Monsanto's roundup residues in GM food cause cell damage

From article:

COMMENT, Dr Brian John: This new article from CRIIGEN shows that Roundup residues found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and even death -- even at very low levels. The authors say that their research "... points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny."

Yet another example of harm associated with GM crops which are currently on the market. In this case the harm is "indirect" -- but it is nonetheless inescapable since all RR crops used for feed and food purposes will contain RR residues at or above the studied level.

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Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental Cells

by Nora Benachour and Gilles-Eric Séralini*

E-mail: criigen@unicaen.fr

Chem. Res. Toxicol., Article DOI: 10.1021/tx800218n

Publication Date (Web): December 23, 2008

Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society

Abstract

We have evaluated the toxicity of four glyphosate (G)-based herbicides in Roundup (R) formulations, from 105 times dilutions, on three different human cell types. This dilution level is far below agricultural recommendations and corresponds to low levels of residues in food or feed. The formulations have been compared to G alone and with its main metabolite AMPA or with one known adjuvant of R formulations, POEA. HUVEC primary neonate umbilical cord vein cells have been tested with 293 embryonic kidney and JEG3 placental cell lines. All R formulations cause total cell death within 24 h, through an inhibition of the mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity, and necrosis, by release of cytosolic adenylate kinase measuring membrane damage. They also induce apoptosis via activation of enzymatic caspases 3/7 activity. This is confirmed by characteristic DNA fragmentation, nuclear shrinkage (pyknosis), and nuclear fragmentation (karyorrhexis), which is demonstrated by DA PI in apoptotic round cells. G provokes only apoptosis, and HUVEC are 100 times more sensitive overall at this level. The deleterious effects are not proportional to G concentrations but rather depend on the nature of the adjuvants. AMPA and POEA separately and synergistically damage cell membranes like R but at different concentrations. Their mixtures are generally even more harmful with G. In conclusion, the R adjuvants like POEA change human cell permeability and amplify toxicity induced already by G, through apoptosis and necrosis. The real threshold of G toxicity must take into account the presence of adjuvants but also G metabolism and time-amplified effects or bioaccumulation. This should be discussed when analyzing the in vivo toxic actions of R. This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especia lly in food and feed derived from R formulation-treated crops.

Press Release: CRIIGEN - January 2009

DIFFERENT ROUNDUP FORMULATIONS LEAD TO EMBRYONIC, UMBILICAL CORD AND PLACENTAL CELL DEATH AND ARE POORLY ASSESSED

For the first time, the toxicity mechanisms of four different Roundup formulations were studied in human cells. They act at doses where they are not herbicides anymore. The cells were neonatal cells freshly isolated from the umbilical cord, or less sensitive cell lines specially used to measure pollutant toxicity. The various components of these major herbicides were tested because they are among the most common in the world. Their residues are among the major pollutants, and moreover they are authorized as residues contaminating GM foods and feed at the tested levels.

As a matter of fact, Roundup formulations are the most common herbicides used with cultivated GMOs. Roundup Ready soya, the main GMO imported in Europe for food and feed, contains Roundup residues. In this research, the formulations were diluted at minimal doses (up to 100,000 times or more) and they programmed cell death in a few hours in a cumulative manner. We also noted membrane and DNA damages, and found that the formulations inhibit cell respiration. In addition, it was shown that the mixture of the components used as Roundup adjuvants amplified the action of the active principle called glyphosate; one of its metabolites may be even more toxic. These effects are greatly underestimated by the legislation, which does not take these phenomena into account, but instead simply sets arbitrary contaminant thresholds in food or feed. The rules apply to glyphosate whatever its formulation may be, this is wrong.

The authorizations for using these Roundup herbicides must now clearly be revised, since their toxic effects depend on, and are multiplied by, other compounds used in the mixtures placed on the market; and glyphosate is only one of them. The detailed blood analyses of each mammal which has received this herbicide during regulatory tests before commercial release must be published immediately, since our research points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny.

This independent work was performed by Nora Benachour and Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini in the University of Caen in France. It is published in the Scientific American journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. It was supported by CRIIGEN and the Regional Council of Basse Normandie. The support of the Human Earth Foundation and Denis Guichard Foundation is also acknowledged.

Contact in France: Pr Gilles-Eric Séralini, Biochemistry, Institute of Biology, University of Caen, Esplanade de la Paix, 14032 Caen, France.

