WEED KILLER
Kimery, Anthony L.
There's never been a herbicide like this before.' —The Monsanto Company, 1980 WEED KILLER BY ANTHONY L. KIMERY Eduardo Neaves was a healthy and happy twelve-year-old, the son of migrant farm...
...That judgment is based solely on data provided by Monsanto...
...But whether Roundup can cause damage to the central nervous system may never be known...
...H A twenty-five-year-old farm worker developed a bleeding ulcer after being saturated with Roundup...
...The patient's condition rapidly improved, though his leg still has clogged and burned veins...
...Within a day, his leg had become excruciatingly painful and his ankle had swollen to the size of his knee...
...The Neaves's attorney, G. Kirk Haas, said paralysis "struck the boy suddenly, without any warning...
...A 1980 study reported in the journal Mutation Research indicated Roundup had "an ability to damage chromosomal material and cause mutations...
...U A twenty-three-year-old woman caught in the drift of Roundup "experienced sharp pain" in her eyes...
...One IBT executive, Paul L. Wright, was employed by Monsanto before and after his tenure at the testing laboratory...
...Consequently, Roundup is easily Mon-santo's most important product, the first herbicide to reach annual sales of $ 1 billion...
...The widespread and growing use of the herbicide worries many environmentalists...
...Gehrke, unable to walk and running a 105-degree fever, was taken to a hospital emergency room and immediately put in intensive care...
...Even stronger evidence is found in the files of the California Department of Food and Agriculture...
...Haas said toxicologists he had consulted were not surprised by the central nervous system damage that still afflicts the boy five years after the incident, but they were unable to prove in court that there was a connection between Roundup and the paralysis...
...We really don't consider this a health and safety issue at all," says a Monsanto spokesman...
...The EPA now states that the studies of the cancer rate in mice should be repeated, though Shearer says they were conducted under the EPA's top laboratory standards...
...After three months, up to 98 per cent of the chemical "is still present as unadulterated glyphosate...
...And the company claims the herbicide causes eye irritations in "approximately the same degree...
...Gehrke refused, and the doctor finally applied treatment for chemical poisoning...
...But the EPA insists Monsanto has provided "acceptable studies" showing no gene mutations, chromosomal aberrations, or primary DNA damage, and Monsanto maintains that "based on the results of extensive tox-icological studies in animals...
...Forest Service has reported that Roundup moves "readily from the treated 'leaves of lower branches to other leaves, buds, and developing fruit on the same branch...
...Records of pesticide poisoning compiled over the last five years show that among some 200 pesticides widely used in the state, Roundup has been linked to the greatest number of eye, skin, and internal injuries...
...But the company has persistently refused to release some of those studies or to make them available for review by independent scientists...
...IBT, once the nation's leading generator of health-effects studies for companies whose chemical products require Government approval, has been found to have conducted shoddy testing and falsified results...
...For its part, Monsanto contends that "data from workers handling Roundup and from human patch-test volunteers indicate that irritation to normal human skin from contact with use solutions of Roundup is unlikely to occur...
...Some of the information we have indicates there is every reason to be concerned," says Steve Dreistadt of Citizens for a Better Environment...
...Although Monsanto's original neurotoxicity studies were ruled invalid by the EPA because of "extensive gaps in the raw data supporting study findings and conclusions," there is no requirement that a new study be made...
...It is applied to citrus and grape groves in California, soybeans in the Middle West, Christmas trees in Maine, coffee beans in Brazil, as well as to crops grown for vitamins and spices, house plants, and Government forests in the Pacific Northwest...
...And the company is "working furiously," according to one Government expert, to find new applications for Roundup...
...Doctors who have examined him are at a loss for the cause of this paralysis...
...Monsanto has assured the EPA that the herbicide leaves no residue in raw agricultural products, but the U.S...
...lieve...
...But after swimming in a canal in Coral Gables, Florida, he became a "total quadriplegic...
...One man who suffered a cut while spraying Roundup experienced infections, while others reported that their arms, legs, and ankles became swollen after they were exposed...
...What independent information we have on Roundup indicates it can have highly irritative effects," says Jordan Barab, health and safety coordinator for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees...
...Roundup does not cause cancer, birth defects, mutagenic defects, or nerve damage...
...However, Roundup is far more dangerous than the public has been led to beAnthony L. Kimery is a free-lance writer in Oklahoma City...
