Originally published August 2 2013
Glyphosate toxicity to humans: An overview
by Lance Johnson
(NaturalNews) Monsanto's infamous Roundup contains the hotly debated compound called glyphosate. This merciless herbicide is also found in 750 or more U.S. products. An herbicide like this infiltrates the landscape and accumulates in mammals, especially bone, hindering cellular detoxification along the way.
A destroyer, glyphosate annihilates a plant's building blocks of life, tearing apart amino acids. By disrupting the "shikimate pathway" in plants and microorganisms, glyphosate creeps inside leaves and stalk, raping natural life processes. Glyphosate also destroys the beneficial microorganism in the human gut, destroying the human immune system.
To make matters worse, glyphosate is often mixed with adjuvants - chemical agents that increase glyphosate's destructive power. It's often mixed with surfactants and foaming agents that allow the liquid to bond to and penetrate the structures of a plant's leaves. This mass infiltration has created a chemical environment.
Glyphosate's existence welcomes GMOs
Glyphosate's mere existence has led scientists to develop Roundup-Ready seeds which are genetically modified to resist the glyphosate. This has allowed an up-rise in engineered food, which the human body cannot naturally process. Farmers can now plant the genetically engineered crop and spray their fields simultaneously with glyphosate. Weeds are expected to die and terminator crops are engineered to withstand the chemicals. This has led to global food dominance by corporations like Monsanto, who push their genetically altered food onto Third World countries all under the guise of "feeding world hunger." Now farmers feel that they must depend on these chemical companies for seed, and are cornered into using herbicides like glyphosate to have a more productive crop.
The production of glyphosate has led the world down a dark course. The human body was intended to eat unmodified, natural food. Chemical-laced, genetically engineered science has manufactured a new-age frontier of food that is wiping out small organic farmers from the picture. As science takes a short cut and eradicates the fields, it globalizes food production. Small organic farmers who work hard to protect the balance of the ecosystem and purity of food, have felt the squeeze global chemical companies are putting on their ability to provide whole food. Glyphosate is a danger to the future of organic farmers, who seek an herbicide-free environment to grow pure and wholesome food.
EPA continues to allow higher glyphosate levels on crops and in humans
As if it were working directly for Monsanto and other chemical giants, the EPA continues to permit more glyphosate into the ecosystem. According to pre-1985 studies, detectable levels of glyphosate in animals was nearly non-existent. By 1985, glyphosate levels were appearing in animal meat tissue, fat, eggs and milk. At that point, the EPA assigned an acceptable tolerance level of glyphosate in mammals at 0.5 ppm. The EPA quickly moved to establish an acceptable daily intake of glyphosate for human consumption. At that time, they set the ADI at 0.10 mg per kg body weight per day. However, by 1993 this acceptable daily intake had been renamed to be called a "reference dose" and had gone up to 20 times the previous daily limit to 2 mg per kg body weight per day.
How is the EPA to be trusted for safety, as they continue to cater to biotech demands?
According to the nonprofit group, Beyond Pesticides, in May of 2013 the EPA ruled to double allowable limits for glyphosate in several key crops, increasing the limits for glyphosate exposure to 100 parts per million (ppm) in crops grown for animal feed, and 40 ppm in oilseed crops.
Glyphosate stays in the bone
In some of the first studies in the 90s involving rats, 30-36 percent of glyphosate was passed through the animal's gut wall and into their bodies. A similar study on hens and goats got likewise results. In the rat study, seven days after the glyphosate was administered, the remaining glyphosate levels were found in the rats' bones. In a WHO publication, "the glyphosate isotope was widely distributed throughout the body, but was primarily found in bone."
With these findings, it seems that EPA regulators have missed the point. Glyphosate, regardless of what limits are set, sinks into human organs and accumulates, creating a toxic environment for the human body. The EPA's "reference dose," is a hoax. A "reference dose" does not take into consideration the long term accumulation of glyphosate in a mammal's organs, especially bone. Here's a question: Since bone's major constituent is calcium phosphate, how might glyphosate, which acts as a fake phosphate in plants, manipulate bone growth?
Sources for this article include:
http://www.rag.org.au/modifiedfoods/rounduphealthissues.htm
http://northernwoodlands.org
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=10487
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