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Barb
Glyphosate: Where it is Banned, Where it is Found, and the Dangers it Poses to Us All
As the temperatures rise and the days grow longer, people are spending more time outside. Whether they are gardening, taking their dogs for a walk or playing with their children in the yard, people are much more likely to come into contact with chemical lawn products and weed killers. Roundup weed killer is used in more than 160 countries worldwide, and countless individuals who frequently use the herbicide are at risk of being harmed by its active ingredient, glyphosate.
Glyphosate is extremely effective at eliminating unwanted weeds from lawns, gardens, and farmland, but it may also cause adverse effects to humans. Repeated contact with the chemical has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Leukemia. In fact, the manufacturer Bayer was famously ordered to pay $289 million to the family of a groundskeeper whose lymphoma was caused by frequent Roundup use. The settlement was later reduced, but news of this huge court decision made waves among affected communities, which include landscapers, groundskeepers, agricultural workers and recreational gardeners
Despite the ever-growing number of Roundup lawsuits, Agricultural conglomerate Monsanto was acquired by Bayer AG in 2018. The German company was hoping this merger would expand its reach beyond household cleaners, animal products, and prescription, as well as over-the-counter drugs. However, scientific studies have continued to publicize the dangers that glyphosate poses to humans, the agriculture industry, animals and the environment. While the link between glyphosate and cancer in humans has been written about in the news for years, more recent articles have exposed the presence of glyphosate in many popular foods and even in some brands of beer and wine.
Many consumers are rightfully concerned as more alarming news about glyphosate comes to light. The chemical was initially patented as an antibiotic, and a study published in October 2018 linked the herbicide to the growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance. Many countries are starting to take action to protect their citizens from the dangers of glyphosate. Europen countries such as Germany and Belgium have banned it, and Ireland and France are working to stop all glyphosate use within the next few years.
Legal Woes
In the United States, Roundup is still legal and widely used, but Moms Across America members from all 50 states have asked their governors to outlaw the product. In addition, California has issued a statewide warning against the use of Roundup. Countless users nationwide have been harmed by the product, and more than 11,200 of the affected herbicide users have sued Monsanto and its new owner Bayer for damages.
As the use of Roundup continues around the world, the scrutiny of the product continues to grow. Most recently, Monsanto was found liable for a man’s Roundup-caused cancer and was ordered to pay $80 million to the man and his family. In addition, all glyphosate use in France will be stopped by 2020, and no new glyphosate-containing products can be introduced to the Australian market. Until all use of glyphosate is stopped, consumers can protect themselves and their families from this life-threatening chemical by eliminating the use of the chemical on their own property.
©2019 Bridget Doherty
Brandan Topham
We are not happy about this at all. Four years ago they started turning off our surface water. Two years ago they turned off our house water from a spring and now they are trying to turn off our irrigation wells. On the wells, they are going to have a fight (legal). The details of that will be skipped as that battle has just started.
What is more important is how blatant the Oregon Department of Water Resources Staff is about this. There was a meeting last Monday, where they were happy to explain how their computer model tells them that 140 wells that are closer than 1 mile to a river are denying the rivers over 100 cubic feet per second(cfs), but the wells that are one foot over a mile from the river are not hurting the river enough to bother. That right there should tell you there is a problem with what they are doing.
I assert the model has no correlation to the real world. How can I back that up you ask?
I can back that up several ways. The easiest way is looking at the river flow. There is a gauge station on the Lower Williamson River that has been there for 100 years. For those paying attention 100 years of data is a lot of data. Most of the irrigation wells have been drilled since 1950. That means we have river data for 32 years before the wells were drilled. In those 32 years the average flow is 860cfs. Since 1951 the average flow is 1052cfs. That means since the wells have been drilled there is almost another 200 cfs in the rivers.
That does not sound like the wells are drying up the rivers. In fact, a person could argue that the wells are helping the river flows in a number of ways. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Agenda 21, brandan topham, crisis, Farm Wars, farmers, farmwars, food, klamath basin, water theft
