Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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 The earliest-known effort by Monsanto to cover up dioxin contamination of its products involved the herbicide used in Vietnam, Agent Orange. Available internal Monsanto correspondence in the 1960s shows a knowledge of this contamination and the fact that the dioxin contaminant was responsible for kidney and liver damage, as well as the skin condition chloracne.
Early internal Monsanto documents reveal that samples of Agent Orange and other chlorinated herbicides and chlorophenols submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1970s were 'doctored'. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 Characteristics of Bt 176
According to a press release by the Institute for Science in Society, although Bt 176 is engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate and to produce the 5/-toxin CrylAB, molecular analysis carried out by French and Belgian58 government scientists suggests that Syngenta may have been wrong about which form of Bt their corn produces. The Bt gene in Bt 176 showed a 94% similarity with a synthetic crylAc gene, but only 65% with the natural Bt crylAb gene. The authors also write, "Many Bt transgenes are synthetic, including the one in Bt 176. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton
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 Dog owners who use the herbicide 2, 4-D four or more times per season double their dog's chances of suffering lymphoma. And of the thirty-six most commonly used lawn pesticides,
A Chemical-Free Garden and Garage
>¦ Dispose of any herbicides, weed killers, insect sprays, and other noxious substances (responsibly of course), and replace them with more environmentally friendly products.
þ To create more natural predators for the insects in your garden, leave a pile of logs in your garden so they can hibernate over winter. |
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
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 As for pesticides and herbicides, many kill insects and unwanted plants by causing them to generate extremely high levels of free radicals in their tissues. The herbicide paraquat, for example, is known to produce incredibly high concentrations of free radicals in humans, so much so that it can completely destroy the lungs.
Another source of free-radical generation is the use of illegal drugs. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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 It, too, was related to a majot Vietnam-era toxic herbicide, cacodylic acid, or Agent Blue.
Agent Blue is chlorine-free. Instead of chlorine, it is based on arsenic, a mineral poison long recognized to be injurious to plant and animal life alike. For hundreds of years, arsenic was known to be the agent that fouled the air from metal smelters, defoliating all growth in the vicinity. Even as far back as 1815, Bowden's Treatise on Dry Rot had recommended boiling wood in a solution made with a mineral called mundic as one preservative option. |
| For example, the extension from a wood mildew killer (a mildewcide) to a leafy plant-killing substance (an herbicide) wasn't much of stretch. Cut down the chlorine atoms from five to three, modify the phenol attachment modestly and, voila: trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T).
Back in 1940, Dr. M. Toumlin Gaines of Mobile could have known little about the structural subtleties of chlorine-containing agricultutal chemicals. More than twenty years later, had Dr. |
| Following its liberal application to the fields and forests of Vietnam, the herbicide came to be better known as Agent Orange, originally a military code name matching the color band around the fifty-five-gallon drums in which it was shipped for application in Vietnam.64 The letter reporting the New Jersey outbreak of chloracne was published in the 6 July 1964 issue of JAMA. A month and a day later, the U.S. Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing the Vietnam War's escalation. |
| This particular herbicide was of a phenol type. Phenol is a hybrid of the aromatic compound benzene and an alcohol. Thus, the treating doctors suspected a chemical by-product that consisted of phenol molecules linked by ether bridges. This arrangement is very similar to a key structural chemical attribute of a dioxin molecule.
Dioxin had already been discovered before the Newark outbreak of chloracne and porphyria, but it had not been connected directly to 2,4,5-T. Dr. W. |
| By the time the Vietnam War was in full swing in the latter part of the 1960s, the serious nature of dioxin contamination from the herbicide 2,4,5,-T was well understood. Dioxin also turned out to be the same contaminant accounting for chloracne due to pentachlorophenol. The industrial manufacture of both pentachlorophenol and 2,4,5-T has a distinct propensity to be contaminated by dioxin as an unintended by-product. In the normal course of chemical engineering, such by-products are little more than an annoying negative value that must be factored into projected output yields. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 He and some other growers believe that the sustainable farming methods they use, such as mowing and mulching, rather than controlling weeds by chemical herbicide applications, protect biodiversity and naturally prevent the spread of harmful bacteria more effectively than the artificial process of pasteurization (sterilization) -- which attempts to mitigate contamination after the fact. According to growers practicing sustainable farming methods, the USDA plan ignores the root causes of food contamination -- the dangerous and unsustainable farming practices on industrial farms. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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| In any case, findings are preliminary and require follow-up studies to determine what component of the GM soy (or herbicide residue) is the cause and if the changes impair fertility or offspring health.
