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Dangers of Round Up Pointed Out in this Article
Dangers of Round Up Pointed Out in this Article
“Three recent studies show that roundup, which is used by farmers and home gardeners, is not the safe product we have been led to trust,” stated the article by chee yoke heong. the article cites scientific studies in which roundup was implicated in mortality in amphibians and cancer and liver damage in animals."
Date: 10/28/2011 7:48:42 PM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 1372 times
PESTICIDE FREE OJAI
http://pesticidefreeojaivalley.org/blog/?page_id=32
ROUNDUP CAUSING HAVOC
http://willblogforfood.typepad.com/will_blog_for_food/2011/09/super-weeds-pos...
Since Monsanto introduced its glyphosate-resistant crops, 21 weed species have evolved to resist the herbicide, up from none in 1995. The list is growing by one to two species per year, Mortensen said.
Roundup persists in the environment
Monsanto used to boast that Roundup is biodegradable, claiming that it breaks down quickly in the soil. But courts in the US and Europe disagreed and found them guilty of false advertising. In fact, Monsanto’s own test data revealed that only 2% of the product broke down after 28 days.
Whether glyphosate degrades in weeks, months, or years varies widely due to factors in the soil, including pH, clay , types of minerals, residues from Roundup Ready crops, and the presence of the specialized enzymes needed to break down the herbicide molecule. In some conditions, glyphosate can grab hold of soil nutrients and remain stable for long periods. One study showed that it took up to 22 years for glyphosate to degrade only half its volume! So much for trusting Monsanto’s product claims.
Glyphosate can attack from above and below. It can drift over from a neighbors farm and wreak havoc. And it can even be released from dying weeds, travel through the soil, and then be taken up by healthy crops.
The amount of glyphosate that can cause damage is tiny. European scientists demonstrated that less than half an ounce per acre inhibits the ability of plants to take up and transport essential micronutrients (see chart).
As a result, more and more farmers are finding that crops planted in years after Roundup is applied suffer from weakened defenses and increased soilborne diseases. The situation is getting worse for many reasons.
The glyphosate concentration in the soil builds up season after season with each subsequent application.
Glyphosate can also accumulate for 6-8 years inside perennial plants like alfalfa, which get sprayed over and over.
Wheat affected after 10 years of glyphosate field applications.
Glyphosate residues in the soil that become bound and immobilized can be reactivated by the application of phosphate fertilizers or through other methods. Potato growers in the West and Midwest, for example, have experienced severe losses from glyphosate that has been reactivated.
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/664
THIS iNSPIRED THIS IDEA
PESTICIDE MOVEMENT GAINS STRENGTH
pesticide-free movement gains strength
with 4 comments
group alleges roundup, other presumed-safe products destroying more than weeds
by earl bates
concerns about community health and the integrity of the region’s ecosystem have motivated a number of local residents to work toward making the ojai valley a pesticide-free zone.
an informational gathering, “pesticide free ojai meeting,” was attended by 40 people at sacred space studio on monday evening. many expressed views critical of the usage of chemicals in the environment, some told stories of serious illnesses that they attributed to exposure to substances that were supposedly safe, and some offered information about scientific and medical studies.
“pesticides are very violent, they are violent to the earth, they are violent to the wildlife, they are violent to us,” said ingrid boulting, yoga teacher and owner of sacred space studio. “we have to realize that everything we put into the earth has an effect on the ecosystem and we are dependent on a healthy ecosystem for our health, so we have got to stop poisoning ourselves and our planet, period.
“for a long time now it’s come to people’s awareness, not just mine, that there are a lot of people getting sick in this town. why is the illness rate so high here? we have a very high rate of cancer, little children are getting leukemia, a lot of people have joint pain and problems. i meet a lot of these people because they come to yoga to look for some kind of relief.”
sacred space studio is commonly know as a place for yoga, and according to boulting, “it’s a place to share ideas, it’s a place to raise consciousness, it’s a place people can come and feel safe to air their views about things and build a community to start to make a difference.”
matilija canyon resident patty pagala said she was made sick by the chemical herbicide that is currently being used in the attempt to eradicate the invasive arundo, giant reed plants, from the canyon river bottom. “many people in ojai are deeply concerned about the negative environmental and health impacts of the spraying of pesticides, not just in the canyon, as they are being sprayed extensively in the orchards in the east end of ojai. we are coming together to create a pesticide-free ojai, to bring about public awareness and to work with the city and county to go pesticide free.”
concerns about the extensive program of application of the herbicide in matilija canyon seem to have instigated this movement for a pesticide-free ojai.
information from the ventura county watershed protection district states: “three methods are being used to remove and control giant reed. each has been chosen for safety and efficacy.” the three methods are: shredding the plants, spraying an approved herbicide onto the foliage of the target plants, and painting the herbicide on cut plants.
the safety and efficacy of the herbicide has been questioned or denied by some observers.