...Such claims by the manufacturer are dishonest, charges genetic toxicologist Shearer, because they are based on "invalid Industrial Bio-Test Laboratory (IBT) cancer and birth-defects studies...
...Glyphos-ate is the generic name of Roundup...
...as the eye antiseptic routinely used for newborn babies...
...Despite the findings of its own Pesticide Incident Monitoring System (which has been dissolved by the Reagan Administration), the EPA seems to back the company, concluding that Roundup "is not a primary skin irritant, and is only minimally irritating to the eye...
...There's never been a herbicide like this before.' —The Monsanto Company, 1980 WEED KILLER BY ANTHONY L. KIMERY Eduardo Neaves was a healthy and happy twelve-year-old, the son of migrant farm workers...
...Late in 1985, the EPA told the Drug Enforcement Agency, which was considering using Roundup to eradicate marijuana crops, that "there is a significant increase [in the cancer rate of] glyphosate-treated mice when compared to appropriate historical control findings...
...H A thirty-one-year-old laborer's left eye became inflamed after exposure to Roundup...
...In Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Frederick Gehrke, a thirty-five-year-old highway worker, almost lost a leg to Roundup poisoning, and around the country scores of persons have been left with serious eye and skin injuries...
...Late in 1984, he was hospitalized with severe chemical burns and a blood infection after thistles on the brush he was spraying penetrated his skin and allowed Roundup to enter his bloodstream...
...Incidents of this kind recur among the more than 100 cases of poisoning by Roundup recorded by the EPA in an October 1980 report of its Pesticide Incident Monitoring System...
...In a 1980 report on poisoning cases involving Roundup, the EPA cited a number of persons who suffered symptoms similar to Gehrke's after exposure to the herbicide...
...Monsanto was IBT's largest customer, according to court documents, and was reported to be one of four chemical companies that knew of IBT's fraudulent testing practices but failed to report them...
...When he had failed for several days to respond to treatment, his physician, fearing the onset of gangrene, asked for permission to amputate...
...There's just no visible reason for it in his case like there ordinarily is with cases of quadriplegia...
...Two years earlier, though, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had briefly reported on the case of a fifty-nine-year-old Tennessee woman who had been exposed to Roundup...
...And that report "is probably just the tip of the iceberg" with respect to injuries inflicted by Roundup, says an EPA official...
...In that instance, according to the EPA, "central nervous system damage had not been ruled out" as an effect of the herbicide...
...The canal, it turned out, was contaminated with four times the recommended-use level of Roundup, the world's most popular brand-name herbicide...
...Some examples: H A nineteen-year-old agriculture worker using Roundup at the manufacturer's recommended level, which is supposed to cause no irritation, sprayed some of the herbicide into her eyes and suffered from inflammation, swollen eyelids, "purulent discharges," and "corneal erosion...
...Ruth W. Shearer, a genetic toxicologist often consulted by the EPA...
...One moment he was perfectly healthy, and the next he was completely paralyzed...
...He was convicted of fraudulent testing in 1983...
...Monsanto continues to insist that its "tons of raw health-effects data" contain all the public needs in the way of assurance that Roundup is safe...
...Gehrke's blood, makes it highly likely that the symptoms he experienced were caused by his exposure to Roundup...
...But the Monsanto Company, which produces Roundup, insists that the herbicide will not inflict any damage on the central nervous system, nor will it cause a limb to be amputated at any use level even close to the manufacturer's recommendation...
...When they want permission to take your leg, you have to pay attention," says Fred Gehrke, the Wisconsin highway worker...
...It is marketed in 120 countries and accounts for more than half of Monsanto's foreign sales...
...But probably the greatest concern about public exposure to Roundup is whether or not it is a carcinogen," says Dr...
...And the danger is compounded by the variety of new uses for which the herbicide is being promoted...
...We consider it a commercial issue...
...This information, combined with Roundup having got directly into Mr...
...However, Monsanto also has studies showing acute toxic reactions in rats given Roundup, and severe skin disorders in rabbits...
...If Roundup causes significant health problems, as some incidents suggest, an untold number of people around the world could be at risk...
...It was during Wright's stay at IBT that the lab performed tests involving Roundup's connection to mutations in mice and tumors in rabbits...
...11 A twenty-eight-year-old laborer who had sprayed weeds with the recommended dosage of Roundup developed an itchy rash, nausea, and swelling of the limbs and joints...
Vol. 51 • July 1987 • No. 7