Changes in Sertoli cells
Sertoli cells are known as the "nurse" cell of the testicles. "Sertoli cells from GM-fed mice of all ages showed enlarged vesicles of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER)." 78 The SER is involved in metabolizing lipids and detoxification. Its increased size suggests an increase in one or both of these functions. |
David Steinman
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 Although human research is limited and poorly funded, the herbicide has been incriminated in two of three published reports in a threefold increase in ovarian cancer risk.37'38'39 Funding for such studies is difficult for researchers to come by, but the risks are real both for our immediate health and because atrazine is another petroleum-derived chemical that feeds off our oil addiction.
It isn't only the fish of the Northwest or frogs in the Midwest that face tough times. Polar bears don't have it any easier. |
| Furthermore, the active ingredients in Agent Orange, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, are also known to be cancer causing; in fact, although 2,4,5-T was banned from further use in the United States in the early 1980s, the herbicide 2,4-D continues to be widely used both in commercial agriculture and on lawns. It is widely known to cause human cancer, according to a host of epidemiological studies. I reported on the hearings held in Oregon in the late 1970s in which the EPA tried to ban 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D from further use. |
Ron Garner
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 They are found in herbicide and pesticide sprays, petroleum products, plastics, and other chemicals that pollute our food, air, and water.
Agricultural animals raised for meat consumption are injected with estrogen-like hormones to increase fat content. These synthetic hormones remain in the meat when it is consumed. Even though they may be in small amounts, it takes very little to upset the delicate hormone balance in the body. |
Ann N. Martin
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 At the same time humans are taking precautions around this herbicide, cats and dogs can walk across the lawn sprayed with this chemical, unprotected. At the present time 2,4,-D "is under special review by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States because of concerns about chronic health and environmental effects."3 In addition to being a toxic threat to animals and humans, chemical fertilizers and pesticides on lawns weaken the grass and destroy the natural balance of microbes and beneficial insect predators, thus, in the end promoting weed and insect proliferation. |
Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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 They detected both the insecticides endosulfan and diazinon, as well as the herbicide trinuralin.
?Tired of seeing their children become ill during times of peak pesticide spraying, a group of concerned residents in California tested the air they breathe and their own bodies for the presence of the commonly used, highly toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. More than 91 percent of the people tested had above average levels of breakdown products of chlorpyrifos in their urine, and most of the women had amounts above the level calculated from EPA data to be safe for pregnant and nursing women. |
David Steinman
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| In doing so, the company engages in herbicide and pesticide spraying.
Sometimes, twenty to thirty loads of chemical fertilizer pellets are dumped on one area by the dangerous, treetop-level flights, according to forest preservation advocates.
In the Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee, residents became ill when a plane dumped its toxic chemical load on private homes, and people were standing in their yards. It all reminded me once again of the kids of Alpaugh and Earlimart.
Creeks and wildlife were also in the path of the aerial chemical pellets. |
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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| Interestingly, one of the chemicals featured as essentially harmless in a Monsanto TV spot, later withdrawn, was Vegadex (sulfallate), a herbicide reported by the National Cancer Institute in March 1978 to be carcinogenic to both rats and mice."
In November 1979, I was invited by Congressman J. Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to assist in the drafting of legislation on White Collar Crime (HR 4973) and to testify in subsequent Congressional hearings. |
Michael Friedman, ND
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 Falsification and manipulation by Monsanto since the 1960s of data on dioxin and its contamination of products, including the herbicide Agent Orange, designed to block occupational exposure claims and tightening of federal regulations. This evidence was detailed in 1990 by Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Criminal Investigation which charged Monsanto with a "long pattern of fraud" and with reporting "false information" to the Agency.
Fraudulent claims by Monsanto since 1985 that genetically engineered (rBGH) milk is indistinguishable from natural milk. |
Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C.