“glyphosate is what’s being used, which is generic roundup, that’s what’s going in the water,” said robin bernhoft, an ojai medical doctor with a specialty in the effects of toxic chemicals on human health.
“it’s dangerous stuff. the linkage to parkinson’s disease and non-hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia has come up over and over again, in this country and in europe and in japan. i don’t think people should use it at all because it does get into the water.”
according to many widely accepted studies, glyphosate is a safe herbicide.
according to monsanto, producers of glyphosate herbicides including roundup, the chemical presents a “low risk to human health.”
“that’s what monsanto says. monsanto has had a number of problems with the truth in the past,” said bernhoft. “the evidence from the groundwater in north dakota and denmark is that it does not in fact break down and it does in fact get into the ground water.”
according to the national institute of occupational safety health, glyphosate is water soluble and the supervisors just ignored this, said bernhoft. it’s not quite as soluble as table salt, but it’s pretty soluble. monsanto told the supervisors it was not soluble, that’s a lie.
could a common product widely reported as safe actually be hazardous?
“politics,” said bernhoft. “if you go to the national library of medicine and start looking for research on this — scientific literature is not a disinterested business.”
marsha angel, who was editor of the new england journal of medicine for about 15 years, ultimately quit because she got sick of being fed bogus papers by various drug and pesticide companies, bernhoft said. for example, vioxx and rotavirus vaccine were both taken off of the market because they started killing people. both, in initial publication, were reported in the journal as clean as could be. later, by means of legal subpoena, it was discovered that the papers ignored the known side effects of the products, making them appear safe.
“the level of integrity is not quite as high as one might wish,” said bernhoft.
“when you read about a result, you would have to see who funded the study, and that usually correlates with the result,” he said. it might not be readily perceived that complex products may have been presented in a deceptive way. “you have to be fairly sophisticated medically or scientifically to see this.”
an article, “new evidence of dangers of roundup weedkiller” was distinguished as one of the top 25 censored news stories of 2007. the list of censored stories is created by project censored, a media research program at sonoma state university (projectcensored.org).
“three recent studies show that roundup, which is used by farmers and home gardeners, is not the safe product we have been led to trust,” stated the article by chee yoke heong. the article cites scientific studies in which roundup was implicated in mortality in amphibians and cancer and liver damage in animals.
dr. bernhoft believes creating a pesticide-free ojai valley is something that should be worked toward. there is enough medical evidence that these chemicals are a public health hazard for everybody, at different rates, some people notice it quicker that others. minimizing the use of them or practically eliminating them would be helpful. “i think it’s a good idea from a public health standpoint, it would be a very good thing for the people of ojai not to have to deal with these hazardous substances,” he said.
“ii think informed consent is as important in politics as it is in medicine, you don’t want to slam-dunk people. i think people need to be able to make an intelligent decision and to do that they need to see the available evidence.”
for anyone interested in reading on the topic, bernhoft suggested “our toxic world” by dr. doris rapp. “doris goes into a lot of the realities of how pervasive pesticides, herbicides and other pollutants are, and what their medical impacts are.”
the next meeting of pesticide free ojai will be monday at 7:45 p.m. at sacred space studio, 410-a bryant circle. for information, call 646-6761.
according to many widely accepted studies, glyphosate is a safe herbicide.
according to monsanto, producers of glyphosate herbicides including roundup, the chemical presents a “low risk to human health.”
“that’s what monsanto says. monsanto has had a number of problems with the truth in the past,” said bernhoft. “the evidence from the groundwater in north dakota and denmark is that it does not in fact break down and it does in fact get into the ground water.”
according to the national institute of occupational safety health, glyphosate is water soluble and the supervisors just ignored this, said bernhoft. it’s not quite as soluble as table salt, but it’s pretty soluble. monsanto told the supervisors it was not soluble, that’s a lie.
could a common product widely reported as safe actually be hazardous?
“politics,” said bernhoft. “if you go to the national library of medicine and start looking for research on this — scientific literature is not a disinterested business.”
marsha angel, who was editor of the new england journal of medicine for about 15 years, ultimately quit because she got sick of being fed bogus papers by various drug and pesticide companies, bernhoft said. for example, vioxx and rotavirus vaccine were both taken off of the market because they started killing people. both, in initial publication, were reported in the journal as clean as could be. later, by means of legal subpoena, it was discovered that the papers ignored the known side effects of the products, making them appear safe.
“the level of integrity is not quite as high as one might wish,” said bernhoft.
