toxicity - pesticides, herbicides and insecticides - Blackherbals.com

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 8, Issue 6 NEWSLETTER July 2013FEATURED ARTICLESIs Genetically Modified Food Making Us Fat?By Lisa Collier CoolMay 29, 2013A weed killer sprayed on 80 percent of geneticallymodified foods—including corn, soybeans, sugarbeets, and cottonseed—could be linked to obesity,digestive diseases, and other chronic disordersincluding diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer,according to a new Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) paper published in the journalEntropy.Without genetic modification, herbicides woulddamage crops, making them susceptible to incectsand disease. To solve this issue, genes within theseeds of various produce have been tweaked to betolerant of the herbicide, thus protecting them fromthe mouths of hungry bugs. The downside,according to the study, is that the herbicides used toprotect the plants are harmful to humans.The peer-reviewed paper reports that residues ofglyphosate—the active ingredient in the world’smost widely used herbicide, Roundup—areubiquitous in the main foods of the Western diet.Glyphosate is the most common agriculturalchemical in the US, with 185 million tons sprayedon American crops in 2007—more than double thetotal for 2001, the EPA reports.'Damages Cellular Tissue' in the Body“Glyphosate in our food is making us fat and sick,”says Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., coauthor of the paperand senior research scientist at MIT. “It’s thenumber one cause of obesity in this country andrates of obesity have shot up in tandem withincreasingly heavy use of this herbicide.”What’s more, “glyphosate ... may in fact be the mostbiologically disruptive chemical in ourenvironment,” the paper states. “Negative impact onthe body is insidious and manifests slowly over timeas inflammation damages cellular systemsthroughout the body.”However, the EPA, which set a new rule in Aprillimiting the amount of Roundup residue allowed invarious foods—from cereal grains to carrots, oil seeds,sugar cane, beef byproducts used for hot dogs andschool lunches, and potatoes, among many others—contends that, “there is reasonable certainty that noharm will result to the general population . . . or childrenfrom aggregate exposure to glyphosate residues.”Monsanto, manufacturer of Roundup, has longmaintained that Roundup and GM food are safe. Whenasked about the MIT paper, Jerry Steiner, Monsanto’sexecutive VP of sustainability told Reuters that, “We arevery confident in the long track record that glyphosatehas. It has been very, very extensively studied.”So who’s right? Here’s a closer look at the paper andother new research exploring the health effects ofgenetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food.Is Roundup really dangerous?The agricultural industry has argued that althoughRoundup is designed to kill plants, it’s relativelynontoxic to people, because glyphosate acts on abiological pathway that’s not found in humans oranimals.Furthermore, the amounts found in food are very small,with the EPA setting limits ranging from 0.2 parts permillion (ppm) for avocados to 30 ppm for cereal grainsand 85 ppm for safflower seeds. Feed for farm animalscan contain up to 400 ppm.Based on a wide-ranging review of published research,including animal studies, the paper argues that amountsas low as 0.1 ppm can affect both our health andweight, says co-author Anthony Samsel, a retiredscience consultant from Arthur D. Little. “Even tinyamounts set off a cascade of harmful effects and alsomagnify the toxic effects of other chemicals in our foodand environment.”Continued on page 7675-- Traditional African Clinic July 2013