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 Continuous consumer complaints led the MSG industry to conduct numerous studies that were later revealed to have included intentionally
Although testing of the effects of food additives on the liver, brain, kidneys, blood-forming organs, and excretory and reproductive systems is required under the Color Additive Amendment of 1960, it is impossible to test every additive, every pesticide, every herbicide, or every other chemical in the environment.
It is even more impossible to test the combined effects of these chemicals. |
Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
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 This is why the whole pesticide and herbicide approach doesn't work; it does not coincide with Nature. The natural law is: The more mineralized the soil, the healthier the plants are, and the more disease-resistant they are. The healthier individuals are those who eat the highly mineralized plants. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| Instead of reducing pesticide use, one study of more than eight thousand university-based field trials indicated that farmers who plant RR soy use two to five times more herbicide than farmers who use traditional weed control methods.
Our View ofGM Foods
We are concerned about the development of GM foods for several reasons. First of all, there is little scientific data on the long-term safety of GM foods. It may turn out that GM foods cause unexpected health consequences that will not be apparent for years. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| Wood preservative and herbicide; nonwood uses banned in 1987 Electrical transformers, plasticizers; banned in 1979
Plastic manufacturing; resins used in water treatment equipment Dry cleaning/industrial solvent
Chemical manufacturing; gasoline additive; industrial solvent Primarily formed when surface water containing organic matter is treated with chlorine
Insecticide/herbicide for cotton, soybeans; cancelled in 1982 herbicide on range-lands, sugar cane, golf courses; cancelled in 1983. |
Tanya Harter Pierce
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 Both breast cancer and prostate cancer have been strongly linked to pesticide exposure, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has been strongly linked to herbicide exposure. Thus, it would seem much more likely that pesticides and herbicides are bigger contributors to these types of cancers than genetic inheritance. Moreover, all cancer incidence rates have risen over just a few generations. This sort of rise in all types of cancer would not be happening if cancer were primarily genetically caused.
Dr. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton
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| A highly toxic chemical formerly commonly used as a herbicide and fungicide. Due to marked toxicities, its use is now restricted. pesticide A substance used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals and humans. phthalates A group of chemical compounds added to plastics to increase their flexibility. They have been banned for use in toys and cosmetics in some European countries due to their toxicity. plasticizers Chemicals added to plastics (synthetic resins) to produce or promote flexibility and to reduce brittleness, such as phthalates. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 The long-term effects of pesticide and herbicide exposure are unclear, but a scary picture is beginning to emerge. Population studies on adults suggest a link with certain types of cancers and neurological diseases. As parents and doctors, we do not want to wait until "absolute" scientific evidence links these chemicals to various diseases. Pesticides that had been considered safe and were used for decades are now being banned. For example, methyl parathion, a type of organophosphate, was recently banned from being sprayed on apples. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 One version of Monsanto's New Leaf potato, for example, was stacked with eight different traits—it created its own pesticide, resisted diseases, was tolerant to herbicide, increased its weight, and reduced bruising.1 Some GM crops accidentally acquire additional foreign genes through cross-pollination. Canola plants in Canada, for example, ended up with foreign genes from two different companies, each conferring tolerance to its own brand of herbicide.
Stacked genes and their proteins may interact in dangerous ways. Traditional pesticides illustrate this principle. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 In the 55 people tested the heavy metals, pesticides, and herbicide toxins, initially 801 toxins were found in the subjects’ livers, 825 toxins in the breasts, 824 toxins in the brain. |
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
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 The MPTP is actually the active component of a herbicide known as Cyperquat, which is used to kill nutsedge. Fortunately, the manufacturing division that was to make this herbicide closed down before it went to market. Chemically it is related to the dangerous herbicide Paraquat, which has been shown to kill cells by producing enormous amounts of free radicals, which consume all of the cell's antioxidants. MPP+ forms far fewer free radicals.
What makes the MPTP story interesting is that there are many compounds found in nature that have a similar chemical structure. |
Byron J. Richards, CCN
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 Atrazine, the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and probably the world, decreased testosterone in male frogs ten fold at a dose exposure common to our current environmental levels. It induced demasculanzing effects in the frogs.534 It does this by increasing the activity of aromatase. This is a serious issue and serves as the other main reason for increased aromatase activity in men besides extra pounds of fat. Excess environmental chemicals cause men to lack testosterone. |
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