Tel: 33(0) 2-31-56-56-84. Fax: 33(0)2-31-56-53-20.
Corinne Lepage
President of CRIIGEN
criigen@unicaen.fr

"Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic and Placental Cells" by Nora Benachour and Gilles-Eric Séralini. (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx800218n)

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Full text:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/tx800218n

Man can not create better food with our little pea brain than God. People who attempt to do so are pathological narcissists who do not believe in God or a higher power - regardless what they say or do. You can include many politicians in this category also.

Monsanto is a world leader in Genetically Engineered & Genetically Modified food sources upon which all humans subsist. As they go global with this strategy, they are truly one of the most dangerous companies in the world as they attempt to monopolize the very essence of survival - legal ownership of patented single use seeds to grow our food, and unbelievably, must be purchased from Monsanto every year in order to plant your next crop. BOYCOTT ALL MONSANTO PRODUCTS AT ALL COSTS!
Don’t be fooled or misled, Monsanto is one of the biggest scum-sucking parasites ingratiating its way further into everyone’s daily life whether you are aware of it or not. Their logo should be the CEO with horns, a pointy tail & carrying a pitchfork in order to prod you into becoming a consumer of their products. Do not underestimate or do business with this company-you will only empower them to overpower us.

Try to SHOP LOCALLY with as much awareness as possible, thinking about who ultimately gets your money, because it’s truly the only immediate defense we have until the right people are in the right positions to stop this evil empire. They will stop at nothing to keep any competitive products-usually organic & safe-off of store shelves in order to push their own toxic products on a society too busy to notice, in most cases, without the publicity of well meaning organizations & CURRENT’s contributors relentless search for the truth.

Labeling is now becoming the next hurdle to conquer so that consumers will more easily be able to decide which products to purchase based on the ingredients & whether or not they’re organic. If you’re able to grow any of your own food or join an organic farm co-op, you’re taking the necessary steps to insure your food source is as wholesome as can be expected from this wonderfully healthy & overdue trend.

This is why I have been concerned about Gm soy for quite some time. The fact that it is in the baby formulas babies consume daily frightens me. We need labelling now and a ban on GM soy in baby forumula and foods to start. And thank you for this link, SeaJade. I know people who have the same problem with weak stomachs. I wonder now if even "acid reflux disease" is some sort of reaction since you see so many people with it now and on the "purple pill."

JanforGore, thanks for posting this I always look foward to seeing what great stories you will add to Current next, wish I could say the same about the staff on this site lol.

Monsanto you better not genetically screw with hemp or I will hunt you down.
Hemp milk is tew good in every sense of the word, hands off greedy bastards.

i love you Jan. I try to explain to people why I only eat Non-GMO's and I only get laughed at. Fine, laugh, I will laugh when people start realizing that the hippies weren't lying when they start becoming sick.

Read the study. The research does not test the effect of the roundup residues from food obtained in farms. It tests the effects of artificially subjecting cultures of cells with their own made up quantities of roundup residue. If you subject a naked culture of cells in that context (no body, no immune system, etc) with all manner of residues, you would achieve similar results.

Roundup has been proven to be safe in food use for half a century.

The plant is back... and again with no data.

Effects of Roundup.

Unbelievable. And yet, people will still lie.

Excerpt:

The Toxicity of RoundUp Herbicide by S. Suzanne Fisher

RoundUp Herbicide has been touted by its maker, Monsanto, as safe and environmentally friendly. As such, it has become the most popular herbicide in use today. Advertising by Monsanto has led the public to believe that RoundUp is "safe as table salt," a phrase used quite often by its proponents to describe it.

Studies used for RoundUp's initial registration were fraudulent. There is no indication that these studies have been replaced with other, more valid, studies. The public perception of RoundUp as safe, environmentally friendly, and no more harmful than table salt has impeded the normal scientific study to which a pesticide would normally be subjected. Research grants have been concentrated in the areas of pesticides perceived to be more detrimental to humans.

New York State's Attorney General has sued Monsanto for claiming that RoundUp is "safe" and "environmentally friendly." This suit ended in a settlement with Monsanto in which Monsanto agreed to cease and desist from using these terms in advertising RoundUp in the state of New York. Monsanto, while not admitting any wrongdoing, paid the state of New York $250,000 in settlement of this suit. When Monsanto violated the first settlement agreement by advertising within New York that RoundUp is "safe," a second agreement was negotiated.