“when you read about a result, you would have to see who funded the study, and that usually correlates with the result,” he said. it might not be readily perceived that complex products may have been presented in a deceptive way. “you have to be fairly sophisticated medically or scientifically to see this.”
an article, “new evidence of dangers of roundup weedkiller” was distinguished as one of the top 25 censored news stories of 2007. the list of censored stories is created by project censored, a media research program at sonoma state university (projectcensored.org).
“three recent studies show that roundup, which is used by farmers and home gardeners, is not the safe product we have been led to trust,” stated the article by chee yoke heong. the article cites scientific studies in which roundup was implicated in mortality in amphibians and cancer and liver damage in animals.
bernhoft believes creating a pesticide-free ojai valley is something that should be worked toward. there is enough medical evidence that these chemicals are a public health hazard for everybody, at different rates, some people notice it quicker that others. minimizing the use of them or practically eliminating them would be helpful. “i think it’s a good idea from a public health standpoint, it would be a very good thing for the people of ojai not to have to deal with these hazardous substances,” he said.
“i think informed consent is as important in politics as it is in medicine, you don’t want to slam-dunk people. i think people need to be able to make an intelligent decision and to do that they need to see the available evidence.”
for anyone interested in reading on the topic, bernhoft suggested “our toxic world” by dr. doris rapp. “doris goes into a lot of the realities of how pervasive pesticides, herbicides and other pollutants are, and what their medical impacts are.”
the next meeting of pesticide free ojai will be monday at 7:45 p.m. at sacred space studio, 410-a bryant circle. for information, call 646-6761.
http://ojaivalleynews.blogspot.com/
written by admin
july 31st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
posted in ojai
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4 responses to 'pesticide-free movement gains strength'
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is it even a question? i live on the east end, where i have a small organic farm, but i’m surrounded by farmers who use massive quantities of chemicals to hold back and maintain weeds. it should terrify people to know the amounts of these chemicals that are being used. use of chemicals is simply lazy and deadly, and i urge adoption of organic policies and certification.
anonymous
1 aug 08 at 8:29 am
plus they blow these chemicals with leaf blowers!!
anonymous
1 aug 08 at 9:29 am
pesticide free ojai has been invited to be associate producers for a fundraising concert on september 21st with guitarist robben ford to raise money to cover friend and neighbor tara jeffery’s medical expenses due to breast cancer. the event will help raise the community’s awareness about this important issue.
details and ticket info. will be posted soon on http://www.robbenford.com/
illyriapro
2 aug 08 at 2:59 pm
if you’re concerned about pesticide use, misuse, or overuse, please start with the consumers -homeowners – gardeners and get off the farmers’ backs.
there is no place on this planet that is more controlled or regulated than the state of california when it comes to agricultural pesticide applications. growers must be licensed to apply and buy pesticides when they need to use them. before they apply they must request permission form the county to apply them, and after they apply them, they must document this with the county, including time of day, temperature, wind speed and direction.
growers have very tough bottom lines, and are not inclined to throw money away needlessly on chemicals just to get some ‘violent tendenciy’ yayas out. get over yourselves with this notion that farmers are some sleazy set of greedy criminals without a care for the health of their neighbors or the environment. depicting farmers as some kind of wayward drug-snorters is really contributing nothing towards really driving a community based solution to our local/global food/environmental crisis.
farmers are beople trying to make a living doing something they know how to do, perhaps they like farming, and perhaps they feel good about proving food for people to eat. most importantly, keep in mind that if you put all the local growers out of business, you’ll be importing all your food from china. whoops – we’re headed that way already! when was the last time you checked where your organic food was grown?
get off the farmers’ case, and pay attention to what your neighbors are doing. of all the registered pesticide accidents in the state, the overwhelming majority are caused by consumers who have not read labels or followed directions.
pesticide free ojai should focus it’s attention on consumer education and less-toxic pest management strategies for homeowners and landscape/gardeners. this is where the real dangers lie, where the real risk of misuse, exposure, and ignorant applications really lies.
“it should terrify people to know the amount of these chemicals that are being used”
why not go down to santa paula to the ag commissioner’s office and request pesticide use reports for yourself?
next, go talk to the general manager at all the hardware, feed and retail stores in the ojai valley and find out how much roundup and other registered materials they sold in the last year. factor in a multiplier for the consideration that a significant portion of ojai shoppers buy down in oxanrd and ventura…then, check in with all the institutions in the valley – the inn, the school district, the private schools, and any other large land holdings, and request that their facilities/maintenance departments divulge their annual purchases of these same materials.
i think you’d be surprised that farmers are not the greatest, much less the most significant users of these materials that you’re so concerned about.
anonymous
29 aug 08 at 1:11 pm
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