years before the child’s birth, the chances of the
child developing brain cancer doubled.
- Breast cancer: Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via
estrogen receptors. The only long-term animal study of glyphosate exposure produced rats
with mammary tumors and shortened life-spans.
- Cancer: House-to-house surveys of 65,000 people
in farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used, known there as the
fumigated towns, found cancer rates two to four times higher
than the national average, with increases in breast, prostate and lung cancers.
In a comparison of two villages, in the one where
Roundup was sprayed, 31 percent of residents had a family member with cancer,
while only 3 percent of residents in a ranching village without spraying had
one. The high cancer rates among people exposed to Roundup likely stem from
glyphosate’s known capacity to induce DNA damage, which has been demonstrated
in numerous lab tests.
- Celiac disease and
gluten intolerance:
Fish exposed to glyphosate develop digestive problems that are
reminiscent of celiac disease. There are parallels between the characteristics
of celiac disease and the known effects of glyphosate. These include imbalances
in gut bacteria, impairment in enzymes involved with detoxifying environmental
toxins, mineral deficiencies and amino acid depletion.
- Chronic kidney disease: Increases in the use of glyphosate may explain the recent surge in kidney failure
among agricultural workers in Central America, Sri Lanka and India. Scientists
have concluded, “Although glyphosate alone does not cause an epidemic of
chronic kidney disease, it seems to have acquired the ability to destroy the
renal tissues of thousands of farmers when it forms complexes with [hard water]
and nephrotoxic metals.”
- Colitis: The toxicity of glyphosate to beneficial bacteria
that suppress clostridia, along with clostridia’s high resistance to
glyphosate, could be a significant predisposing factor in the overgrowth of
clostridia. Overgrowth of clostridia, specifically C. difficile, is a
well-established causal factor in colitis.
- Depression: Glyphosate disrupts chemical processes
that impact the production of serotonin, an
important neurotransmitter that regulates mood, appetite and sleep. Serotonin
impairment has been linked to depression.
- Diabetes: Low levels of testosterone are a risk
factor for Type 2 diabetes. Rats fed environmentally relevant doses of Roundup
over a period of 30 days spanning the onset of puberty had reduced testosterone production sufficient to
alter testicular cell morphology and to delay the onset of puberty.
- Heart disease: Glyphosate can disrupt the body’s
enzymes, causing lysosomal dysfunction, a major factor
in cardiovascular disease and heart failure.
- Hypothyroidism: House-to-house surveys of 65,000 people
in farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used, known there as the
fumigated towns, found higher rates of hypothyroidism.
- Inflammatory Bowl
Disease (“Leaky Gut Syndrome”): Glyphosate can induce severe tryptophan deficiency, which
can lead to an extreme inflammatory bowel disease that severely impairs the
ability to absorb nutrients through the gut, due to inflammation, bleeding and
diarrhea.
- Liver disease: Very low doses of Roundup can disrupt
human liver cell function, according to a 2009 study published in Toxicology.
- Lou Gehrig’s Disease
(ALS):
Sulfate deficiency in the brain has been associated with Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS). Glyphosate disrupts sulfate transport from the gut to the
liver, and may lead over time to severe sulfate deficiency throughout all the
tissues, including the brain.
- Multiple Sclerosis
(MS): An increased
incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBS) has been found in association
with MS. Glyphosate may be a causal factor. The hypothesis is that glyphosate-induced IBS causes
gut bacteria to leak into the vasculature, triggering an immune reaction and
consequently an autoimmune disorder resulting in destruction of the myelin
sheath.
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: A systematic
review and a series of
meta-analyses of nearly three decades worth of epidemiologic research on the relationship
between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and occupational exposure to agricultural
pesticides found that B cell lymphoma was positively associated with
glyphosate.
- Parkinson’s disease: The brain-damaging effects of
herbicides have been recognized as the main environmental factor associated
with neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. The onset of
Parkinson’s following exposure to glyphosate has been well documented and lab
studies show that glyphosate induces the cell death
characteristic of the disease.
- Pregnancy problems (infertility,
miscarriages, stillbirths): Glyphosate is toxic to human placental cells, which,
scientists say,
explains the pregnancy problems of agricultural workers exposed to the
herbicide.
- Obesity: An experiment involving the transfer of
a strain of endotoxin-producing bacteria from the gut of an obese human to the
guts of mice caused the mice to become obese. Since glyphosate induces a shift
in gut bacteria towards endotoxin-producers, glyphosate exposure may contribute to obesity in this way.
