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Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

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Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#51
post #44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a ridiculous gotcha type exchange. I can be both true that glyphosate is safer than alternative herbicides and something you shouldn't drink.

The guy, unprompted, said "you can drink a whole quart of it and it won't hurt you." If that is a gotcha, it's self-inflicted

yeah, it's totally a self own but it gets paraded around a lot like it proves something which it clearly doesn't.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#52
post #17

Expanded summary from the description: > For years, Monsanto declared that their product Roundup, the world's most widely used weed killer, was safe. But that all changed in 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) analyzed data from scientific studies and concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is probably carcinogenic. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disagreed…

For comparison, hot beverages(eg: Coffee), red meat and working the night shift are also probable carcinogens. Known carcinogens include alcohol, fried food, bbq/grilling.

As always it comes down to scale not labels.

Glyphosate in normal use is vastly more dangerous than anything you mentioned.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#55
post #49
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The important caveat here is in laboratory mice , which isn't to dismiss ongoing work but to temper strong claims a bit.

but enough to refute this type of claim: "... glyphosate has been considered to be generally safe to animal health .."

Does it? You can harm those deeply inbreed and sickly lab mice with almost anything, and these types of results often don't generalize to animals outside of the lab setting. The few I skimmed don't indicate dose, generalize out form some tentative stuff from past studies, and some are making wild claims about things like autism which seem to be out of line with meta-analysis[1] of the links between dysbiotic bacteria with respect to ASD. And this analysis points to the effects only being on rat pups[2] where it was administered in drinking water. And digging a little further it seems that the evidence on actual levels in food being dangerous to humans or other mammals is lacking[3] so I don't think it refutes the claim at all.

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-021-05002-y

[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-018-0394-x

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00139...

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#56
post #16

Glyphosate weakens plant roots in the long term.

interesting, do those treated crops get knocked over in strong winds compared to untreated crops or something like that?

Root systems are not necessarily just about being able to hold soil or not getting knocked over.

I don’t know what the parent comment meant by that, but I do know the root zone is vital for plants. Plants do not directly mine minerals. Instead, they produce complex sugars which they exchange with bacteria and fungi, who in turn, trade minerals that the plant needs. Some plants with also trade nutrients with each other (usually within the same species).

It’s in this way that soil itself is alive, whereas dirt is dead. Glysophates messes with soil in such a way that farmers attempt to compensate with fertilizer as an input. It becomes a degenerate process. Our current commercial agricultural has been slowly killing our soil.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#57
post #26

Dear HN admins, please close this firehose of bullshit. Thank you!

Dear reader, you should elaborate on what you view as a firehose of bullshit.

AFAIK there hasn't really been a clear link between roundup and certain rare blood cancers. Just a correlation between them in certain geographical areas. Some studies have found the correlation and others haven't. I believe even the doctors who treat these diseases know this to be true.

Though, it would be really easy to write a book citing only the evidence in support of the link. At this point I'm not sure what to believe, but I have no need for roundup so I avoid its use.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#58
post #50

This story is a broken record that just repeats over and over again in different forms and industries. It follows the general form of: 1. Develop some profitable product 2. years later people report horrible effects 3. Big co denies and stalls for years/decades 4. Hundreds of thousands /millions of people are negatively effected 5. Science eventually overwhelms any counter argument and product in taken off market 6.…

One of the fascinating aspects that allows this to continue is that legal liability for a destructive product is essentially voided when a company is sold (look at the arguments Dow chemical made in Bhopal).

This has created a system where nations effectively allow corporate actors to transfer the harm they cause onto the government and also let's companies skimp on doing effective due diligence when seeking a merger. It's an extremely fascinating case of regulatory capture, and I hope future alien historians laugh at how wildly incompetent our governments were at dealing with corporate entities.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#59

Sure is lovely when a bunch of non-experts decide to chime in on a nuanced subject. Imagine a bunch of plant biologists congregated on a discussion board to make sweeping claims about SaaS or whatever your area of expertise is. Hilarious. Even appealing to literature is limited by your knowledge background. Spend a few years in the field and you will realize that some studies are good and some are bad. Some indicate…

> Spend a few years in the field and you will realize that some studies are good and some are bad.

On this topic, I highly recommend Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It's a brilliant read.

Re: Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials

#60
post #52
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison, hot beverages(eg: Coffee), red meat and working the night shift are also probable carcinogens. Known carcinogens include alcohol, fried food, bbq/grilling.

As always it comes down to scale not labels. Glyphosate in normal use is vastly more dangerous than anything you mentioned.

Is it?
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