Consequences of Pesticide Use on Health

(April 19, 2009)

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER #1

A year-&-a-half ago, a bright young researcher at the
University of Manitoba, Jennifer Magoon, did an
exhaustive and groundbreaking bit of research. Sifting
through mounds of records, she cross-referenced the
health insurance files of thousands of people in rural
southern Manitoba with agricultural maps showing the
intensity of pesticide use in the region.

She found a link between the intensity of the use of
pesticides, especially insecticides, and moderate to
serious health conditions of the people there.
For example, where insecticide use was average,
there was a 32.7 percent, or slightly less than a onein-
three chance of lower birth rates, respiratory
distress and jaundice among the very young. Where
pesticide use was twice that amount, these illnesses
increased by a full four percentage points - to 36.7
percent!

And, where insecticide use was average, severe birth
defects like spina bifida, Down Syndrome and cleft
palate could be expected in 11.8% of newborns.
Where pesticide use was doubled, that figure jumped
to 12.8%, an increase of one full percentage point.
Magoon calls these numbers statistically significant
and very unlikely to happen by chance.

Her recommendations?

Decrease pesticide use and conduct further studies
that would pin down a "cause and effect" relationship.
Have either of these things happened?
Rather than decrease pesticide use, governments
here and in North America are falling over themselves
to approve new GMO crops, like alf alfa and sugar
beets. And if you hear a politician or chemical
manufacturer claim that GM crops need less
pesticides, don't believe it! Field studies show just the
opposite is happening.

So not only are the health risks, especially to children,
unacceptable, it is becoming clear that GM crops are
being developed, not in the interests of our food
producers, or consumers, but as cash cows for the
chemical corporations.

As for further studies, I haven't heard of any. Have
you? I 'd invite you as journalists to make inquiries, to
find out why.

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER #2

As long ago as the early '90s, the University of
Minnesota found significantly more birth defects among
children in the Red River Valley than in other agricultural
regions of that state.

Of these, most were born to men who applied pesticides
for a living to wheat, sugar beet and potato crops. And
most of those children were conceived in spring, when
herbicide use was the greatest.
The children developed significantly more problems with
circulation, breathing and genital formation than the
general population.

The lowest rates of birth defects were found in what are
called "non-crop" regions of Minnesota.
In addition, these same studies showed that the wives of
men who applied chemicals, especially fungicides, had a
significant increase in their risk of miscarriages.
And, of the kids born to fungicide applicators, significantly
fewer were boys than girls. This suggests this kind of
product may even be a determinant in the gender of
newborns.

References:

Birth defects, season of conception, and sex of children
born to pesticide applicators living in the Red River

Valley of Minnesota, USA.
Garry VF, Harkins ME, Erickson LL, Long-Simpson LK,
Holland SE, Burroughs BL.

Environmental Medicine and Pathology Laboratory, 1st
Floor Stone Laboratory 1, University of Minnesota,

Spousal effects

Reproductive outcomes in the women of the Red River
Valley of the north. I. The spouses of pesticide
applicators: pregnancy loss, age at menarche, and
exposures to pesticides.

Garry VF, Harkins M, Lyubimov A, Erickson L, Long L.
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis,
Minnesota

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER #3

Roundup is probably the most familiar and widely-used
weed-killer in the world today.

It's used mainly on crops such as canola, which have been
genetically modified to resist the chemical.
So the weeds in the treated fields are killed, while the crops
survive.

Roundup is also the herbicide of choice among a lot of
urban homeowners, who use it trustingly on their lawns and
gardens to get rid of such things as dandelions.
Thanks in large measure to expensive, pervasive advertising
campaigns by its makers, Monsanto Corporation, it has a
reputation for being effective and safe.

But it is now becoming clear that Roundup is not the benign,
harmless product it has been made out to be.

A research team at the University of Caen, in France, has
found that Roundup kills human tissue within 24 hours of
exposure, at just fractions of the concentrations used in
agriculture!

Surprisingly, Roundup has been found to be far more toxic
as a mixture that its active ingredient, glyphosate, alone.

This means that the additives which are mixed with
glyphosate to make Roundup are also, by themselves, very
toxic.

Yet they too have been touted for years as being "inert" or
inactive, implying that they too, are harmless.

As well, a study at the University of Pittsburgh has found that
Roundup is highly toxic to amphibians, including frogs! Could
this be a factor in the alarming decline of frog populations
around the world?

If you accept that creatures such as this are barometers, not
only of our natural environment, but of a healthy human
populations, as a whole, then we suggest there is reason for
concern here.

Despite all of this, Monsanto continues to invent more and
more GMO crops that are, in Monsanto's jargon, "Roundup
Ready." These include Alf Alfa and sugar beets.
Monsanto dropped a bid to develop GMO wheat a few years
ago. But make no mistake. That idea is still very much alive.
Tragically, governments continue to set science aside and
approve them!

That' s why we, the Green Party of Manitoba, believe it' s of
utmost importance that an immediate hold be placed on the
approval of any new GMO crops in Canada until their full
impact on health and environment can be investigated.

Sources:

1. A research team at the University of Caen, in France, has
found that Roundup kills human tissue within 24 hours of
exposure, at just fractions of the concentrations used in
agriculture!

The study can be obtained from:

Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini
President of the Scientific Council of CRIIGEN
Pole Risks Co-Director
University of Caen
Laboratory of Biochimistry - IBFA
Esplanade de la Paix
14032 Caen cedex - F
Tel. +33 2 31 56 54 89
Sec. +33 2 31 56 56 84
Fax +33 2 31 56 53 20
E-mail : criigen@unicaen.fr
www.criigen.org
gilles-eric.seralini@unicaen.fr

2. U of Pittsburgh Biology Professor Rick Relyea found
Roundup to be acutely toxic to amphibians.

Read his report

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER #4

Late in 2005, a Canadian scientist, Myriam Fernandez with Ag
Canada’s research Centre in Swift Current, found that wheat crops
grown a year after glyphosate had been applied to the field, had higher
levels of a fungal disease known as fusarium head blight, than fields
where no glyphosate had been applied.

The blight affects mostly wheat, but can also attack barley, corn and
oats. It affects both yield and quality of crops and can produce toxic
seed.

Fusarium is a serious and pervasive condition that has deprived
producers of millions of dollars of revenue over the years.
Fernandez also found, under similar conditions, glyphosate seemed to
promote another phenomenon called sudden death syndrome in soy
beans.

Her finding followed 4 years of study.

Reference:

Fernandez, M.R., Ulrich, D., Sproule, L., Brandt, S.A., Thomas, A.G.,
Olfert, O.O., Zentner, R.P., and McConkey, B.G. (2005). "Effect of crop
management practices on Fusarium spp. and other pathogens of spring
wheat in west-central Saskatchewan.", Organic Matters on the Prairies
Conference, Brandon, MB, Canada, November 12-13, 2005.

View the Article, or visit Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and search for Myriam Fernandez.

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER #5

For years now, honeybees have been disappearing in alarming
numbers in Canada and around the world.

While many factors are believed to be causing this, it is known
for sure that certain pesticides, for one, are lethal to the bees.
While Germany, France and Italy have already banned these
chemicals, including an especially nasty one called
“clothianidin.” (made by Bayer CropScience) North American
regulators not only continue to allow this poison to be used,
they are approving new ones which are just as potent!
So they sit and fiddle, apparently oblivious of the fact that one
out of every three spoons-full of food we put in our mouths is
there thanks to honeybees, the world’s most efficient
pollinators.

Authorities seem to feel that every last cause of bee
disappearances has to be identified and proven rather than
acting on the ones we already know about!
They even have a convenient term for it. “Colony Collapse
Disorder.” It’s characterized as a mystery apparently so deep,
let’s not even try to solve it!

It is a strange phenomenon we have seen over and over
again….an unexplained and fiercely loyal allegiance of our
politicians to large, wealthy and powerful chemical companies
who can seemingly do whatever they want.

REFERENCES:

For years, the chemical clothianidin has been know to both
Canada' s Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the E.P.A. in
the US to be very highly toxic to honeybees.

Yet, it continues to be used in both countries.

Almost six years ago, both of these agencies did a joint review
of the chemical.

Read their Study.