This
is one interpretation of these results and a disturbing one. Yet the
low levels may well mean that another unidentified factor is at work.
Regardless, we need to see a lot of work done on this problem to
properly evaluate roundup as a risk factor. This work is at present
suggestive.
Roundup
has also been implicated in the suppression of amphibian populations
mostly because Roundup is the only obvious human vector. You can see
the problem there. After all we finally got wise to bird flu.
In
1965, we saw Roundup for the first time and my father read the fine
print and came to the conclusion that it was way more risky than
allowed in the literature. He even opined that it could cause cancer
then. We took it back. I have no idea what got his back up unless
the makers saw a real need to be over due the legal warnings.
It
has been a valuable herbicide for need. Chronic use was never
indicated and that is likely our problem.
Glyphosate
(Roundup) Carcinogenic In the Parts Per Trillion Range
Sayer Ji
June 17, 2013
An alarming new study
finds that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller,
is estrogenic and drives breast cancer cell proliferation in the
parts-per-trillion range. Does this help explain the massive mammary
tumors that the only long term animal feeding study on Roundup and GM
corn ever performed recently found?
An alarming new study,
accepted for publication in the journal Food and Chemical
Toxicology last month, indicates that glyphosate, the
world’s most widely used herbicide due to its widespread use in
genetically engineered agriculture, is capable of driving estrogen
receptor mediated breast cancer cell proliferation within the
infinitesimal parts per trillion concentration range.[i]
The study, titled,
“Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via
estrogen receptors,” compared the effect of glyphosate on
hormone-dependent and hormone-independent breast cancer cell lines,
finding that glyphosate stimulates hormone-dependent cancer
cell lines in what the study authors describe as “low and
environmentally relevant concentrations.”
The results were
broken down by the researchers as follows:
- Glyphosate induces T47D, hormone dependent breast cancer cell growth.
- The proliferative effect of glyphosate is mediated via estrogen receptors.
- Glyphosate induces ERE [Estrogen Response Element]-transcription activity via estrogen receptors.
- Glyphosate modulates the expression of E[strogen] R[eceptor] α and E[estrogen] R[eceptor]β in human breast cancer cells.
These effects indicate
that glyphosate is a ‘xenoestrogen,’ capable of inducing Estrogen
Response Elements (EREs) in a manner, slightly weaker but
functionally similar to the most potent human estrogen Estradiol
(E2).
More concerning is the discovery that infinitesimal
glyphosate concentrations in the parts-per-trillion
rage (10 to the minus 12) had proliferative (carcinogenic)
effects on the studied T47D breast cancer cells line:
The researchers also
discovered that the naturally occurring phytoestrogen in soybean
known as genistein, produced “an additive estrogenic effect” when
combined with glyphosate, raising the serious question as to whether
GMO soybeans are contributing to the epidemic levels of breast
cancer within countries like the US where they are consumed in
relatively high quantities.
It should be noted
that the concentrations used to determine the interactive effects of
glyphosate and phytoestrogen genistein in this study were modeled “as
in a real world situation” by using information obtained from
studies that assayed the respective levels of genistein and
glyphosate in GM soybeans, as well as human plasma and urine
concentrations following their consumption and/or exposure.
For instance, glyphosate concentrations have been detected within
human urine within the 0.1 – 233 parts per billion range on the
lowest end, and an estimated systemic dose of 0.004 mg/kg on the high
end.
The authors stated:
This finding should
raise concern about the existence of more than one xenoestrogen such
as phytoestrogen and contaminants in plant derived food which may be
beneficial or harmful depending on the hormonal and pathological
status of consumers. This study implied that the additive effect
of glyphosate and genistein in postmenopausal woman may induce cancer
cell growth. In this present in vitro study, we showed an
estrogenicity of pure glyphosate. In summary, we found that
glyphosate exhibited a weaker estrogenic activity than estradiol.
Furthermore, this study demonstrated the additive estrogenic effects
of glyphosate and genistein which implied that the use
of glyphosate-contaminated soybean products asdietary
supplements may pose a risk of breast cancer because of their
potential additive estrogenicity.” [emphasis added]
This finding is
relevant to virtually anyone who consumes genetically modified food
today. GM crops, which are designed to survive glyphosate poisoning
by being genetically engineered with ‘glyphosate-resistance”
(i.e. RoundUp Ready), are universally contaminated with glyphosate
and its toxic metabolite AMPA. Furthermore, glyphosate
pollution and exposure is now omnipresent, with one 2011 study
finding glyphosate in 60-100% of all US air and rain
samples tested, and another 2012 study finding that glyphosate
widely contaminates groundwater, which is the water located beneath
the ground surface, that supplies aquifers, wells and springs. It is
therefore virtually impossible to hermetically seal yourself off from
the growing global environmental threat by only consuming “certified
organic” food. The time has come to face the fact that unless there
is a systemic change in the way our GM, petrochemically-driven
monocultured food production system operates, we will all
experience a great deal of harm.
GM Food/Roundup Breast
Cancer Link Already Firmly Established
This latest study is
not the only compelling evidence that there is a Roundup-Breast
Cancer link. In a previous article titled, “Will the GMO-Breast
Cancer Link Be Pinkwashed Away?“, we addressed the disturbing
implications of the first long-term GM and Roundup animal
feeding study produced by Gilles-Éric Séralini’s research
team last November, and which found that after 90 days (the temporal
threshold beneath which all previous biotech industry funded GM food
safety studies end) the animals began to show disturbing signs of
systemic organ damage, failure and cancer. More pointedly, Séralini’s
team observed that the animals developed massive,
estrogen-dependent mammary tumors:
“Suffering inducing
euthanasia and deaths corresponded mostly in females to the
development of large mammary tumors. These appeared to be
clearly related to the various treatments when compared to the
control groups. These tumors are generally known to be mostly
estrogen-dependent (Harvell et al., 2000). We observed a strikingly
marked induction of mammary tumors by R[roundup] alone, a
major formulated pesticide, even at the very lowest dose
administered. R[oundup] has been shown to disrupt aromatase which
synthesizes estrogens (Richard et al., 2005)… [pg. 9]“
Could the results of
this latest study help explain the molecular mechanism behind this
finding?
About the Author
Sayer Ji is an
author, researcher, lecturer, and advisory board member of
the National Health Federation.
He founded
Greenmedinfo.com in 2008 in order to provide the world an open
access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative
modalities. It is internationally recognized as the largest and most
widely referenced health resource of its kind.
Resources:
[i] Siriporn
Thongprakaisang, Apinya Thiantanawat, Nuchanart Rangkadilok, Tawit
Suriyo, Jutamaad Satayavivad. Glyphosate induces human breast
cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors.Food Chem Toxicol. 2013
Jun 8. Epub 2013 Jun 8. PMID: 23756170
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