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Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

theguardian.com

11–20 of 379 posts

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#12
post #5
post #3

How far off are we from having drones that mechanically remove weeds at a reasonable cost? It's ridiculous that we put up with spraying sketchy chemicals on our food. We can build loyal wingman drones to kill enemy aircraft but we can't kill weeds?? Edit: I'm talking about farming, not lawns. RTFA

Why do you need to kill weeds? Adapt and stop having lawns.

That is not the major use of glyphosate.

"More than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are used annually by US farmers on their fields. The weedkiller is sprayed directly over genetically engineered crops such as corn and soybeans, and also over non-genetically engineered crops such as wheat and oats as a desiccant to dry crops out prior to harvest. Many farmers also use it on fields before the growing season, including spinach growers and almond producers. It is considered the most widely used herbicide in history."

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#13
post #11
post #4

"Tied to cancer" in the sense of "if you torture data long enough, it will confess."

that's ridiculous it also messes up digestive systems, gluten intolerance. the chemical is BAD and does cause cancer.

Let me express my utter lack of confidence in your statement's connection to reality. The "gluten intolerance" should be a strong warning sign of Woo.

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need to kill weeds? Adapt and stop having lawns.

Lawns are less important. We would have no agricultural output if we didn’t weed.

Farming existed before weed killing. It's extremely useful but output doesn't drop to zero without it.

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#15
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's ridiculous it also messes up digestive systems, gluten intolerance. the chemical is BAD and does cause cancer.

Let me express my utter lack of confidence in your statement's connection to reality. The "gluten intolerance" should be a strong warning sign of Woo.

Not-so-hot take: Both of you are wrong to state with certainty whether this discovery of glyphosate in our urine is good or bad for us, or whether we should discard this because of "data torture". From the article:

>Cynthia Curl, Boise State University assistant professor of community and environmental health, said it was “obviously concerning” that a large percentage of the US population is exposed to glyphosate, but said it is still unclear how that translates to human health.

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#16
post #3

How far off are we from having drones that mechanically remove weeds at a reasonable cost? It's ridiculous that we put up with spraying sketchy chemicals on our food. We can build loyal wingman drones to kill enemy aircraft but we can't kill weeds?? Edit: I'm talking about farming, not lawns. RTFA

Deere bought the startup Blue River for $300M. Drones to identify and specifically spray just them. Not quite mechanical removal, but closer than spraying the whole field:

https://medium.com/@dcvc/john-deere-acquires-blue-river-tech...

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#17
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's ridiculous it also messes up digestive systems, gluten intolerance. the chemical is BAD and does cause cancer.

Let me express my utter lack of confidence in your statement's connection to reality. The "gluten intolerance" should be a strong warning sign of Woo.

Don't see any citations on either side of this discussion.

WHO says yes [0] while EPA says "not likely" [1]. Until the experts agree people can decide for themselves what risks they consider acceptable. Or at least they can if they can afford buying from farmers who don't yet use the chemical.

[0] https://www.iarc.fr/featured-news/media-centre-iarc-news-gly...

[1] https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-releases-draft-risk-asses...

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#18
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's ridiculous it also messes up digestive systems, gluten intolerance. the chemical is BAD and does cause cancer.

Let me express my utter lack of confidence in your statement's connection to reality. The "gluten intolerance" should be a strong warning sign of Woo.

How come? Is it not true that ~0.75% of Americans have celiac disease?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease

Re: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me express my utter lack of confidence in your statement's connection to reality. The "gluten intolerance" should be a strong warning sign of Woo.

How come? Is it not true that ~0.75% of Americans have celiac disease? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease

How can that be relevant? I mean, this is just the grossest of correlations "Americans have X, and are also exposed to Y, therefore Y causes X"? If anything, it means actually establishing a causal relationship (assuming one existed) would be difficult because the background rate of this disease is so high.
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