"Glyphosate Exposure in a Farmer’s Family"
Journal of Environmental Protection, 2012, 3, 1001-1003 doi:10.4236/jep.2012.39115 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) 1001
The following studies explain the health crisis in America. Really truly. This is it...all the searching for the cure is over. These studies show the cause. And as a mother, I am both outraged and relieved to finally know. Now we can do something about it. If there was ever a reason to eat organic and share information, this is it.
Glyphosate may not be a household word, but Roundup* is. You likely spray it on your weeds, or your neighbor does. Your children's school definitely does. Your city sprays it on your sidewalks and parks and the farmers who grow your food have been told it's the best thing since sliced bread to spray on the grounds surrounding almond trees, fruit trees, strawberries and almost every non-organic vegetable grown in America. Roundup is the most widely used pesticide in the world, 185 million pounds (1) are used in the USA alone each year and glyphosate is the active chemical ingredient.
Not only is it sprayed on the soil, the chemical is drawn into it root system and plant, it is also now being sprayed on the GMO plant in ever increasing doses and it is absorbed into every cell of the plant. It's called "Roundup Ready”. The problem is, that means it is in our food, potentially for 14 years plus, it cannot be washed off, and the food is not labeled.
Some of you may know this already...but what you may not know is that the impact of Glyphosate is equally as potentially harmful as Genetically Modified foods. In a peer reviewed published scientific study titled "Glyphosate Exposure in a Farmer's Family" published in the Journal of Environmental Protection. This has not been widely circulated in the USA however, Moms Across America just found out that glyphosate has been proven to harm humans more than anyone realized.
The family in the study lived 1.5 miles away from their fields that were sprayed with Roundup. The father would spray the fields, come home and wash his hands thoroughly, but not take a shower. Apparently he hugged his children, because the levels of glyphosate found in their urine were far above what has shown to be toxic in animals. The glyphosate level in the father's urine was 9.5 ppm and the children's was 2 ppm. It is scientifically documented that infertility is caused by glyphosate at .5 ppm and endocrine disruption (which causes birth defects) is caused by glyphosate at .2 ppm.
The farmer and his wife had two children with birth defects including imperforated anus, growth hormone deficiency, hypospadias (which is when the urethra of the male penis's opening is not at the end but under, and along the side instead), heart defect and micro penis.
We also have a brand new scientific study which connects glyphosate and numerous diseases which have skyrocketed in our Western culture since the introduction of GMOs to our food supply .
"Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases" states that glyphosate residues have been found primarily in corn, sugar, soy and wheat. Good God, that is practically in everything all of us eat!
"Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins."
This new 48 page published scientific study is extensive and complicated. I have to say as a mother I would much rather be playing play dough with my kids or even cleaning a crusty toilet than scouring through these scientific reports and trying to decipher sentences like "Elevated amounts of shikimate-derived benzoic acids such as protocatechuate and gallate are also found in plants exposed to glyphosate."
So without further ado, I post these studies for you to make sense of. All I know is that glyphosate = harm to my family. So Stop It People! Stop spraying it on my food, stop spraying it on my school playground and stop spraying it in the city parks. And tell your city council, your representative, your congressmen/women. Share this report with them and demand that we stop using this chemical. If for no other reason than to err on the side of safety. These are our families we are talking about.
You need someone to pull up weeds? They are called Boy Scouts who need community service projects. No harmful side effects from a Boy Scout.
For the full report ( which is 48 pages long and too big of a file for my site) go to www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy
* Roundup is a registered trademark of Monsanto