Scientific Research, Deceit and Death, in times of Glyphosate
For our body to function properly, we need thousands of enzymes, which are also amino acids. Glycine can easily get attached to some of these enzymes and block their actions. That’s the danger glyphosate poses to humans.
(This is a summary of a talk by Prof. Sarath Gunathilake in June 2018 while visiting Sri Lanka. Prof. Sarath Gunatilake, M.D., MPH, Dr.PH, is a former chair and a Professor in the Health Science Department of California State University Long beach/ College of Health and Human Services. He is a Public Health physician who is American Board certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Occupational Medicine. He received his M.D. from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, his MPH (Public Health Education) and Dr.PH. (Organizational Development in Health Care) from the University of Hawaii. He also underwent residency training in Family Medicine (Texas Tech Heath Science Center, Lubbock, TX) and in Occupational Medicine (UC-Irvine)).
( July 18, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) “I was introduced to the Sri Lankan kidney disease in 2005 by Dr. Thilak Abeysekera. When one of my students, Dr. Sujatha Senaratne became the Secretary of the Health Ministry and requested my help, I studied the issue deeply in Padaviya, Sri Pura and Kebithigollewa area. Later, when Dr. Channa Jayasumana asked for my help for his doctoral thesis on the same topic, I agreed on the condition that we do the work with the farmers. Because of the quality issues in water sample analyses by Sri Lankan laboratories, I proposed that we use the laboratory facilities in my university.
In our first article, we posed the question whether the insecticides and herbicides have something to do with this Sri Lankan kidney disease. It was received with both flowers and stones. A group of 12 Sri Lankan scientists sent a letter to my university accusing me of doing biased research. Luckily, neither of us had sealed nor opened any of the sample tubes and witnesses certified that proper sample custody procedures had been followed. Still I had to write a 68-page report refuting all the accusations.
In 2014, I was awarded the university prize for the best research in the year. In 2015, American Public Health Association too awarded me a prize. Yet, there were many who claimed that what we presented was just a hypothesis. We have so far presented 10-12 more articles to support our thesis. Our research was done with support from no other organization o person than my own university.
How does glyphosate work? Glyphosate contains a simple amino acid –glycine, and Phosphate, which forms our bones. Human body consists of many proteins, which are amino acids. Thus, the argument that glyphosate is not toxic for humans. But, it is not correct. For our body to function properly, we need thousands of enzymes, which are also amino acids. Glycine can easily get attached to some of these enzymes and block their actions. That’s the danger glyphosate poses to humans.
Glyphosate was discovered in 1961, and was used as an agent to remove internal residues that block metal pipes. In 1970, Monsanto bought that patent and used it as an herbicide called Roundup. This is now the most heavily used herbicide in the world. Roundup has many additives that stabilize or increase the effects of glyphosate. Herbicides, usually, get absorbed into plant roots. But glyphosate works differently: to kill a plant, it should stick to the plant leaf. However, a lone glyphosate drop will roll off, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. Those additives help glyphosate stick to a leaf. Once inside the leaf, glycine blocks the functions of protein-making amino acids and kills the plant. Another argument is that glyphosate won’t affect the animals, since only plants have this mechanism facilitating glycine attachment to amino acids. However, animal and human intestines have millions of bacteria in them, which are like plants. When glyphosate is ingested with food or water, it will kill off the food-digesting bacteria. Over the last 25 years researchers have rarely investigated the additives of Roundup. They could be many times more toxic than glyphosate itself, as shown by a recent French experiment on tomato plants and animal cells.
A test in Ecuador showed that glyphosate spraying has damaged the genes of people who were exposed. Upon such exposure, some cells can repair the damage using certain enzymes. But when glyphosate gets attached to these enzymes, they will be deactivated and the cells will die. Cells with damaged genes will become cancer cells. Glyphosate was recognized as a carcinogen (a cancer-causing agent), for the first time in 1985, by the toxicology department of US Environment Protection Agency. They said it is a potential Class C carcinogenic agent, but by 1991, this classification was somehow changed. In 2015, an institution affiliated with the United Nations claimed glyphosate is carcinogenic.
In 1996, Monsanto started producing genetically modified (GM) crops. That was done, not with an interest in saving the world from hunger, as they announce, but for own selfish motives. In 2000, Monsanto was going to lose the patent protection for glyphosate as an herbicide. So, it produced GM crops (like sugar beets, wheat, corn, soya, grass) that resist glyphosate. And they re-patented glyphosate as an antibiotic. Now you can spray glyphosate from a plane and only the GM crop will survive the assault.
With that Monsanto launched a huge campaign whitewashing glyphosate. It said glyphosate is safer than table-salt; and that it will bio-degrade into two non-toxic components, glycine and phosphate. According to them, it is so environmentally safe that it can be used even in children’s parks.
By 2016, glyphosate remnants were found everywhere in US food chain. Even in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Ben & Jerry hit back, claiming that its product only has 1.74 parts of glyphosate per billion, but whole wheat bread has 78 times more, and cereals, 640 times more. Even tea and breast milk have glyphosate. It is known to enter through one’s skin as well. A paper in American Medical Association journal showed that, from 1996 to 2016, the amount of glyphosate in certain human urine samples has increased thirteen-fold. Some European Union MPs tested their own urine and found that the samples contained 17 times more glyphosate than the EU allowable limit for drinking water. That means, glyphosate accumulates in human bodies. So, the claim by Monsanto on bio-degradability of glyphosate is false. In many countries, Monsanto was fined for propagating such false claims.
Such false propaganda created in Sri Lanka a ‘herbicide tolerant’ culture. Our farmers believe that not just glyphosate, any agrochemical, is safe to use like soap water. When we visited distant villages like Kebithigollewa, they told us that they would mix several herbicides, to kill all the weeds at once. They would spray glyphosate around manioc, to prevent damage in uprooting the tubers. To avoid the sticky glue while picking jack fruit seeds, they would wash their hands in bathroom detergent!
One MIT researcher showed that increased use of glyphosate coincided with an increase in Autistic kids. Similar cases were made for the spread of Diabetes and Dementia too. There is no direct relationship between such health problems and glyphosate use, but they suggest that glyphosate could be one of the reasons.
If USA use so much glyphosate, then where are its patients? A recent book poetically explains that Latin American migrant workers who are exposed to glyphosate in USA ‘leave their kidneys in the farms’. A US farmer who sprayed glyphosate, accompanied by his dog, contracted the same cancer a few years after his dog got it. That tragedy drew a lot of publicity. Soon, a court in San Francisco received over 400 complaints, filed by similar victims.
About two months ago, a lawyer requested the San Francisco judge to obtain all internal communications of Monsanto during glyphosate patenting process. Monsanto protested, but the judge stayed firm. While filing these documents, Monsanto forgot to request them be limited to only that case. The accusing lawyer immediately publicized this information. This internal documentation of a 30-year period shows clearly how Monsanto covered-up the danger to health posed by glyphosate. Some ‘independent’ scientists who were to review the patent case had not disclosed their contracts with Monsanto. At times, Monsanto technicians wrote ‘scientific’ evaluations of the product but got outside scientists, who collaborate with the company, to sign those documents. They acknowledged internally that Roundup is a carcinogen and that skin exposure to it is the most serious.
Now, I hope you understand the dangers of glyphosate. I want you to tell others about that danger, and help them live a little bit longer. That’s why I would end this talk with ‘Ayubowan’ (may you live a long life), instead of a ‘Thank You’.”
Prepared from a video recording of the talk by Kashyapa A. S. Yapa, Ph.D. (UC – Berkeley).
