Healing Ourselves and Our World—Without Poison

 
You may not have had time to keep up with the strategies of conventional farming and the affects it has on your family. Agribusinesses have bought into some techniques that have a lasting effect in our lives.  I’d like to share some information about the two most widely used poisons in the world: Atrazine and Round-up. Let’s look at how some independent researchers say they impact us.
Most of us are drinking this poison. You may be eating it as well.

Atrazine
More than 75 million pounds of the weed killer, Atrazine, are used in the U.S. every year. An EPA study found Atrazine in 100 percent of 26 river sites examined. As an endocrine (hormone) disruptor, Atrazine exposure has been linked to increased risk of birth defects, infertility and possibly cancer.
 
Studies of couples living on farms that use Atrazine for weed control found an increase in the risk of pre-term delivery. Atrazine has been shown to cause changes in blood hormone levels in animals that affected their ability to reproduce.  Studies show that this poison alters the levels of hormones in rats and can delay puberty. In male frogs, exposure to Atrazine causes a kind of "chemical castration," causing them to develop female sex characteristics. Researchers have found that Atrazine converts testosterone into estrogen, de-masculating frogs.
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In 1989 one study suggested an increased risk of ovarian cancer and another in 2002 of prostate cancers. The recent President's Cancer Panel Report says that Atrazine may be carcinogenic. The EPA was re-evaluating Atrazine's carcinogenic potential until the current administration. In 2004, the European Union banned the use of Atrazine because of its contamination of water sources. Atrazine has been proven to cause liver, kidney, and heart damage in animals. Although we might think it likely that Atrazine could also cause these problems in humans, few studies have been done to examine this.
According to 2008 data from the USDA Pesticide Data Program, Atrazine has been found in 94% of our water supply.

RoundUp
Monsanto’s Roundup, whose primary ingredient is glyphosate, is used on genetically engineered soy, corn, canola and cotton as well as in home gardens, children’s playgrounds and parks. By the 1990s farmers were spraying it copiously on their GE crops. RoundUp is currently Monsanto’s biggest profit-maker, accounting for one-third of its total sales.

Despite its worldwide use, members of the E.U. Parliament addressed the European Food Safety Commissioner to try to ban glyphosate across Europe. Traces of it were found in the urine of almost every member of parliament who tested for it.

Argentina, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and Malta have banned RoundUp, associating it with spontaneous abortions, birth defects, and various neurological, respiratory, and dermatological diseases. Several studies have found that Roundup is actually much more toxic to human cells than just glyphosate.
 
Last year the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a class 2A “probable human carcinogen”.
The International Journal of Toxicology, says that the glyphosate formulation triggers two ‘death proteins’ in human cells that activate cell death (apoptosis). This is a clear sign of toxicity.
 
Are Your Children “RoundUp Ready?”
Scientists with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a study with damning evidence of the effects of glyphosate on children. It shows that parents exposed to glyphosate, up to two years before the birth of their child, have doubled the chances their children will develop brain cancer. That means if either parent had been exposed to Roundup two years before the child’s birth, the chances of the child developing cancer were doubled.

A new study by Harvard researchers provides disturbing evidence that children’s exposure to household poisons is linked to higher risks of childhood leukemia and lymphoma, the most common cancers in children. The analysis also found that the use of outdoor herbicides on lawns and gardens correlates with higher risks of leukemia.

The journal, Pediatrics, combined 16 studies reporting children’s exposure to pesticides used in and around the home. As the authors noted, children are more vulnerable to harmful pesticides because their bodies and immune systems are still developing. The researchers added that “infants and toddlers are at especially high risk of exposure because they often play on pesticide-treated lawns or on carpets or floors where pesticide residues accumulate, and then put their hands and fingers in their mouths.”

The controversy about the safety of glyphosate, was rekindled with a report published by Anresco Laboratories. It revealed alarming levels (5 to 1125 parts per billion) of glyphosate in General Mills’ Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran and Frosted Flakes, Doritos Cool Ranch chips, Ritz Crackers and Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips, as well as many more well-known  products. These are levels that present substantial risks, according to the latest independent peer-reviewed science on glyphosate.
Glyphosate doesn’t come off of fruits and vegetables even if you scrub them vigorously with hot water or food-grade hydrogen peroxide. That is because it is in the cells of the plant through ground water and soil contamination. Roundup is taken up through the roots and absorbed. Livestock is also fed glyphosate-laced crops. By eating organically grown food we support our own health, that of our water, the land and we can discourage the use of these poisons.

Athena Wolf practices curanderismo and Ayurveda in Mimbres.