Study Shows Roundup & GM Corn Cause Cancer

[finehoe]

Monsanto Roundup weedkiller and GM maize implicated in ‘shocking’ new cancer study

The world’s best-selling weedkiller, and a genetically modified maize resistant to it, can cause tumours, multiple organ damage and lead to premature death, new research published today reveals.

In the first ever study to examine the long-term effects of Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, or the NK603 Roundup-resistant GM maize also developed by Monsanto, scientists found that rats exposed to even the smallest amounts, developed mammary tumours and severe liver and kidney damage as early as four months in males, and seven months for females, compared with 23 and 14 months respectively for a control group.

“This research shows an extraordinary number of tumours developing earlier and more aggressively - particularly in female animals. I am shocked by the extreme negative health impacts,” said Dr Michael Antoniou, molecular biologist at King’s College London, and a member of CRIIGEN, the independent scientific council which supported the research.

GM crops have been approved for human consumption on the basis of 90-day animal feeding trials. But three months is the equivalent of late adolescence in rats, who can live for almost two years (700 days), and there have long been calls to study the effects over the course of a lifetime.

The peer-reviewed study, conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Caen, found that rats fed on a diet containing NK603 Roundup resistant GM maize, or given water containing Roundup at levels permitted in drinking water, over a two-year period, died significantly earlier than rats fed on a standard diet.

Up to half the male rats and 70% of females died prematurely, compared with only 30% and 20% in the control group. Across both sexes the researchers found that rats fed Roundup in their water or NK603 developed two to three times more large tumours than the control group. By the beginning of the 24th month, 50-80% of females in all treated groups had developed large tumours, with up to three per animal.

By contrast, only 30% of the control group were affected. Scientists reported the tumours “were deleterious to health due to [their] very large size,” making it difficult for the rats to breathe, [and] causing problems with their digestion which resulted in haemorrhaging.

The paper, published in the scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology today, concluded that NK603 and Roundup caused similar damage to the rats’ health, whether they were consumed together or on their own. The team also found that even the lowest doses of Roundup, which fall well within authorised limits in drinking tap water, were associated with severe health problems.

“The rat has long been used as a surrogate for human toxicity. All new pharmaceutical, agricultural and household substances are, prior to their approval, tested on rats. This is as good an indicator as we can expect that the consumption of GM maize and the herbicide Roundup, impacts seriously on human health,” Antoniou added.

Roundup is widely available in the UK, and is recommended on Gardeners Question Time. But this also represents a potential blow for the growth of GM Foods.

With the global population expected to increase to nine billion by 2050, the UN has said that global food production must increase by 50%. And a consultation led by DEFRA entitled Green Food Project recommended as recently as 10 July 2012 that GM must be reassessed as a possible solution.

Some 85% of maize grown in the US is GM, while 70% of processed foods contain GM ingredients without GM labelling. In the UK and Europe GM maize is not consumed directly by humans but is widely used in animal feed without the requirement for GM labelling.

Antoniou said there could be no doubting the credibility of this peer-reviewed study. “This is the most thorough research ever published into the health effects of GM food crops and the herbicide Roundup on rats.”

Led by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, the researchers studied 10 groups, each containing 10 male and 10 female rats, over their normal lifetime. Three groups were given Roundup â€" developed by Monstanto â€" in their drinking water at three different levels consistent with exposure through the food chain from crops sprayed with the herbicide.

Three groups were fed diets containing different proportions of Roundup resistant maize at 11%, 22% and 33%. Three groups were given both Roundup and the GM maize at the same three dosages. The control group was fed an equivalent diet with no Roundup or NK603 containing 33% of non-GM maize.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/topics/technology-and-supply-chain/monsanto-weedkiller-and-gm-maize-in-shocking-cancer-study/232603.article#

[ben says]

Well this was a no-brainer.....hopefully people will start to take notice of this kind of news. Fucking hate Monsanto.

[mtraininjax]

hopefully people will start to take notice of this kind of news.

Not likely, or perhaps the Obese population take notice? The ones consuming High Fructose Corn Syrup? Or the bag of potato chips? Processed beef fed from cheap corn? Chickens from cheap corn? Fuel for vehicles?

Yeah, methinks no one will give a crap, since most of the food and economic engine of the CPI revolves around cheap corn. Rats might care, but doubtful people will, as they consume their 8th Coke of the day....

[carpnter]

One thing the article is missing is how widespread the use of this GM Maize actually is.  There are all kinds of GM corn out there, some to produce ethanol, others are disease resistant and so on. 
I would really like to know how much of the crop harvested for consumption is this type of corn. 

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22287-study-linking-gm-crops-and-cancer-questioned.html

Study linking GM crops and cancer questioned
18:15 19 September 2012 by Debora MacKenzie

Today, researchers led by Gilles-Eric Séralini at the University of Caen in France announced evidence for a raft of health problems in rats fed maize that has been modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup. They also found similar health problems in rats fed the herbicide itself.

The rodents experienced hormone imbalances and more and bigger breast tumours, earlier in life, than rats fed a non-GM diet, the researchers claim. The GM- or pesticide-fed rats also died earlier.

This kind of GM maize accounts for more than half the US crop, yet the French team says this is the first time it has been tested for toxicity throughout a rat's lifespan (Food and Chemical Toxicology, DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2012.08.005).

Are the findings reliable?
There is little to suggest they are. Tom Sanders, head of nutritional research at King's College London, says that the strain of rat the French team used gets breast tumours easily, especially when given unlimited food, or maize contaminated by a common fungus that causes hormone imbalance, or just allowed to age. There were no data on food intake or tests for fungus in the maize, so we don't know whether this was a factor.

