Wednesday, June 26, 2013

ROUNDUP FAILING ON FOOD CROPS, EPA's ANSWER: MUCH, MUCH MORE CANCER-CAUSING ROUNDUP

EPA Raises Allowable Concentrations of Monsanto’s Glyphosate On Food Crops

June 19, 2013 by Arjun

Monsanto continues to make more noise as they have recently raised the allowable concentrations of Monsanto’s Glyphosate on food crops, edible oils and animal feed. To be technically correct, it was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the EPA and Monsanto are nothing but a revolving door. Dozens of individuals who work for and who have held high level positions at Monsanto have also held high level positions in the EPA, which is an agency (branch of the U.S. government) that sets regulations for the biotech giant (monsanto). For example, Linda J. Fisher, now working for DuPont, she is the former deputy administrator at the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances at the EPA, and the former Vice President of Government Affairs for the Monsanto Corporation. Another one is William Ruckelshaus. Mr Ruckelshaus served as the EPA administrator, the agencies top position. Mr Ruckelshaus also serves on the board of Monsanto. There are many more connections to be made (dozens), it’s no secret that the government, EPA as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all hold connections amongst each other.

Urgent action is required here. Public comments are due by July 1 to object to new EPA regulations which are already in place (Increase of glyphosate contamination). You can object and post your comments here. It’s time to make better choices in our own lives!

The new regulation sets the following regulations regarding glyphosate residues on crops:

It allows forage and hay teff to contain up to 100 ppm glyphosate (over one million times the concentration needed to cause cancer)
It allows oilseed crops to contain up to 40 ppm glyphosate, which is over 100,000 times the concentration needed to cause cancer.
It raises the allowable glyphosate contamination level of root crops (like potatoes) from 200 ppb to 6000 ppb
It allows glyphosate contamination of fruits at anywhere from 200 ppb to 500 ppb

You can read the entire document here.

EPA has evaluated the available toxicity date and considered its validity, completeness, and reliability as well as the relationship of the results of the studies to human risk. EPA has also considered available information concerning the variability of the sensitivities of major identifiable subgroups of consumers including infants and children. -EPA (4)

Based on the data summarized in Unit III.A, EPA has concluded that glyphosate does not pose a cancer risk to humans. Therefore a dietary exposure assessment for the purpose of assessing cancer risk is unnecessary.EPA (4)

Glyphosate was recently found to cause cancer, you can read the recent study here.

You can read more studies on how harmful Glyphosate is here and here .

Clearly, the EPA has not evaluated the toxicity properly. Glyphosate was recently found to be an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with the hormone system in mammals. These disruptors can cause developmental disorders, birth defects and cancer tumours. Monsanto’s roundup has been responsible for fuelling breast cancer by increasing the number of breast cancer cells through cell growth and cell division. Researchers also determined that Monsanto’s roundup is considered an xenoestrogen, which is a foreign estrogen that mimics real estrogen in our bodies. This can cause a number of problems that include an increased risk of various cancers, early onset of puberty, thyroid issues, infertility and more.

Glyphosate exerted proliferative effects in human hormone-dependent breast cancer. We found that glyphosate exhibited a weaker estrogenic activity than estradiol. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the additive-estrogenic effects of glyphosate and genisein which implied that the use of glyphosate-contaminated soybean products as dietary supplements may pose a risk of breast cancer because their potential additive estrogenicity (4)

Over the past few months the world has seen a staggering amount of activity surrounding biotech giant Monsanto. Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, it is the leading producer of genetically engineered seed (GE) and of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand. A few weeks ago, there was a worldwide March against Monsanto that millions participated in all over the world, it wasn’t televised. On the eve of that march, the United States Senate shut down a GMO labelling bill that would have required all states to label GMO products, you can read more about that here. A few weeks before that happened, Barack Obama signed the H.R. 933, otherwise known as the “Monsanto Protection Act”. You can read more about that here.

What may look like setbacks from the government as well as the Monsanto corporation only come as a result of the current global awakening taking place. So much evidence has recently surfaced that coincides with all of the actions mentioned in the above paragraph. For example, Monsanto’s Glyphosate was recently linked to cancer, you can read more about that here. Scientists also discovered that the Bt toxins found in Monsanto crops damage red blood cells, you can read about that here. There are so many more connections that show how harmful Monsanto is, and how we need to make better choices in our own lives. I encourage you to browse through our health, alternative news, and science/tech sections for more info, or simply use the search bar with key words like “Monsanto”, and “GMO” for more information.