Studies Find DNA Damage from Anti-Coca Herbicide

[nosmokes]

It's our old friend Monsanto and their Roundup brand glyphosphate which is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world. What with this and their GMOs, Agent orange, their corruption and bribery of government officials in countries across the globe and their close and cozy relationship with the US government, They're just helping America to win the hearts and minds of people all over the place. We give corporations the status and privileges due a living breathing person, everything but an actual vote. But when a corporation commits a crime rarely if ever does anyone get punished, even to the point of the corporation being shut down. If monsanto were a person, say Bob Monsanto, ole Bob would be cooling his heels in jail for a long time, and praying that the states never extradited him to anyone of a dozen or more developing countries that would love to toss Bob's lily white yankee ass into prison for a while. but they don't get so much as a fine for illegal business practices. So I wonder what the body count is in collateral damage in the War on Drugs?
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original-ips

COLOMBIA-ECUADOR:

Studies Find DNA Damage from Anti-Coca Herbicide

By Stephen Leahy

TORONTO, Jun 16 (Tierramérica) - U.S.-funded aerial spraying of coca plantations in Colombia near the Ecuador border has severely damaged the DNA of local residents, a new study has found.

Blood samples from 24 Ecuadorians living within three kilometres of the northern border had 600 to 800 percent more damage to their chromosomes than people living 80 km away, found scientists from the Pontificia Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador.

The border residents who were tested had been exposed to the common herbicide glyphosate -- sold by the U.S. agribusiness giant Monsanto under the brand Roundup --during a series of aerial sprayings by the Colombian government begun in 2000, part of the anti-drugs and counterinsurgency Plan Colombia, financed by Washington.

The Ecuadorians suffered a variety of ailments immediately following the spraying, including intestinal pain and vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, numbness, burning of eyes or skin, blurred vision, difficulty in breathing and rashes, says the study, which is to be published in the journal Genetics and Molecular Biology.

But the extensive damage to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) found in the randomly selected individuals may activate the development of cancer or other developmental effects resulting in miscarriages, according to lead researcher César Paz y Miño, head of human molecular genetics at the Catholic University of Ecuador.






















complete article here

[Vexatious Ape]

1. This is insane.

Can you imagine the uproar--righteous uproar, if a Latin American country, with the Okay, blessing and financial support from Washington, began spraying Round Up--freaking poison on tobacco crops ( a drug that kills more people then cocaine) in Virginia or North Carolina?