But didn't the treated rats get sicker than the untreated rats?
Some did, but that's not the full story. It wasn't that rats fed GM maize or herbicide got tumours, and the control rats did not. Five of the 20 control rats â€" 25 per cent â€" got tumours and died, while 60 per cent in "some test groups" that ate GM maize died. Some other test groups, however, were healthier than the controls.

Toxicologists do a standard mathematical test, called the standard deviation, on such data to see whether the difference is what you might expect from random variation, or can be considered significant. The French team did not present these tests in their paper. They used a complicated and unconventional analysis that Sanders calls "a statistical fishing trip".

Anthony Trewavas of the University of Edinburgh, UK, adds that in any case, there should be at least as many controls as test rats â€" there were only 20 of the former and 80 of the latter â€" to show how variably tumours appear. Without those additional controls, "these results are of no value", he says.

Aside from the statistics, are there any other problems?
Yes. Tests like this have been done before, more rigorously, and found no effect of GM food on health. The French team claims to be the first to test for the animal's whole lifespan. But "most toxicology studies are terminated at normal lifespan  â€" 2 years", as this one was, says Sanders. "Immortality is not an alternative." And those tests did not find this effect.

Furthermore, the team claims to see the same toxic effects both with actual Roundup, and with the GM maize â€" whether or not the maize contained any actual herbicide. It is hard to imagine any way in which a herbicide could have identical toxic effects to a gene tweak that gives the maize a gene for an enzyme that actually destroys the herbicide.

Does seeming unlikely mean that this is an invalid result?
Not necessarily. But even more damning from a pharmacological perspective, the team found the same effect at all doses of either herbicide or GM maize. That's unusual, because nearly all toxic effects worsen as the dose increases  â€" it is considered essential for proving that the agent causes the effect.

Even the smallest dose that the team applied resulted in alleged effects on the rats. That is sometimes seen with other toxic agents. The team suggests that the effect kicks in at some very low dose, hits its maximum extent immediately, and stays the same at any higher dose.

But it could more simply mean the GM maize and the herbicide had no measured effect, and that is why the dose made no difference. "They show that old rats get tumours and die," says Mark Tester of the University of Adelaide, Australia. "That is all that can be concluded."

Why would scientists do this?
The research group has long been opposed to GM crops. It claimed in 2010 to have found evidence of toxicity in tests by the GM-crops giant Monsanto of its own Roundup-resistant maize. Other toxicologists, however, said the supposedly damning data revealed only insignificant fluctuations in the physiology of normal rats.

French blogger Anton Suwalki, who campaigns against pseudoscience, has a long list of complaints about the group, including what he calls "fantasy statistics".

And who funded the work?
The group was funded by the Committee for Research and Independent Information on Genetic Engineering, or CRIIGEN, based in Paris, France. The lead author on today's study, Séralini, is head of its scientific board, and it pledges to "make every effort towards the removal of the status of secrecy prevailing in genetic engineering experiments and concerning genetically modified crops (GMOs), both being likely to have an impact on the environment and/or on health".

Don't they realise that other scientists criticise their methods?
They might. The paper is supposed to have been reviewed by other scientists before it was allowed for publication. But the team refused to allow journalists to show the paper to other scientists before the news reports were due to be published.

[finehoe]

^^Of course having 284 jobs from Monsanto listed on their web site has nothing to do with their doubts.

http://jobs.newscientist.com/employer/200008247/monsanto-us/

[BridgeTroll]

lol... how about these guys?  monsanto payroll too?

Tom Sanders, head of nutritional research at King's College London

Anthony Trewavas of the University of Edinburgh

Mark Tester of the University of Adelaide, Australia

[civil42806]

And a groundbreaking study showed vaccines causes autism.  Lets reign the horses in until other verify or disprove the study.  The media loves headline grabbing studies, particularly ones they cant possibly understand

[finehoe]

Lets reign the horses in until other verify or disprove the study. 

Given that 88% of the corn planted in the US is genetically modified, it's a little late to "reign the horses in" don't you think?

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us.aspx

[civil42806]

Lets reign the horses in until other verify or disprove the study. 

Given that 88% of the corn planted in the US is genetically modified, it's a little late to "reign the horses in" don't you think?

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us.aspx

Then its a moot point then

[Ralph W]

It's a conspiracy to control world population through illness.

Round up in the food chain is one aspect and then there is the round up spewed into the atmosphere from every motor vehicle that fuels up with ethanol enhanced gasoline.

Not only does the fuel mixture cost more than straight gasoline but mileage is reduced enough to require more fuel to get from point A to point B, which in turn pushes more round up laced ethanol into the mix of noxious exhaust which is then inhaled by a population married to its motor vehicles.

Where are the studies linking corn/ethanol to the incidences of human cancers? Have there be any increases in cancer occurrences since the introduction of burnable corn?

[Ocklawaha]

Oh no! Now we're REALLY screwed!

Does sunlight cause skin cancer?

There is convincing evidence that sunlight causes skin cancer. Skin cancer can be treated and cured without serious consequences. However, in some cases the condition can be life-threatening if not diagnosed in time.

Skin cancer is an occupational concern for people who work under the sun. The risk however, may be reduced through awareness of the problem, and by taking measures to prevent exposure to sunlight.

SOURCE: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/skin_cancer.html

In much the same way as drinking a gallon of JD straight down in 5 minutes will cause death, eating a couple of dozen bags of chips a day should do the trick just as well. Smog will kill you too. Matter of fact, life will always end in death. So um? Next time I spray the weeds, maybe I won't be barefoot and in shorts... then again... maybe I will.