- Reproductive problems: Studies of laboratory animals have found that
male rats exposed to high levels of glyphosate, either during prenatal or
pubertal development, suffer from reproductive problems, including delayed
puberty, decreased sperm production, and decreased testosterone production.
- Respiratory illnesses: House-to-house surveys of 65,000 people
in farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used, known there as the
fumigated towns, found higher rates of chronic respiratory
illnesses.
Net Results
Studies such as was recently conducted by Séralini at the
University of Caen demonstrates that all the glyphosate-based herbicides tested
are more toxic than glyphosate alone, and explains why. Thus glyphosate-based
herbicide regulatory assessments and the maximum residue levels authorized in
the environment, food, and feed, are erroneous. A drink (such as tap water
contaminated by Roundup residues) or a food made with a Roundup tolerant GMO
(like a transgenic soya or corn) were already demonstrated as toxic in the
recent rat feeding study from Prof. Séralini team. The researchers have
also published responses to critics of the study. This new research
explains and confirms the scientific results of the rat feeding study.
Overall, it is a great matter of concern for public
health. First, all authorizations of Roundup-type herbicides have to be
questioned urgently. Second, the regulatory assessment rules have to be fully
revised. They should be analyzed in a transparent and contradictory manner by
the scientific community. Agencies that give opinions to government
authorities, in common with the pesticide companies generally conclude safety.
The agencies’ opinions are wrong because they are made on the basis of lax
assessments and much of the industry data is kept confidential, meaning that a
full and transparent assessment cannot be carried out. These assessments are
therefore neither neutral nor independent. They should as a first step make
public on the Internet all the data that underpin the commercial release and
positive opinions on the use of Roundup and similar products. The industry
toxicological data must be legally made public.
Adjuvants of the POE-15 family (polyethoxylated
tallowamine) have now been revealed as actively toxic to human cells, and must
be regulated as such. The complete formulations must be tested in long-term
toxicity studies and the results taken into account in regulatory assessments.
The regulatory authorization process for pesticides released into the
environment and sold in stores must urgently be revised. Moreover, since the
toxic confidential adjuvants are in general use in pesticide formulations, we
fear according to these discoveries that the toxicity of all pesticides has
been very significantly underestimated.
Conclusion
You still need to do your own research. It was never more true than it is in this
particular controversy, that you can find evidence to support whatever position
you wish to take. It does seem
reasonable to require our governmental agencies to consider their methods for
assessing the risks of chemical compounds such as Roundup, and to be more
transparent, and to be more receptive to various external and independently
performed studies.
The implications of herbicides such as Roundup, as they
apply to agriculture, the environment and human health can not be properly
understood when examined in a manner that is too narrowly focused, such as the
analysis of glyphosate independent of the adjuvants that make up the rest of
the formula. Similarly, not considering
a more holistic spectrum impacts, such as the pronounced effects on the beneficial microbes necessary for our overall health. And
lastly, we must overcome the persistent denial of the mounting evidence that
correlates increases in specific illnesses with the increased application of Roundup, these correlation merit greater concern, research and
response if we are truly interested in the health and well being of our citizens.
Sources:
- Gammon, Crystal (Environmental Health News).
"Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells" Scientific
American 23 June 2009
www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/
- SM, Bradberry; AT, Proudfoot; JA, Vale.
"Glyphosate Poisoning" National Center for Biotechnology
Information 2004 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15862083
- Mesnage, Robin; Bernay Benoît; Séralini, Gilles-Eric.
“Ethoxylated adjuvants of glyphosate-based herbicides are active principles of
human cell toxicity” Toxicology 10 September 2012
www.gmoseralini.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mesnageal.TOX_2012.pdf
- Baden-Mayer, Alexis. “15 Health Problems Linked to
Monsanto’s Roundup” Organic Consumers Association 23 January 2015
ecowatch.com/2015/01/23/health-problems-linked-to-monsanto-roundup/
- O’Brien, Robyn (Allergy Kids, founder). “MIT Study
Questions Monsanto’s Safety Claims for RoundUp” Organic Connections 2013
http://organicconnectmag.com/project/mit-study-questions-monsantos-safety-claims-for-roundup/
- Dr. Mercola, Joseph. “Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide May
Be Most Important Factor in Development of Autism and Other Chronic Disease”
mercola.com 9 June 2013
articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx
