Humans

Stemming verbod op neonicotinoïden uitgesteld - Duitsland, Spanje en Groot-Brittannië zijn tegen

De stemming die maandag (25-02-13) zou plaatsvinden onder de landbouwexperts van de Europese lidstaten voor het inperken van drie neonicotinoïden is uitgesteld. Reden voor de opschorting is hevig tegensputteren van enkele lidstaten, zo beweert de Belgische krant De Morgen. De Europese Commissie wil een moratorium instellen op het gebruik van drie neonicotinoïden in voor bijen aantrekkelijke gewassen. Milieuorganisaties en de groene fractie in het Europees Parlement hopen dat het voorstel het haalt. Maar lidstaten als Duitsland, Spanje, Groot-Brittannië en Hongarije lijken er niet mee in te stemmen. ‘Het ziet er naar uit dat het voorstel van de Europese Commissie niet goedgekeurd zal worden, of enkel in afgezwakte vorm’, zo de geruchten in de politieke wandelgangen. Frankrijk gaf twee dagen geleden nog aan het tijdelijke verbod op neonicotinoïden te steunen. Ondertussen is de discussie over de schadelijkheid voor bijen in volle gang, maar nu richt dat zich ook op mensen. Toxicoloog Henk Tennekes pleit bij de Vara voor een onderzoek naar de effecten van neonicotinoïden op het centrale zenuwstelsel en de hersenen. Via crowdfunding zoekt hij naar middelen om dat onderzoek te financieren: https://www.4just1.com/

Esther Ouwehand: De negatieve gevolgen van het CDA landbouwbeleid worden in Drenthe pijnlijk duidelijk

Kamerlid Esther Ouwehand zal gedupeerden van mestvergisters en lelieakkers in Drenthe donderdag een hart onder de riem steken. In Drenthe worden steeds meer lelies geteeld. Bij deze teelt worden veel giftige bestrijdingsmiddelen en grondontsmettingsmiddelen gebruikt. Mensen die het gif op de planten spuiten, moeten beschermende kleding dragen om hun gezondheid niet in gevaar te brengen. Omwonenden van de akkers leven echter permanent in de gifdampen. Op aandringen van de Partij voor de Dieren voert de Gezondheidsraad momenteel een onderzoek uit naar de effecten daarvan op de gezondheid van de omwonenden. Esther Ouwehand: “De negatieve gevolgen van het landbouwbeleid worden in Drenthe pijnlijk duidelijk. Mensen wonen in de stank van mestvergisters en in de gifdampen van de lelievelden. De gevolgen hiervan voor hun gezondheid en welbevinden lijken er voor lokale overheden niet of nauwelijks toe te doen. Deze mensen zijn de dupe van het CDA-landbouwbeleid van de afgelopen jaren. Het is hoog tijd dat Nederland afscheid neemt van de intensieve landbouw met al zijn schadelijke effecten om mens, dier en milieu. Volksgezondheid en het milieu verdienen bescherming boven de economische belangen van agrariërs.”

Ondanks de medische vooruitgang zijn babyboomers momenteel minder gezond dan hun ouders op deze leeftijd waren

Obesitas en een gebrek aan beweging eisen hun tol, zo blijkt uit Amerikaans onderzoek. Slechts 13 procent van de babyboomers, die geboren zijn in de eerste twintig jaar na de Tweede Wereldoorlog, verkeert op middelbare leeftijd nog in 'excellente gezondheid'. Toen hun ouders die leeftijd hadden, was 32 procent nog zo gezond. De babyboomgeneratie heeft een reputatie van actief zijn en het uitstellen van hun pensioen. Maar dat beeld leek niet overeen te komen met wat artsen in hun spreekkamers zagen", aldus hoofdonderzoeker Dana King van de West Virginia University School of Medicine. "Daarom besloten we hen te vergelijken met de generatie ervoor op diezelfde leeftijd." 39 procent van de onderzochte babyboomers (tegenwoordig tussen de 46 en 64 jaar oud) had ernstig overgewicht, wat een generatie eerder maar 29 procent was. Ongeveer 16 procent van de babyboomers heeft diabetes, in tegenstelling tot 12 procent van hun ouders vroeger. Tegenwoordig hebben bovendien twee keer zoveel mensen op middelbare leeftijd een wandelstok of rollator nodig.

Earth Open Source: The pesticide industry and Europe’s regulators have jointly misled the public with claims that glyphosate is safe

The pesticide industry and EU regulators knew as long ago as the 1980s-1990s that Roundup, the world's best selling herbicide, causes birth defects – but they failed to inform the public.
This report, co-authored by international scientists and researchers, reveals that industry’s own studies (including one commissioned by Monsanto) showed as long ago as the 1980s that Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate causes birth defects in laboratory animals.
The facts are these:
• Industry has known from its own studies since the 1980s that glyphosate causes malformations in experimental animals at high doses
• Industry has known since 1993 that these effects also occur at lower and mid doses
• The German government has known since at least 1998 that glyphosate causes malformations
• The EU Commission’s expert scientific review panel knew in 1999 that glyphosate causes malformations
• The EU Commission has known since 2002 that glyphosate causes malformations. This was the year it signed off on the current approval of glyphosate.

But this information was not made public. On the contrary, the pesticide industry and Europe’s regulators have jointly misled the public with claims that glyphosate is safe. As a result, Roundup is used by home gardeners and local authorities on roadsides, in school grounds, and in other public areas, as well as in farmers’ fields.

Dutch Parliament moves against glyphosate

In September 2011 a Green Member of the Dutch Parliament, Rik Grashoff, put forward a Parliamentary motion proposing a ban on the "commercial use" of Roundup outside agriculture. In the motion, Grashoff cited evidence presented in Earth Open Source's report, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?". This report revealed that industry's own studies carried out as long ago as the 1980s showed that glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, causes birth defects in laboratory animals. These findings, and evidence of other types of harm, have been confirmed in independent peer-reviewed studies, also mentioned by Grashoff in the motion. Grashoff added that Roundup is a threat to drinking water supplies and that alternative methods of weed control are available. Grashoff's motion gained majority support in the Parliament, so now the relevant minister has to work out a proposal. There has been talk of stopping the use of the herbicide on streets, in parks, and other public places. Our sources in The Netherlands tell us that Monsanto asked for a meeting with the minister. In due course, a "Sustainable Weed Control Support Group" was founded by "users and producers of herbicides", including a website, facebook and twitter sites. These sites promote the notion of the "sustainable use" of Roundup and claim declining levels of pollution in surface water in recent years. On 25 June 2012 Monsanto placed a large advertisement in De Telegraaf, the biggest newspaper in The Netherlands, claiming that EOS's report was wrong. Monsanto's counter-argument was that the studies highlighted in EOS's report – all of them, presumably! – had been evaluated by CTGB (the Dutch regulatory authority) and other EU authorities and were deemed not "relevant".

Neurologists suggest a link between Parkinson's disease and golf

In a letter published in the journal Annals of Neurology, neurologists Margaret Parrish and Robert Gardner suggest a link between Parkinson's disease and golf. Of 26 patients with Parkinson's disorder that they collected for their small study of the disease, it turned out that 19 of them lived on or within two miles of a golf course. A coincidence perhaps, given the higher probability of golf courses in communities favored by senior citizens? The data suggest otherwise: "Sixteen of the 19 patients resided down-wind of a golf course," the researchers noted. Of the other three patients with Parkinson's living up-wind of a golf course, two of them had "additional golf course exposure." Such a small study proves nothing, but it may be an intriguing clue to tracking down the cause of this debilitating disease. Parkinson's disease results from the death of specific neurons deep in the brain, in a region called the substantia nigra. These neurons use the neurotransmitter dopamine to communicate, and when enough of them die, voluntary movement becomes halting or frozen. One way to kill these neurons is by ingesting certain toxic substances. MPTP, a contaminant in an illegal morphine-like street drug, turns unfortunate drug addicts into a Parkinson's patient overnight. For some reason, this toxic substance specifically attacks the neurons that are lost in Parkinson's disease, raising the possibility that other toxic substances in the environment might do the same thing.

Esther Ouwehand wil een algeheel moratorium op neonicotinoiden

Het gebruik van zogenoemde neonicotinoïde pesticiden in de agrarische sector dient voor twee jaar fors te worden beperkt. Dat stelt de Europese Commissie. De beperking zou moeten gelden vanaf juli voor zonnebloem, koolzaad, maïs en katoen. De commissie is onder de indruk van het jongste rapport van de EFSA, de Europese voedselautoriteit. De Europese Commissie wil liefst voor maart een reactie van de EU-landen. In dat geval kan de beperking van het gifgebruik 1 juli 2013 ten uitvoer worden gelegd, aldus EC-voorlichter Frederic Vincent gistermiddag. In de genoemde twee jaar kan de risico-analyse ingrijpend worden verbeterd. Hoewel de Partij voor de Dieren, met PvdA en SP dé grote pleitbezorgers van een Nederlands gifverbod, blij is dat er iets gebeurt, vindt Kamerlid Esther Ouwehand dat de beperking voor álle toepassingen zou moeten gelden en niet alleen voor genoemde gewassen: een algeheel moratorium dus. ,,Dan draai je de bewijslast om’’, zegt ze. ,,De producenten moeten dan bewijzen dat het gebruik veilig is.’’ Toxicoloog Henk Tennekes is blij met de erkenning van de risico’s, waarvoor hij in 2010 al waarschuwde. ,,Maar ik lees nog niets over de vervuiling van het oppervlaktewater’’, zegt hij, ,,en de risico’s voor het zenuwgestel van de mens.’’ Ouwehand is dat ’volstrekt’ met Tennekes eens. Ze zal een en ander andermaal in Den Haag bij de staatssecretaris van landbouw aan de orde stellen.

Chemistry developed deleterious substances that now threaten the entire life of the world with deforms, extinction, nay death

Western civilization suffers from the delusion of replacing peasants and traditional culture with industrialized farmers. This goes hand-to-hand with another hazardous practice: privatizing and ruthlessly exploiting the natural world. This hubris has been infecting more than private corporate executives and governments, which, after all, have the models of nineteenth-century robber barons in mind. Scientists eat from this fruit of ignorance, too. They and their engineering colleagues modernized the infrastructure of exploitation. They made it “science based.” Chemistry, for example, developed petrochemicals and plastics and thousands of other deleterious substances that now threaten the entire life of the world with deforms, extinction, nay death. Agricultural scientists and engineers also justified the violent system of industrialized farming and food production that, in irrigating crops alone, uses about 70 percent of the world’s drinking water,[1] about 19 percent of fossil fuel energy, [2] and emits considerable amounts of the global warming gases. According to “Livestock’s long shadow,” a 2006 report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalent; 37 percent of methane (which is 23 times more lasting than carbon dioxide); 65 percent of nitrous oxide (which is 296 times more potent than carbon dioxide); and 64 percent of ammonia (which contributes to acid rain).

Mom's pesticide exposure raises risk of infant leukemia

A mother's exposure to pesticides during pregnancy may be linked to rare types of leukemias that are diagnosed in children younger than 2, according to a study from Brazil. The children whose mothers were exposed at home or at work were two to seven times more likely to have one of the two cancers studied than those whose mothers reported no pesticide exposure. Infants younger than 11 months old were up to seven times more likely to have leukemia if their mothers used the insecticide permethrin. The results suggest that women of reproductive age should minimize their pesticide exposure before and during pregnancy and while nursing. This study is important because it focused on children younger than 2 years old and included both work and home exposures. The short time needed for cancers to develop in the infants suggests pre-birth exposures are important for the leukemias studied, the authors note. The findings support previous studies that indicate maternal pesticide exposure may play a role in childhood leukemia. Prenatal pesticide exposure has been linked to leukemia in older children. Few of these studies have looked at infants and toddlers or considered household pesticide use during the prenatal period. Also, most of the studies focused on occupational exposures.

GM Cancer Warning Can No Longer Be Ignored - Potentially Dangerous Virus Gene Hidden in Commercial GM Crops

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has belatedly discovered that the most common genetic regulatory sequence in commercial GMOs also encodes a significant fragment of a viral gene. The finding – published quietly in a new journal [1] - has serious ramifications for crop biotechnology and its regulation, but possibly even more so for consumers and farmers. There are clear indications that this viral gene (called Gene VI) might not be safe for human consumption, although the authors fall short of stating that. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance. The authors, Nancy Podevin from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Patrick du Jardin at University of Liege in Belgium, discovered that of the 86 different transgenic events (unique insertions of foreign DNA) commercialized to-date in the United States 54 contain portions of Gene VI within them. They all have the regulatory sequence called the CaMV 35S promoter (from the cauliflower mosaic virus CaMV), the most commonly used for driving gene expression in GMOs. The events therefore include some of the most widely grown GM crops all over the world such as Roundup Ready soybeans (40-3-2) and MON810 maize. Also included is the controversial NK603 maize recently reported to cause tumours in rats [2] (see also [3] GM Cancer Warning Can No Longer Be Ignored, SiS 56).