another solution to Round up is needed for Arosa Canyon

Date:   12/25/2011 2:50:29 AM ( 13 y ago)

another solution to Round up is needed
for Arosa Canyon


Mr. Guerena's role and expertise is even more critical now given the recent release of reports about the toxicity and dangers of one of the City's most commonly used herbicides - a product called Round-Up. Round-Up is made by that friendly and nature-loving company, Monsanto (infamous only for all of its genetically modified crops and organisms and usurious treatment of farmers whose crops are contaminated with their GMO products.) Monsanto has always marketed Round-Up as an environmentally-friendly product to the extent that its promoters in the industry claim it is "as safe as table salt". However, I assume that the mounting evidence of the toxicity and potential carcinogenicity of Round-Up means that none of these promoters will likely be adding it to their wives' or kids' popcorn any time soon.

Round-Up is made of isopropylamine salt of glyphosate, related organic acids of glyphosate, and polyoxalated surfactants. Similar Monsanto surfactants are often contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and one researcher found such a Monsanto product contaminated at a level of 350 parts per million! 1,4-dioxane, one of the ingredients of Agent Orange, is a proven human carcinogen and is known to damage the liver, kidney, brain and lungs of humans.

Other more recent studies also cast serious doubt as to the long term safety of Round-Up. For instance, a recent study of the supposed "inert" ingredients of Roundup was published in Environmental Health Perspectives and reported glyphosate toxicity to human placental cells within hours of exposure, at levels ten times lower than those found in agricultural use. The researchers also tested glyphosate and Round-Up at lower concentrations for effects on sexua| hormones and reported adverse effects at very low levels. This suggests that dilution with other ingredients in Round-Up may, in fact, facilitate glyphosate's hormonal impacts.

Further, an international team of highly respected scientists has just released a stunning report in June entitled, Roundup and Birth Defects (http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/RoundupandBirthDefects.6.11.pdf), disclosing that Monsanto and industry regulators have known for decades that Round-Up causes birth defects in laboratory animals but suppressed and/or withheld those studies from public regulators and scientific scrutiny.

Given this newfound evidence attesting to the hazards of long term exposure to Round-Up to pregnant women and fetuses and the City's absolute reliance on it for weed control, albeit reduced during Mr. Guerena's tenure, elimination of the use of Round-Up must be a priority of the City if they are serious about continuing to create safe, pesticide-free zones in our City parks. Although use of Round-Up in the City has been greatly reduced as a result of the persistence and research of Mr. Guerena, it does not take any imagination to see this trend reversed if the City does not have a strong IPM advocate on staff. And citizen oversight will be even more difficult then because the Annual IPM reports on the City's pesticide use are apparently no longer being routinely provided because of budgetary pressures. Thus, it is all the more critical that a true IPM specialist be retained on Parks and Recreation's staff

And Round-Up is just the tip of the toxic iceberg of pesticides previously used extensively thr

http://davisvanguard.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4520:ma...


12;48
christmas 2011




 

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