Monsanto's Roundup may be linked to fatal kidney disease, new study suggests

[villager]

<snip>

The new study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Researchers suggest that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like arsenic and cadmium that often exist naturally in the soil or are added via fertilizer. Hard water contains metals like calcium, magnesium, strontium, and iron, among others. On its own, glyphosate is toxic, but not detrimental enough to eradicate kidney tissue.

The glyphosate molecule was patented as a herbicide by Monsanto in the early 1970s. The company soon brought glyphosate to market under the name “Roundup,” which is now the most commonly used herbicide in the world.

The hypothesis helps explain a global rash of the mysterious, fatal Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) that has been found in rice paddy regions of northern Sri Lanka, for example, or in El Salvador, where CKDu is the second leading cause of death among males.

Furthermore, the study’s findings explain many observations associated with the disease, including the linkage between the consumption of hard water and CKDu, as 96 percent of patients have been found to have consumed “hard or very hard water for at least five years, from wells that receive their supply from shallow regolith aquifers.”

The CKDu was discovered in rice paddy farms in northern Sri Lanka around 20 years ago. The condition has spread quickly since then and now affects 15 percent of working age people in the region, or a total of 400,000 patients, the study says. At least 20,000 have died from CKDu there.

<snip>

http://rt.com/news/monsanto-roundup-kidney-disease-921/

[Sunlei]

1. fatal Chronic Kidney Disease affects 15 percent of working age people in the region!!

I don't ever use Roundup on my property or let any landscape service use it like they always want to.

Pretty depressing all the farms that use it to clear fields or clear brush they spray it from airplanes.

These Corps should be paying for every nations healthcare, they have caused so much health damage to everyone.

[villager]

2. Well, whoever said "corporate responsibility" meant corporations would be responsible..for anything?

Heck, when these same companies even have cheerleaders at a self-styled "Underground" -- never mind their ownership of those who make "laws" -- our remaining option is yours: Boycott their products.

And of course, these same good corporate citizens are trying to make that impossible, too....!

[sabrina 1]

3. Yes they should have to pay for every nation's healthcare, which would hopefully put

them out of business. We do not use their products either. They should be banned imho.

[bvar22]

8. Round Up, along with all non-natural Herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, & GM crops..

.....have been forever banned from our place.

In 2006, Starkraven & I sold everything,
moved to The Woods,
and started growing our own.


So far, so good.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2601

[MindMover]

10. Very nice, looking forward to doing exactly the same .... nt

[Sunlei]

12. beautiful place you have! Someday, I will get out of toxic texas!

[blackspade]

14. That looks awesome!

Need a neighbor?

[bvar22]

26. Like minded neighbors are always welcome.

There are some downsides to living in the Rural South,
but we have found them more than overbalanced by the benefits.

[blackspade]

27. I lived outside Nashville for a while.

My dad had an old farm that he rented, @100 ac. It was awesome.
We must have had 4 ac of garden at the time.
My dad lived along the Harpeth near another DUer which was super awesome.

[villager]

16. What a great big patch of *woo* you've got growing there, Bvar!

Well done!

[bvar22]

29. We LOVE our *woo* food.

The Daffodils are 6" high, and should be blooming in a couple of weeks.
THAT means that our non-GMO Asparagus,
grown without RoundUp or other toxic chemicals is next,
with Strawberries right behind THAT.

Harvesting Asparagus.... It just seems so WRONG!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11593181

Truth is,
Health Concerns about toxic chemicals, Industrial pollution, cancer, hormones, anti-biotics, steroids... all that aside,
we would do this for the TASTE only.

[villager]

30. But... "taste" is subjective and not "scientific!"

How dare you!

[mopinko]

4. honestly compels me to say that this "study" is not a study

it's a hypothesis that has not even been seriously examined. it is a correlation.
arsenic and cadmium can jack you up pretty good all by themselves. and although they posit exposure routes, they have shown no such thing in practice.
seems like it would take some serious epidemiology to reach anything like this conclusion.

[villager]

5. This is from the abstract to the study:

"The possible role played by glyphosate-metal complexes in this epidemic has not been given any serious consideration by investigators for the last two decades. Furthermore, it may explain similar kidney disease epidemics observed in Andra Pradesh (India) and Central America. Although glyphosate alone does not cause an epidemic of chronic kidney disease, it seems to have acquired the ability to destroy the renal tissues of thousands of farmers when it forms complexes with a localized geo environmental factor (hardness) and nephrotoxic metals."

The key being "not given any serious consideration by investigators..."

Or, of course, regulators.

And given how widespread the use of the stuff is, and all the environmental havoc being wreaked in general, it's time for that serious consideration to start.

[HuckleB]

9. Indeed.

There doesn't appear to be any data. They didn't measure glyphosate in ground water...

Also, the citations used to support the alleged toxicity are highly suspect, to be kind: Carrasco (71) and Seralini (72,73,74).

[Bonx]

21. But it's Monsanto *AND* Roundup. They need to be banned now.

We can do the science later. Maybe.

[KT2000]

6. wouldn't that be nice

if the world becomes dependent upon roundup ready crops at the cost of 15% of the population where there is hard water.
The consequences of corporate government. They won't be held liable for this either.

[villager]

7. Who's to hold them liable when they own the governments?

[DhhD]

11. Information about sources of hard water in the United States, on the following maps:

http://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html

[KT2000]

22. Thank you for this

it's a useful site.

[DhhD]

25. Google allows real time sites in any Basin; amazing!

[blackspade]

13. Can we finally ban this shit now?

Or will we have to wait another 10-20 years and thousands more deaths before Monsanto moves on to another toxic substance?

[villager]

15. Oh no. And plenty of apologists here on this board -- in this thread! -- will tell you to sprinkle

...it on your cornflakes!

[blackspade]

18. Yum! Toxic death is what's for dinner!

[Jakes Progress]

24. You've got to be kidding.

Big chem even has supporters here on DU. Apologists who use every little loophole and trick to excuse evil incarnate. Let alone the congress critters who show up at the Monsanto faucet for their fill up.

You can kill a million people legally if you can make a profit on it.

[blackspade]

28. Isn't that the truth.

I'm cynical enough to realize that they will quit manufacturing it only when they replace it.

[geardaddy]

17. Monsatan n/t

[vkkv]

19. What is good for people is good for business, but what is good for business

.. doesn't always work out so well for people.

See:

Housing loan deregulation bubble crash
Bank Bailout
Health insurance in the U.S.
Stock market crash
Gulf oil spill
Alaska oil spill
Fracking
Bankrupt private charter schools
Shell-Texaco in the Amazon
Dow Chem in India
Intentionally mis-labeled oil sludge train car accident in Quebec.

Historically, what is good for business mostly stiffs people for profit, kills the environment for profit and then Wall St steals your money.

Pretty obvious, isn't it?

[pnwmom]

20. Scientific American: Round-up proves deadly to human cells

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/

The new findings intensify a debate about so-called “inerts” — the solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

SNIP
Until now, most health studies have focused on the safety of glyphosate, rather than the mixture of ingredients found in Roundup. But in the new study, scientists found that Roundup’s inert ingredients amplified the toxic effect on human cells—even at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms and lawns.

One specific inert ingredient, polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA, was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself – a finding the researchers call “astonishing.”

SNIP

“Roundup has one of the most extensive human health safety and environmental data packages of any pesticide that's out there,” said Monsanto spokesman John Combest. “It's used in public parks, it's used to protect schools. There's been a great deal of study on Roundup, and we're very proud of its performance.”

SNIP

[villager]

23. There you go, linking to "woo" sites again!