Letter to the BC Ministry of Environment, regarding Glyphosate testing

To: The Ministry of Environment, British Columbia, through the office of the Primier

Subject: ELISA testing for Glyphosate – an inquiry

Good day,

This letter is to ask if your office might assist a group of citizens in locating a suitable laboratory in Canada that will engage in batch processing using ELISA kits for measurement of presence of Glyphosate in various samples.

We are a large and growing group of Canadians that want to engage in self funded initiative to have a large number of samples tested for Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer) in our water, urine, breast milk, cooking oil, processed food, raw grains etc.

We are not interested at this point of time to debate or engage in any discussion with any scientist or Politician about whether Glyphosate in food is acceptable as a health risk or not. We simply indent to find out if it is present and to what extent in which sample.

We are also not requesting for any Government funding for this project. Citizens are going to spend money out of their own pocket for this test, as they believe it is their right to know if any specific synthetic chemical that they are concerned about is in their food web or not.

This request is merely to see if your office might assist in finding a suitable laboratory in Canada.

We have been looking around for such labs and have so far failed to locate a single lab in Canada that are accredited to test Glyphosate in anything except water and soil. They mostly seem to use HPLC (High-performance liquid chromatography) method which is also costly for individual citizens.

Meanwhile, we have received more favourable quotes from the US, using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) screening method, for individual tests for around $100 to 130, and also much lower costs for batch processing using ELISA kits, at almost half the cost. There are yet more labs that are not accredited to test Glyphosate yet, but are able to provide the service, presumably with comparable accuracy, at even a fourth of the cost. We are investigating these sources. A large number of concerned Americans too are joining us in the same quest.

There are courier charges involved in shipping to the US, along with possible customs formalities, which we are looking into.

Meanwhile, if indeed Canada has no labs that can test for Glyphosate in body fluids, in our food and drinks, using ELISA batch processing as a public service where people can pay for these tests themselves, at their cost, then can we request your good Government to consider setting such a lab up in BC ? That way we do not have to send money and samples across the border to help science lab industry in the US, and can support our own institutions instead.

We hope your office would be interested in looking into this.

I shall be happy to speak with you on phone, should you have more questions.

Thanking you

On behalf of Canadians for Glyphosate Testing

Tony Mitra.

(address)


Meanwhile, a crowd sourcing program started to raise $6,000 to get the homeless and low income group, suspected to be most affected by Glyphosate in their body through junk food, charity food and food bank supplements. If you can, please consider donating $5,10 or whatever you can spare.

Nationwide Glyphosate Testing

Canadians are fed up with a Government that is not perceived to be telling the truth or testing if Canadians are getting poisoned with RoundUp weed killer.

[youtube QfyCo4urS6U]

Whenever independent scientists raise alarm on the increasing level health risks being faced by the people through increased usage an exposure to Glyphosate, the killer poison in Monsanto’s RoundUp, such scientists get sacked, or their funds removed, labs closed down, papers retracted, gag order imposed and banished from the scientific community.

There has hardly been examples of such one sided censorship of science every since Copernicus got into trouble with the Church groups for stating what was obvious about the relative movements of the Sun and planet earth.

Credibility of mainstream science, be it from EPA or USDA or from Health Canada, has sunk below zero, and acquired a negative value, so much so that if a Government agency says this or that pesticide is good for us, people will form their own opinion that the pesticide MUST be bad. People no more trust the Government, or the scientists working for them, or the biotech lobby that appears to have captured the Government and international agencies that relate to sale and trade of these items.

So, Canadians have decided to engage in a massive citizen action to test how much Glyphosate poisoning (poisoned by Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer) they have been subjected to, through their water, their soil, their food and how much of it has gotten inside of them. They do not wish to engage in any scientific debate on it with the health care wing of the Government any more, since the Government has not, and apparently will not, engage in any independent third party analysis of long term health risks posed by GMO or pesticides through any institution that is outside of economic or political control of either the biotech industry or the Government. Canadian Government is perceived to have given up on any pretence on supporting independent safety analysis of carcinogens that it unleashes on its people.

So, Canadian citizens are engaging in testing for themselves, for their own knowledge, of how much poisoning they have been exposed to. They are going to do this bypassing the entire political establishment, entire mainstream scientific community and the medical profession, all political parties and all organized NGO or activism groups. This is a grassroots organization that is from the people, by the people and for the people. They want to know, they believe they have a right to know and they are going engage directly themselves, to find out.
A lot of low income group people may be unable to even pay $25 for testing their urine of the bread they buy from the local Walmart of Safeway, food banks or various sources of junk food. Yet, eating the most economical food available to them, they may be more exposed than many others. Some may already be sick.

So we have a crowd funding scheme to pay for these needy brothers and sisters. Click on the image below to go there.

COST ESTIMATE

  • Dr. Samsel : Urine, breast milk or water. US$ 100. Paid directly to Dr. Samsel at P.O. Box 131, Deerfield, NH 03037, USA. Dr. Samsel will send the sample kit and the questionnaire to the candidate.
  • A Canadian lab will test Glyphosate in water for CAD 105. Can be done through us.
  • US Labs will do batch tests of water, urine, bread, corn, cooking oil etc for about CAD 28 each plus courier charges, for batch processing using ELISA 96T kit for about 40 samples at a time, through us. They are not acredited.
  • US Labs will process batch of 96 for the same samples as above, but tested through a certified lab, for $50 to 60 per sample. to be done through us.
  • Microbe Inotech Laboratories, St. Louis, MO, USA will do water & urine (USD 110), Breast milk $130, Soil or grain for $145 US. Through us.

Here is a link to the original pdf about joining up, for those that need to download and print, in case you wish to pass it to local community members or concerned citizens. We are looking for regional coordinators.

If you wish to join up – write to Glyphosate.testing@gmail.com
or stay tuned to this blog site. We shall overcome.

Letter to the BC Ministry of Agriculture on Glyphosate Testing

To: The Government of British Columbia
Ministry of Agriculture
Date: June 13, 2014

Good day

I represent Canadians for Glyphosate Testing – a grassroots organization that is engaging in cross Canada mass testing for Glyphosate, the active poison in Monsanto’s RoundUP weed killer, in our water, our urine, feces, breast milk of mothers, and in the food sold in our stores.

We are doing it on our own as we feel that our Government has neglected to engage in this important task. How we know the Government has neglected this task is because we have asked about it to the Federal Government without getting a clear answer, and because we have discovered that Canada does not have labs where a citizen can test for Glyphosate in human body fluids, or in animals or food products.

I found your web page at (http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/g_1.htm) interesting, since it alerts people about pesticide poisoning. It however makes no mention of testing if people have been poisoned with Glyphosate, which we find regrettable.

We have located labs in the US that will test for Glyphosate in human and animal body fluids as well as food. Costs run between $25 or so for bulk-tests or over $100 for individual tests.
We have started the process of people paying for their own tests, and to gather a nationwide database on where Canada stands with regard to Glyphosate poisoning. We are doing it without the government.

Being a true grassroots organization, we reject political parties, and distance ourselves from NGO or special interest groups.

We are sending this note to your ministry, because we believe it is the Agriculture industry that may be most responsible for Glyphosate poisoning in our country, and to check if you might like to join us in any way to conduct this “third party” independent testing. While approval of RoundUp herbicide along with 2,4-D etc are the job of Health Canada in Ottawa, we believe responsibility for allowing application of these nasty substances in British Columbia, without there being any independent test on their safety, done anywhere in Canada or in the entire universe, rests at your feet.

We believe you already know about the epidemic level rise of serious illnesses that show strong correlation with the rise of Glyphosate usage in the US. We do not have corresponding correlation for Canada – not because there is no relation, but because data on year by year Glyphosate usage, and year by year reported illnesses on Crohn’s, Celiac, Kidney Failure, Autism, infertility, birth defects etc on humans are not available from Government sources. Should you be able to get those details for us, say for the past 20 years, we shall be very thankful.

Being an open source, transparent, grassroots organization with nothing to hide, we intend to let our members and the general public know that we sent you this letter. It may therefore be circulated through email, social media and the internet.

Looking forward to your input and possible assistance in getting a large scale testing undertaken in BC, and to check if BC can have an accredited lab that can test Glyphosate in human and animal body fluids at a cost point that are within reach of the lower income people, who are suspected to be most affected by Glyphosate poisoning through junk food and food bank supplements.

Should you be willing to have a meeting to discuss these issues, we shall be glad to present our delegation to talk these out with you. Meanwhile, we are proceeding with our nationwide drive to check level of Glyphosate poisoning in us, and we wonder if you will support, or frown at this citizens action.

Thanking you
With Best wishes
Tony Mitra
(address & tel)

Links:
www.tonu.org

2nd Letter to Mayor, Delta, BC about testing for Glyphosate

To: Ms Lois Jackson,
Mayor, Delta, BC
Dated June 12, 2014

Good day.

I had written to you on May 15, 2014 (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/15/deltamayor/) on this topic, but received no response.

This letter is a reminder that we are still awaiting a response, and to keep you updated and to see if you or the Municipality of Delta, which collects our taxes, and which is our representative local Government, might have any interest in the wellbeing of its residents regarding exposure to nasty pesticides.

We have started a nationwide drive to check how much of Glyphosate is present in our drinking water, agricultural runoff, in our food sold in stores, and in our body. The basic concept is described in the blog :http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/31/glyphosate_testing-ca/. This is a citizen’s direct action, since our Governments so far appears non-plussed about it.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be, it is the active ingredient (poison that kills) in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer. We have found no evidence that any government in Canada or any organization, have ever tested for accumulation of this weed killer in human body fluids or in food sold in local stores, or grown in local farms. This chemical is suspected to be involved in epidemic level rise of various auto-immune diseases. Government and the industry are resisting independent study of the effects of this pesticide on environment, on food and in people. Of relevance is a new book – ‘Poison Spring’ by Mr. Vallianatos, who worked for 25 years in EPA (Environment Protection Agency, USA) and describes how the EPA has continuously bypassed safety and allowed poison makers a free hand in running the institution. Our Ministry of Health has, instead of conducting independent safety checks on these substances, approves them based on tests done by the poison maker, and on EPA approval. I have spoken with the author and whistleblower Mr. Vallianatos himself. You can find it here : http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/06/poisonspring/

We have also written to Walmart and Safeway to check if they might like to join us in our testing food items sold in their store, for presence of this weed killer (http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/12/walmart-safeway/), but have not received any response.

The grassroots organization is citizen funded and a lot of people have joined hands to make this happen. Those that can afford to pay, will fund their own tests of samples collected by them, while we have just created a crowd funding program yesterday for others to contribute, so that poorer sections of the population, who cannot afford to pay for their tests, but who are likely more affected by Glyphosate poisoning, can be tested :https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nationwide-glyphosate-testing/x/7927653

We have also written to the BC ministry of agriculture and forestry, for release of data about the quantity and type of pesticides used in wood preservation industry in BC (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/10/pesticide-in-bc-forestry/) and followed it up with a letter to the MLA Mr. Scott Hamilton (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/20/scott_hamilton/). We have received letters of acknowledgement from both, though are still waiting for the data.

Incidentally, some of these questions have been picked up by MP Alex Atamanenko of BC and placed directly with the Minister of Health, in Ottawa. MP Mr. Atamanenko informed me from Ottawa about it:http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/29/atamanenko/

We shall be attending Municipal Council meetings in near future where we might present these questions to your council.

Meanwhile, here is a second request to you, to see if the Municipality or its environment, food, agriculture or health initiatives have any interest in joining our effort, or to use some of the tax it collects from us, to test how much RoundUp, the the most used Pesticide in Canada, has gotten in our water, our urine, in breast milk of our nursing mothers and in the food that are sold in our stores, in Delta BC.

Should there be another mechanism for approaching your good office to raise these questions – I shall be obliged if you advise me the details.

Being a fully transparent and citizen supported initiative, this letter may be circulated among friends and other partners, by email, on social media, and on internet.

We shall be more than happy to see you, or meet your council, or converse with you on phone on this matter that is considered to be of utmost importance by a large body of people.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
(address & Tel)

Asking Walmart & Safeway about Glyphosate in food they sell

To, the Manager,
Walmart
12451 88th Avenue, Surrey, BC, V3W 1P8, (604)-597-7117

Subject: Testing for food sold in Walmart Store, for presence of Glyphosate

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are engaging in a massive citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food sold in our stores, such as in Walmart, Surrey, BC.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to epidemic level rise of a multitude of serious illnesses and deaths, and possible species extinctions in the last 20 years.
In that respect, we intend to test food items from your store such as :

Baby formulae
Cow milk
Bread
Corn
Canola and other cooking oil
Beet
Meat products such as Beef, Chicken and Pork

Our legal team is advising that we do not need to either inform you or take your permission, to test these products, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat from any store that is open to public.

However, this letter is sent to seek your opinion on this, and to check if you might like to join us in this test. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab. We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products.

We are planning to conduct them any way, but thought it might look better if your store were perceived to be cooperating.

Also, should you have an objection to the testing, i.e. if your position is that we may eat what we buy from you, but we may not test it, I shall appreciate if you shall validate that with a proper statement.

Lastly, we aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

I shall be more than happy to meet you or speak with you about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response from you.

Absence of a response will be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Thanking you
On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate
Tony Mitra
(address)


To, the Management, supplier.support@safeway.com, ecredi@safeway.com
Safeway, Canada 
7450 120 St, Surrey, BC, (604) 594-7341

Subject: Testing for food sold in Safeway, for presence of Glyphosate

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are engaging in a massive citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food sold in our stores, such as in Walmart, Surrey, BC.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to epidemic level rise of a multitude of serious illnesses and deaths, and possible species extinctions in the last 20 years.
In that respect, we intend to test food items from your store such as :

Baby formulae
Cow milk
Bread
Corn
Canola and other cooking oil
Beet
Meat products such as Beef, Chicken and Pork

Our legal team is advising that we do not need to either inform you or take your permission, to test these products, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat from any store that are open to public.

However, this letter is sent to seek your opinion on this, and to check if you might like to join us in this test. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab. We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products. We are planning to conduct them any way, but thought it might look better if your store were perceived to be cooperating.

Also, should you have an objection to the testing, i.e. if your position is that we may eat what we buy from you, but we may not test it, I shall appreciate if you shall validate that with a proper statement.

We aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

I shall be more than happy to meet you or speak with you about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response from you.

Absence of a response will be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Incidentally, we found it rather difficult to locate an applicable contact email for making suggestions to the Manager of the Store in the address given above. In that respect, the Safeway website seemed designed make it difficult for customers to send any email to the management. It seemed designed to tell customers many things, but with no mechanism to listen from them. Thus, we send this message to the only two emails we could locate after some searching around, at http://suppliers.safeway.com/canada/edi_can/edi_contact.asp.

Should this message be better directed to another person or department, I request that this be done.

Thanking you
On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate
Tony Mitra,
(address)
tony.mitra@gmail.com

Vallianatos exposes EPA through his book – Poison Spring

As the title says, Evaggelos Vallianatos, along with Mr. M. Jenkins co-authored the book on EPA, and how the organization has been literally captured by the toxic chemical industry, to the disadvantage of the average American, and by extension, of the people the world over.

I found the book very useful to understand how toxic chemicals get approved and how much of a clout the industry has over the regulatory mechanism. So much so that I approached Evaggelos Vallianatos for a phone interview, even if I was not very successful in pronouncing  his first name accurately.

He agreed and we had a talk a few days ago.

Here are the basic points:

  • The prevailing culture in EPA was to pretty much let the chemical industry to run the show.
  • The Government has been captured by the industry, and EPA is simply an example.
  • EPA is too important to be allowed to be dominated by such outside forces.
  • Decision made in EPA are questionable due to the influence that comes from the Congress, from the White House and directly from the Chemical Industry.
  • Credibility of science has been damaged due to the history of fraud in the testing of these toxic chemicals for decades.
  • The climate of fear, and acceptance of outside influence, is still pervasive.
  • America aught to reject the current EPA and redesign it as an independent organization, with a wall of protection from the industry so the scientists would feel secure and confident that their work and decisions are to be made on reliable and untampered data.
  • Also, the EPA or the Government needs to create a set of independent laboratories to test all these chemicals before they get into the market, and not rely on labs under control of the industry.
  • Credibility of the industry right now is as good as zero. Nobody trusts it’s findings. He himself would not trust them because of what he has seen in EPA.
  • This is very important because this not only affects the people of America, but also of Canada and pretty much the rest of the industrial world and beyond.
  • The system needs to be reformed, and its workings set right, and the industry needs to be kept away from interfering with the work of this agency.
  • We need to raise awareness by speaking about it, in Canada, in USA and elsewhere, in order to raise public awareness to the level where it can make an impact.
  • It has been 53 years since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring. There should be no need now to re-state the problem, and we are still tackling with the same old problem albeit with a new breed of toxins.
  • CSPAN book TV has interviewed Dr. Vallianatos to be broadcast soon – and people are encouraged to see it.
  • Eggevelos Vallianatos would love to speak to Canadians on this.
  • He believes, if we have to select just a handful of pesticides that should be removed immediately, we might choose to kick out 2,4-D and Glyphosate first.
  • When EPA banned 2,4,5-T, they likely made a secret agreement with Dow not to touch 2,4-D since it was so popular.
  • Glyphosate in Roundup is used for decades and there are some experts that believe it will destroy American agriculture. We don’t think such extremely toxic substances should be in our environment.
  • Moms Across America has some young mothers test their breast milk and found traces of Glyphosate in them. Imagine the feeling of the mothers when they know they might poison their babies through breast feeding !!
  • There is science papers out there already about how bad these toxins are for many animals and even humans. And now it is in mothers milk.
  • Governments should ban it. There is enough good food possible through organic clean agriculture. There is no need for this toxic model.
  • So why is this toxic industry surviving? Not to provide nutrition or kill insects or do any favour to nature or people, Vallianatos argues. They survive so a small number of corporations can have a mega empire.
  • Advise to  Canadians – start eating organic food. Doing so you avoid GMO, you avoid pesticide, you avoid sludge, radiation, and other synthetic chemicals. Then, start influencing others to do the same. Join environment protection groups. Then try to organize bigger groups to influence the politics of your region and your nation.

Its a 14 minute interview. You can listen to it directly at the bottom of this page, or you can download it to play later through your music player.

I shall be glad to hear your opinion. Write to tony.mitra@gmail.com

Cheers

Tony Mitra


Calling all Canadians for joining up on Glyphosate testing

Below scheme has now been cancelled. The original deal fell through as the lab involved stopped supporting the price point deal. However, a lot of labs in the US and Canada will test human urine and body fluids for glyphosate, using different methods and for different prices – ranging from around USD 100 upwards.

What is described here were batch processing deals of 40 samples at a time for average cost of under USD 30 per sample. That deal, unfortunately, has been cancelled.

You can find more information on who tests urine for glyphosate by googling it. If you need more information, you can send me an email at tony.mitra@gmail.com.

Worried about

  • Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide getting in your drinking water?
  • If it has gotten in your body?
  • someone that is sick from Celiac, Crhon’s, Autism?
  • if breast milk of young mothers already have it?
  • if milk from dairy cows fed with GM cattle feed has Glyphosate?
  • If the bread you eat from the supermarket has Roundup in it?

Here is a chance to join up on a nationwide testing scheme.

People who have so far shown interest in representing their town, region, province etc towards a Canada wide Glyphosate testing scheme and might like to be a part of an exploratory conference call are :
Myself (Delta, BC)
Sheryl McCumsey (Edmonton, AB)
Brandie Nadiger-Harrop (Edmonton, AB)
Barbara Louise (Edmonton, AB)
Aleksandra Cupial-Crook (Lethbridge, AB)
Melissa Bodeleau (Cold Lake, AB)
Rob Bright (Toronto, ON)
Tina Jensen (London, ON)
Craig Weiss (Monstreal, QC)
Mike Eddy (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Rose Stevens (Winnipeg, MB)
Melissa Richardson (Holdfast, SK)
Zoe Swartz (US east coast)
Zen Honeycutt (CA, USA)
Mark Reed (East coast, USA)

  • The first conference call on this project is scheduled for 8 PM Atlantic, 4 PM Pacific time Tuesday, on June 3rd. Anyone not in the above list but wishing to get on board, should contact Rose Stevens or Brandie Harrop.

We are still missing, New Brunswick, PEINewfoundland and the territories up north. Looking for participants/ organizers from those provinces and areas.


Dear friends


Many Canadians have reached a conclusion that they do not want GMO and its associate pesticide in their environment, in their food and in their person.

They are no more interested to listen to politicians tap dance around the issue. They no more wish to get mired into an endless debate on the science of it. They do not trust the Government, and do not believe that the established science faculties will tell the truth. They have already concluded, perhaps justifiably, that the Government and the mainstream science establishments have come under an unholy control of corporations and aim to undermine Canada’s independence. Canada’s heritage, biological diversity, and national intellectual property over its flora and fauna, as well as food sovereignty, are all under attack of a patent holding regime of foreign corporations that are busy corrupting the political and academic foundations of our nation.

The question at hand is – how much of Glyphosate, the 900 pound gorilla of the food web, has gotten into our environment, and who is keeping a watch on it?

The answer is – nobody knows. The Government has set some limit on how much of it is acceptable in water without conducting any independent long term testing of what Glyphosate can do to living creatures. What is even worse, they seem to have no limits set on its concentration in human beings or other animals. There seem to be no lab in Canada among the CALA list of certified labs, that can test Glyphosate in human breast milk, or cow milk, or bread, or grain or much anything except for water and soil, and perhaps urine.
We have come to suspect that, contrary to Monsanto’s claims, Glyphosate seems to accumulate in humans and other animals, from the recent tests by Americans, where Glyphosate was noted in breast milk of nursing mothers. This suggests that unborn fetus as well as newborns are getting Glyphosate from their mother through umbilical chord and later through mother’s milk. Fetuses and newborns are particularly susceptible since they have not had time to develop a healthy growth of gut bacteria and an immunity that can resist attacks from antibiotics such as Glyphosate. We know diseases are rising to epidemic levels including in new borns and infants. Has Canada conducted independent study on how it affects pregnant animals or how it is right now affecting pregnant women? No it has not and is not.

So, bypassing the Government and its apparatus, we Canadians are getting ready to test our environment, our persons and our loved ones, tested for presence of Glyphosate. To that end, we have basically a few quotes and rates so far available. This list will get better as time passes. Meanwhile, here are the options available right now.

1) Anthony Samsel/ Stephanie Seneff – Cambridge, Massachusetts, $100
Dr. Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff are offering tests on breast milk, water, urine, blood or milk products etc, for US$ 100 each. They will mail the sample kit, with the questionnaire to any address in Canada if they can receive a cheque for US$ 100. They are trying to set up a better system where by one can make a payment with credit card or paypal etc. They will get it tested by a certified lab and reports emailed back.

Two young nursing mothers in PEI have already decided to be the first through the door, getting their breast milk tested in the US. The results will be emailed to them. We hope to get a copy. These two women are careful with their food, and only eat organic. Nonetheless their results would be a good datum.

I encourage others to also join up. This seems to be, for now, the best bet for breast milk, cow milk, and such. We are ready to collect more samples. I am ready to send my own urine, or my tap water, and I shall pay for at least one more person that is perhaps suffering from Glyphosate poisoning, and cannot pay for the test.

2) Bulk analysis, under US$ 25 ea, batch of 96
For things other than milk, such as water, and urine, blood etc, there are other labs, who can do it in batches of 96. The total package including testing would cost about US$ 15.26 plus postage for shipping the samples to the lab. They would need 6 weeks for the results. The labs that do the testing with be certified for general work, may not be accredited for Glyphosate testing. The results are supposed to be good for indication even if they may or may not hold up in court. This way one can get a lot more bang for the buck and perhaps get more tests under the belt, and later decide if specific samples or areas or people need to be subjected to more rigorous and therefore more costly, testing.

I am considering sending sample of the same source to both alternatives – such as my urine to both 1) and 2) just to see if the results are identical or if there is a difference.

Those that need even higher accuracy and willing to pay even higher cost, but only available for water or soil, can pay between US$ 200 and 300 and do it in some Canadian labs. For now, we are not focusing on these labs, for the citizen’s testing.

Perhaps having a conference call, with one or two from each province, on Skype, would be a good idea, to air out the issues and see what we should do.

I think we should pursue a two pronged approach. Testing breast milk, as well as milk from cows that are fed GM feed, would raise the issue of how much of our food is contaminated and to what extent. It would also prove, in the case of both the cow and the nursing mothers, that Glyphosate does bio-accumulate, and can trigger a series of illnesses in new borns and grown ups, for which there has been no independent study.

Same time, testing our tap water, ground water, bread, cake, Canola, sugar etc at US$16 a test should cover a lot of ground for us. We shall need volunteers that can put all this into a database and put up results on line for us and for Canada to check where we stand. We can hope to shame the Govt, or if it proves to be shameless, then force the Govt, to act.

Alex AtamanenkoIn another important development, MP Mr. Alex Atamanenko spoke with me yesterday and wishes to take these issues up directly with the Minister of Health from his end as well.

I am up for suggestions. What does everybody think ? Anybody interested, can give us a shout, in Facebook, or by email.

People interested to join up in the Glyphosate testing drive may write directly to: glyphosate.testing@gmail.com

Cheers
Tony Mitra

tony.mitra@gmail.com

MP Alex Atamanenko lends a word of support – on Glyphosate testing

Since we concluded the eastern tour of the Maritime provinces, a number of new issues have come up, some of it with some involvement from my end as well. Here I shall cover one aspect of it – testing mammalian body fluids, such as human urine, blood or mothers breast milk, as well as cow milk, and perhaps even grain or bread etc, for presence of Glyphosate – the active poison in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.

What I learned in the process is that the dozen or so labs in Canada that have the accreditation for testing for Glyphosate, none seem prepared to test its presence in any sample except water and soil. Urine, blood or milk from nursing mothers or cows cannot be tested. I told him of me being puzzled and wondering if Health Canada at all has imposed any acceptable limit of concentration of Glyphosate in humans, and if they do – what is that limit. More importantly, how do they test it if no lab in Canada can do that? If on the other hand, Health Canada has not set any limit of concentration in humans, and in effect considers any level of accumulation is fine – then why set a limit for potable water in the first place ?

What exactly is Health Canada’s position on accumulation of Glyphosate in humans and other animals?

I told him about the general conception that, if Glyphosate can bio-accumulate in the body, then its acceptable limit in environment should be way less than it is now. Presence of it in mothers breast milk in USA is already raising questions these questions across the border. I told him how most experts will agree that fetuses in the womb are more vulnerable to harmful molecules since they have not yet developed enough resistance to disease from what they eat, which is why an affected mother, if she can pass Glyphosate to the fetus, may pose a higher risk of harming the baby.

Mr. Atamanenko lent his support to getting the tests done across the border in USA, if no Canadian lab can do it. Further, he wished me to send a short note on the question my suspicion that Health Canada might not have imposed any limit to accumulation of Glyphosate in human beings, and worry that this is dangerous to health of Canadian people as well as the animal kingdom. Mr. Atamanenko wishes to push this issue directly to the minister of health.

You can listen to the 5 minute podcast of which just over two minutes are from Mr. Atamanenko.

Meanwhile, I received this note of relevance from Dr. Anthony Samsel himself, from Cambridge, Massachusetts:

Hi Tony,

All who consume food containing glyphosate residues, be they man or beast will have glyphosate residues circulating in their blood and bioaccumulating in their tissues.  Glyphosate bioaccumulates in the milk of all mammals and can also be found attached to the fatty acids of cerebrospinal fluid.  Contrary to Monsanto’s claims that glyphosate is metabolized and passed out of the body harmlessly in the urine and feces, some does bioaccumulate.

Glyphosate also attaches to muscle tissue which includes the heart and it has been found in the pancreas, liver and kidneys.  Glyphosate is passed up and through the food chain.  What affects one species, will affect all species exposed; there is no free lunch.  Glyphosate is an equal opportunity offender.

You may quote me

Anthony

So there you have it folks.
I shall be happy to have your feedback at tony.mitra@gmail.com

 

 

March Against Monsanto, Vancouver, May 2014 – Canada under GMO attack

The March Against Monsanto itself has been evolving the world over. In Vancouver, the march started from its usual location – Vancouver Art Gallery and ended back there. This time there were six speakers before the march and then there were a singer and a closing speaker at the end of the March.

My wife and later myself filmed most of the speakers, including myself, before the march.

Although I have some video clips of the march itself, I have not had the time to stitch them into a meaningful collage.

Here, I am putting up the clips of the speakers prior to the commencement of the march, all linked to U-Tube, all filmed by me or Anuradha.

The task at hand now is to organize ourselves for some of the immediate work – such as handling the Glyphosate testing issue – or to ascertain what other chemical one should test against.

There may also be a need to put all the analyzed data into some sort of a database, to make sense of later on. I am willing to do it initially, but not using any database software (don’t have the time), but perhaps into a giant spreadsheet, or worksheet.

We may need to form a volunteer group that are willing to work on this. A lot of folks showed interest in doing so at the Vancouver Art Gallery where I broached the subject. We do not have a group specific email list, or a separate FB page or other platforms where this can be stored, viewed, discussed, explained or advertised. All that might need to happen.

Perhaps there is a need for airing out views on this on a few conference calls. People with Skype account comes first to mind. Google hangout is another possibility. I do not have a conference call facility with my telephone provider, nor a subscription to specific conference call service providers, which usually involve a monthly paid subscription. Anyhow, these are issues worth thinking through.

Then there is also the question of what to test, how to test, and who should monitor the process, as well as bulk pricing against individual pricing.

