Humans

At first glance the frozen bundles could be mistaken for conventional joints of meat. But as Ib Pedersen, a Danish pig farmer, lifts them carefully out of the freezer it becomes apparent they are in fact whole piglets - some horribly deformed, with growths or other abnormalities, others stunted. This is the result, Pedersen claims, of feeding the animals a diet containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Or more specifically, he believes, feed made from GM soya and sprayed with the controversial herbicide glyphosate. Pedersen, who produces 13,000 pigs a year and supplies Europe's largest pork company Danish Crown, says he became so alarmed at the apparent levels of deformity, sickness, deaths, and poor productivity he was witnessing in his animals that he decided to experiment by changing their diet from GM to non-GM feed. The results, he says, were remarkable: "When using GM feed I saw symptoms of bloat, stomach ulcers, high rates of diarrhoea, pigs born with the deformities ... but when I switched [to non GM feed] these problems went away, some within a matter of days." The farmer says that not only has the switch in diet improved the visible health of the pigs, it has made the farm more profitable, with less medicine use and higher productivity. "Less abortions, more piglets born in each litter, and breeding animals living longer." He also maintains that man hours have been reduced, with less cleaning needed and fewer complications with the animals.

Uncovering SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms)-environment interactions can generate new hypotheses about the function of poorly characterized genetic variants and environmental factors, like pesticides. We evaluated SNP-environment interactions between 30 confirmed prostate cancer susceptibility loci and 45 pesticides and prostate cancer risk in 776 cases and 1,444 controls in the Agricultural Health Study. We used unconditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Multiplicative SNP-pesticide interactions were calculated using a likelihood ratio test. After correction for multiple tests using the False Discovery Rate method, two interactions remained noteworthy. Among men carrying two T alleles at rs2710647 in EH domain binding protein 1 (EHBP1) SNP, the risk of prostate cancer in those with high malathion use was 3.43 times those with no use (95% CI: 1.44–8.15) (P-interaction = 0.003). Among men carrying two A alleles at rs7679673 in TET2, the risk of prostate cancer associated with high aldrin use was 3.67 times those with no use (95% CI: 1.43, 9.41) (P-interaction = 0.006). In contrast, associations were null for other genotypes. Although additional studies are needed and the exact mechanisms are unknown, this study suggests known genetic susceptibility loci may modify the risk between pesticide use and prostate cancer.

A growing number of well-designed epidemiological and molecular studies provide substantial evidence that the pesticides used in agricultural, commercial, and home and garden applications are associated with excess cancer risk. This risk is associated both with those applying the pesticide and, under some conditions, those who are simply bystanders to the application. In this article, the epidemiological, molecular biology, and toxicological evidence emerging from recent literature assessing the link between specific pesticides and several cancers including prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and breast cancer are integrated. Although the review is not exhaustive in its scope or depth, the literature does strongly suggest that the public health problem is real. If we are to avoid the introduction of harmful chemicals into the environment in the future, the integrated efforts of molecular biology, pesticide toxicology, and epidemiology are needed to help identify the human carcinogens and thereby improve our understanding of human carcinogenicity and reduce cancer risk.

Because pesticides may operate through different mechanisms, the authors studied the risk of prostate cancer associated with specific pesticides in the Agricultural Health Study (1993–2007). With 1,962 incident cases, including 919 aggressive prostate cancers among 54,412 applicators, this is the largest study to date. Rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by using Poisson regression to evaluate lifetime use of 48 pesticides and prostate cancer incidence. Three organophosphate insecticides were significantly associated with aggressive prostate cancer: fonofos (rate ratio (RR) for the highest quartile of exposure (Q4) vs. nonexposed = 1.63, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22, 2.17; Ptrend < 0.001); malathion (RR for Q4 vs. nonexposed = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.88; Ptrend = 0.04); and terbufos (RR for Q4 vs. nonexposed = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.64; Ptrend = 0.03). The organochlorine insecticide aldrin was also associated with increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer (RR for Q4 vs. nonexposed = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.03, 2.18; Ptrend = 0.02). This analysis has overcome several limitations of previous studies with the inclusion of a large number of cases with relevant exposure and detailed information on use of specific pesticides at 2 points in time. Furthermore, this is the first time specific pesticides are implicated as risk factors for aggressive prostate cancer.

