Caring for and Healing the Earth

Pesticides, Poisons and Health Issues

Roundup Part 2

From an article written by Julie Liptak

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide usually mixed with formulants (POEA), something that helps the product penetrate the plant. Previously thought to be inert substances, many formulants are now known to be as toxic or even more toxic than the weed-killer itself. Glyphosates are known to be poisonous to animals, including humans, and when combined with a formulant, the result becomes very toxic.

In the past, glyphosates were thought to break down into harmless substances within a couple of days after application. Many lawn “care” employees are still repeating this fallacy. Studies now show that the half-life of glyphosates can be up to two and one-half years. Other studies may show otherwise, particularly those funded by the chemical corporations, but if there were any question at all about a product’s toxicity to humans, animals, or the environment, why would anyone want to take a chance? Does anyone have the right to impose this risk on the environment?

In my opinion there is enough evidence to suggest that Roundup use poses an unacceptable risk to all life forms and to the environment. We, as responsible stewards of the Earth, have a moral responsibility to take as good care of the Earth as we do our own bodies. Would you drink Roundup?"

Add to this the fact that Roundup is not approved for use near waterways ... but what about the seasonal wetlands that appear in the spring, where frogs breed & migratory waterfowl stop to feed & rest....

 

GLYPHOSATE - Roundup, Vision (Vision is coloured Roundup)

The initial registration of glyphosate (Roundup) was based upon studies that proved invalid. The safety tests have been done by Industrial Biotest Laboratories (IBT), whose officers were jailed for fraud. A later review by the EPA on mice showed that renal tubule adenomas
(cancer)appeared in male mice treated with glyphosate.(FED.reg.50,42818,november 30, 1985)

Vigfusson and Vyse (mut. res. 79, page 53 to 57, 1980) reported glyphosate caused significant genetic damage in human cells in cultures. Young and Khan(J. Envir. Sci. and Health, B 13, 59-72, 1978) found that glyphosate formed a mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic nitrosamine in acidic soils (Ph 4 to 5) containing nitrite.

Four physicians at Kagoshima University, Japan, report that an analysis of 56 cases of Roundup poisoning suggests that the surfactant (a so-called inert ingredient) in Roundup causes the herbicide's acute toxicity rather than the herbicidal ingredient, glyphosate. Most of the victims ingested Roundup accidentally or as attempted suicides.

15 percent of Roundup's volume is the surfactant polyoxethyleneamine(POEA) while 41 percent is glyphosate. POEA is over three times as acutely toxic as glyphosate and belongs to a class of surfactants which includes a spermicidal agent. This class of compounds is known to cause gastrointestinal and central nervous system symptoms and hemolysis.

Glyphosate has been assumed to have low animal toxicity because the enzyme system which it inhibits is specific to plants. This study is further evidence that estimates of the toxicity of a pesticide need to be based on the entire formulation, rather than just the active ingredients.

Although the public did not learn that POEA is present in Roundup and Vision until 1988 when 4 Japanese medical professionals published the information in an American medical journal, the EPA knew dioxane was present in Roundup by at least 1981.

This failure to list dioxane as a carcinogen is surprising: dooxane causes kidney tumours in female rats, nasal cancer in both sexes of rats, kidney cancer in both sexes of rats and liver and gall bladder tumours in guinea pigs and is " active as a promoter " of skin tumours in mice.

The EPA considers dioxane an " inert of toxicological concern"(ie. a List 1 inert). Since dioxane is an unintentional contaminant of Roundup, and not an intentionally added inert, it is not identified on the label as being present in Roundup."

 

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