Groundbreaking study shows Roundup link to birth defects

Groundbreaking study shows Roundup link to birth defects
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12491
International scientists confirm dangers of Roundup at GMO-Free Regions Conference in Brussels
Brussels 16 September 2010

VN:  Just a comment about the attack against us through our food, water, air we breath and now the arrest of anti-war activists happening this morning in 6 states.  We are at war and we are under attack and thus we must now start to take all of this very very seriously.  We have no time left, today its the activists and tomorrow the militia.  SPLC and ADL have set this all up with the zionist controlled Homeland security and zionists run and own these major corporations that are poisoning and killing us.  They are doing the same thing in Russia.  The average life span dropped in Russia from 62 down to 44 years old.  Can you believe it, and that is just since the communist gov fell.   In the US its dropped since our coup in 2000 from 77 to 64 and that is a huge drop for only 10 years.  they are serious about killing us off. 

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Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the world's best-selling weedkiller Roundup, (VN:  MONSANTO also ring a bell?  They have a ready round up "marker" in the actual seed itself) causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying and well below maximum residue levels in products presently approved in the European Union. This is reported in research (1) below, published by a group around Professor Andrés Carrasco, director of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and member of Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research.

Carrasco was led to research the embryonic effects of glyphosate by reports of high rates of birth defects in rural areas of Argentina where Monsanto's genetically modified "Roundup Ready" (RR) soybeans are grown in large monocultures sprayed from airplanes regularly. RR soy is engineered to tolerate Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the herbicide liberally to kill weeds while the crop is growing.

At a press conference during the 6th European Conference of GMO Free Regions in the European Parliament in Brussels Carrasco said, "The findings in the lab are compatible with malformations observed in humans exposed to glyphosate during pregnancy." Reporting of such problems started in 2002, two years after large scale introduction of RR soybeans in Argentina. The experimental animals share similar developmental mechanisms with humans.

The authors concluded that the results raise "concerns about the clinical findings from human offspring in populations exposed to Roundup in agricultural fields." Carrasco added, "I suspect the toxicity classification of glyphosate is too low. In some cases this can be a powerful poison."

The maximum residue level (MRL) allowed for glyphosate in soy in the EU is 20 mg/kg. The level was increased 200-fold from 0.1 mg/kg to 20 mg/kg in 1997 after GM RR soy was commercialized in Europe. Carrasco found malformations in embryos injected with 2.03 mg/kg glyphosate. Soybeans can contain glyphosate residues of up to 17mg/kg.

In August 2010 Amnesty International reported that an organized mob violently attacked people who gathered to hear Carrasco talk about his research in the town of La Leonesa, Chaco province. Witnesses implicated local agro-industry figures in the attack.

Carrasco is also the co-author of a report, "GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?" released on September 16 by a group of international scientists. The report documents a bulk of evidence in scientific studies on the harmful health and environmental impacts of GM RR soy and Roundup.

This report is released together with the testimonies of people who have suffered from such spraying. Viviana Peralta, a housewife from San Jorge, Santa Fe, Argentina was hospitalized together with her baby after Roundup spraying from planes flying near her home. Peralta and other residents launched a lawsuit that resulted in a regional court ban on the spraying of Roundup and other agrochemicals near houses.

ENDS

(1) Paganelli, A., Gnazzo, V., Acosta, H., López, S.L., Carrasco, A.E. 2010. Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signalling. Chem. Res. Toxicol., August 9. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749

(2) "GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?" is released on September 16 by Andrés Carrasco and eight other international scientists: http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/conference2010/press.html  

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