De bestrijdingsmiddelenfabriek van het Amerikaanse bedrijf Union Carbide was in 1969 in de stad Bhopal gebouwd en was zo'n tien jaar later uitgebreid voor de productie van het insecticide carbaryl. Methyl-isocyanaat (MIC) is een halffabricaat voor de productie van carbaryl. In de nacht van 3 december kwam door onbekende omstandigheden water in de opslagtanks met MIC terecht. Hierdoor ontstond een chemische reactie waarbij de druk enorm opliep. De veiligheidskleppen van de opslagtanks gingen normaal open, waardoor een grote hoeveelheid zeer giftig gas vrijkwam. Normaliter zou dat zijn opgevangen door zogenaamde gaswassers, een filter waarbij door middel van een vloeistof giftige stoffen uit (industriële) lucht- of afgasstroom wordt geneutraliseerd, maar vanwege reparaties waren deze niet in werking. Het bleek slechts één van de veiligheidsprocedures die niet waren gevolgd. Zo ontbraken afsluitplaten, waardoor er water in de opslagtanks terechtkwam, werkte de koelinstallatie niet en ontbrak eveneens de fakkelinstallatie waarmee het vrijkomende gas verbrand had kunnen worden. Kort na middernacht constateerde een medewerker een plotselinge stijging van de temperatuur en druk in één van de opslagtanks. De man dacht echter dat de wrakke apparatuur weer eens nukken had en ging eerst een kopje thee drinken. Zo'n twee uur later gingen de interne alarmen af.

Monsanto, een van de belangrijkste producenten van genetisch gemodificeerde zaden (ggo-zaden) ter wereld, bouwt een fabriek in Malvinas Argentinas, een stadje van 15.000 inwoners in de provincie Córdoba. Het moet een van de grootste Monsanto-fabrieken voor maïszaaigoed worden. De fabriek zou in maart volgend jaar operationeel moeten worden maar de werken werden in oktober stilgelegd. De inwoners van het stadje protesteren fel tegen de komst van Monsanto, sinds 18 september houden ze de bouwplaats bezet door middel van vijf kampen. Bij het gerecht dienden ze verschillende klachten in. Vorige donderdag probeerde de constructeur de blokkade te breken en meerdere vrachtwagens naar binnen te loodsen. Daarbij vielen meer dan twintig gewonden. Zaterdag kwamen er militairen aan te pas om de vrachtwagens opnieuw naar buiten te krijgen.

Once it became clear to citrus growers that the British hate to peel anything and can’t face pips in any number, efforts were concentrated on producing easy-to-eat fruit for a nation that must be strong-armed into eating its five a day. The fresh fruit eventually arrived in wooden trays, precious little gifts individually wrapped in tissue paper. They were expensive – there were no bogof deals then. But the mandarins, tangerines and satsumas in today’s fruit section of Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons and Asda are on permanent special offer. The most irritating thing about the convenience fruit mountains, however, is not only the manipulation of the skin, but the use of pesticides. When the government-backed Pesticides Residue Committee (PRC) last tested soft citrus in 2008, 24 out of 24 samples were found to contain residues of agricultural chemicals. Nineteen of the samples were from outside the EU, five from the EU and 10 out of the total 24 contained residues of three separate chemicals.

Das Schnellwarnsystem für Lebensmittel (Rapid Alert System for Food, RASSF) hat den Eintritt von drei getrennten Paprikaposten aus der Türkei in der Europäischen Union (EU) festgestellt, die zerstört wurden, da sie bei weitem die Maximalen Rückstandsmengen (MRL) mit dem weltweit verwendeten Insektizid Malathion überschritten, die erlaubt sind. Das Brüssel dienende RASSF sagte, das ist ohne Zweifel die schwerste Feststellung bei Gemüse in den letzten Monaten. Und die kompetenten Behörden für dieses Thema in dem UK waren gezwungen, eine Lieferung grüne Bohnen aus Kenia zu zerstören, die einen Cocktail an Pestziden enthielt, darunter die 31,5-fache Menge von Dimethoate als erlaubt. Malathion ist ein starkes phosphororganisches Insektizid. In zwei Fällen waren die in der EU akzeptierten MRL für diese Chemikalie mit Werten von 0,4 und 0,038 Milligramm pro Kilogramm der Substanz bei den Proben überschritten, bei Paprika sind maximal 0,02 Milligramm erlaubt sind. Die dritte Probe hat die MRL jedoch bei weitem überstiegen, da das Malathion bei 0,288 Milligramm pro Kilo lag, was das 14,4-fache des Erlaubten ist.