Most of the studies identifying RoundUp's true toxicity are recent, and certain areas of RoundUp's toxicity have yet to be thoroughly studied. Case law involving RoundUp victims is almost non-existent due to this lack of scientific information with which to prove causation. It is for these reasons that it is important to also look to anecdotal information about RoundUp's toxicity to humans in order to develop a full picture of the symptomology it causes.

The narrative below offers the following information about RoundUp Herbicide:

I. Ingredients in RoundUp
II. Anecdotal evidence of RoundUp's toxicity to humans
III. Research evidence of RoundUp's toxicity to humans
IV. Additional factors affecting the toxicity of RoundUp

I. RoundUp herbicide by Monsanto contains the following ingredients:

A. In a letter forwarded to Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Monsanto identified RoundUp's ingredients as:

1. Isopropylamine salt of glyphosate (active ingredient)
2. Water
3. The ethoxylated tallowamine surfactant
4. Related organic acids of glyphosate
5. Excess isopropylamine

B. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency in a letter dated April 30, 1999, in response to a Freedom of Information Request, the following inert ingredients are in RoundUp Super Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer:

1. Polyoxyethylene alkylamine (CAS #61791-2)
2. Water (CAS #7732-18-5)
3. FD&C Blue No. 1 (CAS #3844-45-9)

C. David H. Monroe, and Industrial and Environmental Toxicologist, stated in an October 16, 1989 letter to the National Campaign Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP) that most polyalkoxylated surfactants such as the polyoxyethylene alkylamine in RoundUp are contaminated with 1,4-dioxane. A study done by Monroe on Vision, a glyphosate product by Monsanto, revealed that it contained 1,4-dioxane at a level of 350 ppm.

(Monroe D, 1989. Letter to NCAMP.)

Here's a link to Marion Nestle's website concerning this issue:

http://www.foodpolitics.com/

New book out: What to Eat

Roundup is as safe as the Fluoride in our water, which BTW has the same ingredients as Rat Poison.

Monsanto is one of the most evil corps in the world today.

Monsanto will poison you without a second thought if it means the hope of profit.

They are a dangerous organization and should be stopped.

The execs of this corporation should live in constant fear from the people of earth. They should be under continuous threat for their actions. Anyone involved in the large scale assault on humanity should be hunted down and dealt with.

CEO Robert Shapiro is responsible for more deaths than bin laden.

Does it really stand for Gradual Mutation!

Monsanto fined In France for false herbicide ad,

They simply lie.

Excerpt:

"The US agrochemical giant Monsanto was fined 15,000 euros (19,000 dollars) in a French court Friday for misleading the public about the environmental impact of its flagship herbicide Roundup.

A former chairman of Monsanto Agriculture France was found guilty of false advertising for presenting Roundup as biodegradable and claiming that it left the soil clean after use. Monsanto's French distributor Scotts France was also fined 15,000 euros.

Environmental and consumer rights campaigners brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" and "toxic for aquatic organisms" by the European Union."

Japanese scientist: Flaws in Safety Assessment of Round Up Ready Soybeans

Excerpt:

"Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: Flaws in RR soybean safety assessment

We wish to bring to you an important document which found that the safety assessment application made by Monsanto to the Japanese Health Ministry for approval of Roundup Ready soybeans were "inadequate and incomplete".

Monsanto has maintained that there is no difference between GM soybeans and its conventional strains. But according to a Japanese scientist, whose report is attached below, safety tests conducted by Monsanto are riddled with flaws that include: testing of proteins not derived from the GM plant; soybeans used for tests were not produced with Roundup, therefore the data obtained with such samples may not be valid to guarantee the safety of soybean that human and animals consume in real life; insufficient feeding experiments; and intentional neglect of "inappropriate" data which have a bearing on the final conclusions.

We hope special attention will be given to the report as it is important to be aware that the safety of RR soybean is in question and governments in the process of approving RR soybeans should take heed of this important information. We also urge governments that have approved the RR soybean to review their decision.

With best wishes,

Lim Li Lin and Chee Yoke Heong
Third World Network
121-S Jalan Utama
10450 Penang
Malaysia
Email: twnet@po.jaring.my
Website: www.twnside.org.sg
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REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2002/C

Fraudulent Conclusion Facts Found by Inspection of the Safety Assessment of GM Roundup Tolerant Soybean Monsanto's Dangerous Logic as seen in the Application Documents submitted to Health Ministry of Japan

Masaharu Kawata
Assistant Professor
School of Science
Nagoya University, Japan

What is herbicide resistant soybean by Monsanto?

