Monsanto Linked to Fatal Kidney Disease Epidemic: Could It Topple the Company?

[madokie]

The herbicide Roundup has been linked to an ailment that has appeared across multiple continents.

This article first appeared on TruthOut.

For years, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of a chronic kidney disease epidemic that has hit Central America, India and Sri Lanka. The disease occurs in poor peasant farmers who do hard physical work in hot climes. In each instance, the farmers have been exposed to herbicides and to heavy metals. The disease is known as CKDu, for Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology. The "u" differentiates this illness from other chronic kidney diseases where the cause is known. Very few Western medical practitioners are even aware of CKDu, despite the terrible toll it has taken on poor farmers from El Salvador to South Asia.

(snip)

"The idea was to keep the focus on the key big risk factors that we could control and the major causes of death: heart disease, cancer and diabetes. And we felt, the position we were taking, that CKD was included."

The United States was wrong. The delegates from Central America were correct. CKDu is a new form of illness. This kidney ailment does not stem from diabetes, hypertension or other diet-related risk factors. Unlike the kidney disease found in diabetes or hypertension, the kidney tubules are a major site of injury in CKDu, suggesting a toxic etiology.

CKDu is now the second leading cause of mortality among men in El Salvador. This small, densely populated Central American country now has the highest overall mortality rate from kidney disease in the world. Neighboring Honduras and Nicaragua also have extremely high rates of kidney disease mortality. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, more men are dying from CKDu than from HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and leukemia combined. In one patch of rural Nicaragua, so many men have died that the community is called "The Island of the Widows."

http://www.alternet.org/environment/monsanto-linked-fatal-kidney-disease-epidemic-could-it-topple-company?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

[pipoman]

1. No...if BP can destroy the Gulf of Mexico and emerge unscathed

I'm guessing the same for Monsanto. .

[City Lights]

23. Sadly, I have to agree with you. nt

[Aerows]

25. I live on the Gulf of Mexico

and that evil that they committed is shameful. Worse, one of my relatives is a VP and testified before Congress. I have never before been so ashamed of a family member.

Live knowing an SOB in your own family participated in that pile of shit that poisoned our coast.

[G_j]

2. good post

Last edited Thu Jul 17, 2014, 05:32 PM - Edit history (1)

[G_j]

24. K

[MohRokTah]

3. This gets to the heart of the REAL problem with the GMO crops

It's not the genetic modification that is the issue. It is the reason BEHIND the genetic modification that is the issue.

The environmental consequences of glyphosate heavy use was never taken into account. The long term effects of constant microdoses of glyphosate have never been studied and are unknown.

We cannot say definitively that glyphosate is the actual cause of CKDu, but it certainly qualifies as a suspect and the research that was never done in the 70s when Monsanto introduced it as an herbicide needs to be done now.

[madokie]

4. A month or so back

I bought a gallon of pre-mixed roundup to fight the dandelions in our yard. After spraying it on the dandelions for about a week or so I started to get a severe sore throat. I happened on a story about the connection someone made between recent use of roundup and sore throat so I connected the dots and quite using it. In a few days the sore throat went away. I no longer will use any weed killer that isn't made using vinegar and epson salt plus dishwashing liquid as it seems to work as well as the roundup did and so far no adverse effect.

one gallon of cleaning (6%) vinegar
two cups Epson Salt
one half cup dawn original dishwashing liquid

I recently read that the correct recipe is to only use one fourth cup of the dishwashing liquid.
At any rate the mixture I'm using is working great.

[malaise]

5. We use vinegar more than anything else

for ants, for wiping tiles, etc.
You're 100% correct.

Before they started putting so man chemicals in laundry detergent - my mom used to let the run off water head down to her kitchen garden and she never used pesticides. Guess we could still do that if we used the home 'brews' because it's 'kill for profit' everywhere.

[Cha]

35. So sorry about your encounter with Roundup, madokie. :(

When I lived on the other side(West) of Kaua'i my landlady who knows I'm sensitive to poisonous anything.. warned me she was going to use Roundup on some over growth so I wouldn't be home.

The West side of Kaua'i is infested with Monsanto and toxins.. I got the hell out of there after my lease was up after a year and moved over to the East side where there is no spraying shit going on. It makes me so furious.. I've been avoiding it all my adult life. It's a real thing.. people get cancer and die.. way too early.

