Brazil looks to ban Monsanto’s Roundup, other toxicity risks

Greetings,

    Brazil looks to ban Monsanto’s Roundup, other toxicity risks

Reuters / Marie Arago

Brazil’s public prosecutor wants to suspend use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s pervasive herbicide Roundup. A recent study suggested glyphosate may be linked to a fatal kidney disease that has affected poor farming regions worldwide.

The Prosecutor General’s office is also pursuing bans on the  herbicide 2,4-D and seven other active herbicide ingredients in  addition to glyphosate: methyl parathion, lactofem, phorate,  carbofuran, abamectin, tiram, and paraquat, GMWatch reported.

The Prosecutor General of Brazil “seeks to compel the  National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) to reevaluate the  toxicity of eight active ingredients suspected of causing damage  to human health and the environment,” according to the  prosecutor’s website. “On another front, the agency  questions the registration of pesticides containing 2,4-D  herbicide, applied to combat broadleaf weeds.”

The two actions have already been filed with Brazil’s justice  department.

The prosecutor is also seeking a preliminary injunction that  would allow the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply to  suspend further registration of the eight ingredients until  ANVISA can come to a conclusion.

The country’s National Biosafety Technical Commission has been  asked to prohibit large-scale sale of genetically modified seeds  resistant to the 2,4-D as ANVISA deliberates.

Last week, Brazil’s Federal Appeals Court ruled to cancel use of  Bayer’s Liberty Link genetically-modified maize. Earlier this  month, France banned the sale, use, and cultivation of Monsanto’s  genetically-modified maize MON 810. New research found insects in the United States are  developing a resistance to the genetically-engineered maize.

As for glyphosate, new research suggests it becomes highly toxic to the human 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.

Two weeks ago, Sri Lanka banned glyphosate given the links to an  inexplicable kidney disease, Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown  etiology, known as CKDu, according to the Center for Public Integrity.  CKDu has killed thousands of agricultural workers, many in Sri  Lanka and El Salvador.

El Salvador’s legislature approved in September a ban on  glyphosate and many other agrochemicals, yet the measure is not  yet law.

Source: RT