Wednesday, July 15, 2009

ISIS Calls for Glyphosate Herbicides Ban

The Institute for Science in Society (ISIS) is calling for an all-out worldwide ban on glyphosate herbacides as data continues to mount against their safety.

In the ISIS report submitted to the US Environment Protection Agency, they indicate:
Latest evidence confirms world's top-selling herbicide used with GM crops is toxic and disrupts sex hormones at infinitesimal doses; time for a worldwide ban. ~ Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

More than 80 percent of Monsanto genetically modified crops (GM crops) are Roundup-Ready... Roundup being a glyphosate herbacide produced/sold by Monsanto.
The herbicide has already been linked with spontaneous abortions, Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in humans; and in laboratory studies glyphosate caused liver damage in rats. Roundup is also highly lethal to amphibians. [link]
The latest research confirms previous studies with respect to the potential toxicity of glyphosate herbicides and also takes a closer look at the amount required to become a threat to human cells. The amount is astonishingly small:
The toxic effects of Roundup (R400) begin at 5 ppm, and the first endocrine disrupting action is already evident at 0.5 ppm, 800 times lower than the level of 400 ppm authorized by the US Environment Protection Agency in food or feed. And these latest results come in the wake of a string of evidence linking the herbicide and its formulations with cancers, miscarriages and other reproductive toxicities, liver and cell toxicities, DNA damages, lethality to amphibians [2] and lately, a range of embryonic defects in frogs. [emphasis added by us - link]

The appalling aside to all of this is the widespread glyphosate contamination of water bodies across the USA. The midwest, better known as corn country, should be particularly concerned about the safety of their water.

We'll bring you more on this subject as it unfolds.