[tritsofme]

6. Truthout Exclusive: Monsanto will shut down in 24 business hours

[DeSwiss]

7. K&R

[Rex]

11. Yes.

Sadly, tragically the answer seems to be a firm YES.

[hobbit709]

8. Not as long as corporations have more rights than citizens.

[reddread]

9. friend of the court?

bulletproof.

[Rex]

10. Gonna be hard to shutdown a huge conglomerate like Monsanto.

They own more lawyers and congress critters than the people do, so expect a long hard fight in court. They own a few of those too.

[truebluegreen]

27. Besides, they are talking about Nicaragua and El Salvador--

those people aren't really, you know, people.

[Rex]

28. They sure cannot 'lawyer up' and take them to court.

They are people, yet they are their favorite 'kind of people' - people that cannot sue a huge corporation and win. Not even with a class action suit.

[crazylikafox]

12. Thank you for posting. Bookmarked.

[progressoid]

13. Too big to fail.

[hughee99]

14. Perhaps Monsanto will trademark the disease

And then sue anyone who gets it without paying royalties to them.

[geardaddy]

20. I would say DUzy

but it's so sad it almost sounds true.

[Aerows]

26. Me too

It sounds just like something they would do.

[jwirr]

15. Wounder how many innocent victims they have killed in third world countries while they experiment

on their creations.

[madokie]

16. I wonder just how many innocents they've killed right here in the good o usa

typing good o usa almost made me choke

[jwirr]

17. I wonder that also but we are given ample warning that they are not what they used to be yet we

will not act against them. I still feel sorry for the people here just am angry that our elected government does not act to stop it.

[madokie]

18. I'm with you 100%

[Doctor_J]

19. snark...They'll probably be hit with a fine of one day profits

About four years from now

[DirkGently]

21. KNR.

[woo me with science]

22. K&R

[KT2000]

29. Glyphosate was described

as a mild herbicide in a recent posting that was pro-GMO.
Glyphosate was declared a safe herbicide based on inadequate testing.

[Louisiana1976]

30. Excellent post. K&R

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

31. This is extremely fucked up, if true

From the article:

"...An ugly confrontation has been unfolding in El Salvador. The US government has been pressuring El Salvador to buy GMO seeds from Monsanto rather than indigenous seeds from their own farmers. The US has threatened to withhold almost $300 million in aid unless El Salvador purchases Monsanto's GMO seeds. The GMO seeds are more expensive. They are not adapted to the Salvadoran climate or soil.

The only "advantage" of Monsanto's GMO seeds is their glyphosate resistance. Now that glyphosate has been shown to be a possible, and perhaps likely, cause of CKDu, that "advantage" no longer exists.

What is the message from the United States to El Salvador exactly? Perhaps the kindest explanation is that the United States is unaware that glyphosate may be the cause of the fatal kidney disease epidemic in El Salvador and that the government sincerely believes that the GMO seeds will provide a better yield. If so, a sad mixture of ignorance and arrogance is at the heart of this foreign policy blunder. A less kind interpretation would suggest that the government puts Monsanto's profits above concerns about the economy, environment and health of the Salvadorans. This view would suggest that a tragic mix of greed and callous disregard for the Salvadorans is behind US policy. ..."

[G_j]

32. yes, "a sad mixture of ignorance and arrogance"

has always been a feature of US policy in the region.

[niyad]

33. would that it could, but will not be holding my breath.

[Cha]

34. Did you know..?

Know your farmer, know your food! http://www.cornucopia.org/ #StopMonsanto #BigAg #ChemicalCompany #Monsanto #Farmers The Cornucopia Institute

mahalo madokie

[KurtNYC]

37. Saccharine was created in 1878 at John Hopkins University

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin#History

Aspartame is a product of G.D. Searle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Discovery_and_approval

BGH was created by Genentech (Roche) and is now made under license by Monsanto, Elli Lilly. Upjohn and American Cyanamid.

Some of the others have links to, or in the case of glyphosate were created by, Monsanto but that sign is not generally accurate.

[madokie]

38. I learn something new every day

thanks, I didn't know any of that.

[barbaraj]

36. senior researcher at MIT says..

glyphosate provides a pathway for dangerous metals..http://www.autismone.org/content/autism-explained-synergistic-poisoning-aluminum-and-glyphosate-stephanie-seneff