In growing soybean, well-planned weed and pest control is important to get the desired harvest. If soybean itself had herbicide resistance, low input cultivation would be possible and dust cropping could be much simpler. Monsanto had endeavoured, in vain, till 1990s to achieve this goal by creating soybean mutant that is resistant to their best selling organo-phosphoric herbicide Roundup in which the glyphosate is the active ingredient. The resistant strains created, however, had seriously hampered enzymatic activity of EPSPS (5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase: one of the enzymes work to synthesize aromatic amino acid, Tyrosine, Phenylalanine and
Tryptphan) and the soybean failed to thrive.

cont.

The genetic engineering technology was becoming popular at the time, and was naturally employed in introducing gene from different organism into soybean. Herbicide resistant bacterium was found in the glyphosate factory sewage of Monsanto USA. This Agrobacterium tumefaciens CP4 strain is a kind of soil bacterium, which could synthesize aromatic amino acid in the presence of glyphosate. The amino acids sequence of the enzyme is largely different from that of any plants and is called class II EPSPS (refered to as CP4EPSPS hereafter).

Inserting the bacterial genes into plant genome generally does not work by itself because genetic switch called promoter for prokaryotes and eukaryote are different. A powerful promoter from "Cauliflower Mosaic virus" called 35S promoter was connected to the gene insert . Then connected is a small protein called "signal peptide" which carries the CP4EPSPS protein to where the enzyme is supposed to function, in this case chloroplast. This signal peptide gene was taken from petunia. A part of plant cancer virus gene called NOS that signals to stop reading the gene is also required. Thus created "Roundup tolerant soybean gene cassette" is a completely artificial one that never existed in natural life kingdom nor could have evolved naturally.

In addition to these modifications of the genetic construct, Monsanto had to change genetic codons for efficient expression of the CP4ESPS gene in soybean plant. The 239 (17.51%) nucleotides out of 1,365 total were manually converted into different bases (though mostly in the third
letter) in order for the protein synthetic machinery of soybean cell to decipher the bacterial gene across species barrier. Thus, the Roundup Tolerant soybean came to possess a gene unlike either the prokaryotic or the eukaryotic gene. It is with reason that genetically modified plants are called "the Frankenstein plants" in Europe. Focal point of safety assessment is whether such soybean with artificially modified genes is the same as the conventional non-modified soybean.

The soybeans used for analyses and animal feed tests were grown without herbicide application

The Roundup Ready soybean marketed is usually sprayed with the herbicide Roundup. It was a surprise to find that both the genetically modified soybean 40-3-2 strain and the parent strain A5403 used for feed tests were NOT sprayed with Roundup herbicide in their cultivation. What Monsanto had produced with Roundup application was minimal amount enough to test glyphosate residues in the harvested forage, hay and seed. Several tons of soybean used in safety assessments was not produced with the Roundup. The reason is not stated in the documents.

The data obtained with such samples may not be valid to guarantee the safety of soybean that human and animals consume in the real life, not just because the residual glyphosate is a toxin that kills plants by inhibiting plant enzyme EPSPS but the effects on other metabolic pathways must also be taken into account when such artificial genes are inserted. For consumers, the test results obtained by using different sample other than what is marketed is meaningless.

The protein CP4EPSPS analysed is from E.coli. not from RR soybean!

more at the link.

i live about 20 miles away from 1 of their 'plants'... it is scary

after these companies are labeling their foods...i suggest to the public to avoid buying genetically modified foods! It's completely unethical and unhealthy to be eating modified foods. You have no idea what's going to happen to you if you eat too many tomatoes (that contain the spider gene) or too many big macs etc. because of the strange things these mad scientists inject into our foods, its only obvious we have cell damage.

We need to get Round Up off the market. And Monsanto raised the price of it in a time of "food crisis." They care so much don't they?

Farmers in America need to read these things and refuse to sign their contracts that take over their lives and livelihoods!

Why do the people in Europe, South America, Asia, etc. care so much, but here in America this is treated like a "conspiracy theory?" IT ISN'T. They said the same thing about Rachel Carson and her disclosure of what DDT does! Are we that distracted in this country that we don't even give a damn about what we are feeding our own babies?

WE ARE EATING POISON, and the MSM in this country won't even tell you because these usual big corporations in the pocket of this government OWN THEM. Just look at the coal ash spill in Tennessee. Where is that on the front pages of every newspaper?