Dr. Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff have reportedly offered a service for the people of PEI, Canada, for a pilot study on a small group of target people for long term study of adverse effect on people through exposure of Glyphosate. I am not certain at this point if the study will include exposure to other biocides. PEI is an interesting case. It is a relatively isolated island with a small population, and heavily burdened with biocides, both in the past and at present. However, Glyphosate may not be the most used poison there. 82% of the current biocide load appears to come from a fungicide used on the potato fields.

The product most used as a desiccant on the potato fields in PEI is reportedly Syngenta’s Reglone, with uses the active ingredient diquat, as a contact killer through cell membrane disruption and photosynthesis inhibition.

I know some dairy farmers in PEI cannot grow their own cattle feed and purchase it from special cattle feed producers, who may be growing or using GM corn and soy for this purpose. Therefore, Glyphosate is likely to be in the diet of these dairy cattle, and could therefore me present in the milk. This of course is not typical of just PEI, but across Canada, and opens an opportunity for independent citizen’s action groups having dairy milk tested for glyphosate from select areas. I know the Dairy farmers in the Comox Valley in Vancouver Island are using this method.

Interstingly, Syngenta’s Reglone, with its diquat, is used by the Canadian Govt on surface water reservoirs used for drinking throughout the Canadian prairie, and possibly elsewhere.

What is even more interesting, or disquieting, is a report I have read, by Hans Peterson, Senior Research Scientist, Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – that says “average treatment concentration of diquat is around 1,000 ug per litre of dugout water. The Canadian Drinking Water Guideline for diquat is 70 ug per litre. The federal government restricts consumption of diquat treated water for 24 hours. It is, however, likely that a treatment concentration of 1000 ug per litre has not decreased to 70 ug per litre 24 hours after treatment.”

I further learned from Hans Peterson’s report that the US EPA, no saint themselves, allow only 10 ug/litre and do not allow it to be consumed before 14 days have passed.

The European Union, apparently, allow only 0.1 ug/l.

I am as a result looking for a chance to speak with Hans Peterson, but do not know his contact details, or if he likes to be contacted on this issue. I would appreciate if anyone can trace him or help me contact him on this issue. I intend to learn a bit more about this desiccant that is also used on drinking water across Canada.

Then there is the issue of wood preservatives in British Columbia. I shall get to it later on. For now, this is a quick note from me, on issues that are before us, in Canada as well as Globally. Since our Government is not showing sufficient concern and not conducting wide ranging tests on how much of these man made poisons are entering into our ecology and our persons, the task it left for the people to handle.

I have no doubt in my mind that GMO and pesticides are not just a health hazard, but are part of a design to undermine Canada’s very independence and democratic underpinnings, and convert it into a colony to be made profit from, by a handful of corporations. I have no doubt in my mind that the solution will have to come through political action of the people, and not through polite academic debates on policy. There is also mounting evidence that science is now censored and there is little freedom of press left. The media is not as much corporate controlled as is education.

So, the citizens need to take back control of the political process. Sooner or later, something has to give, because the current trend is only heading towards a cliff.

Here are the MAM Vancouver speakers videos:

1. Kenneth Young

[youtube N7t7K5e3XP0]

 2. Tony Mitra

[youtube dOADhM-Ennw]

Another – Official version

[youtube ArURGIx_x3c]

3. Teresa Lynne

[youtube UJqIQ10JL70]

4. Daniel Bissonnette

[youtube mGhRuO0JMzY]

5. Harold Steves

[youtube XVHaBaZJVXw]

6. Lili Dion

[youtube cQ-ODb–AA8]

Letter to Scott Hamilton, MLA, Delta North, BC

To MLA Scott Hamilton, North Delta
cc: Jennifer Newman, Constituency Assistant to Minister Steve Thomson, BC Govt.
cc: Ministry of forestry, BC Govt.
cc: MLA Vicky Huntington, South Delta
Scott Hamilton
Subject: Request for data on Pesticide use in BC wood processing industry,

Dear Honorable MLA Hamilton

Good day,

I am an engineer, a citizen journalist, a blogger (www.tonu.org), a podcaster, a videographer and a food security activist.

You are my representative in the legislative assembly of British Columbia, and I have been asked by the secretary of the Minister of Forestry, Mr. Steve Thomson, to approach you with my request. For reference I include an email sent to the honourable Minister Steve Thomson.

We, the citizens of Canada and residents of BC, are concerned about the rising pesticide load on the agricultural land, the forests and the aquatic ecosystem of the province, and wished to check how far the local Government has actually performed independent testing for presence of any potentially harmful substance in our environment that could be attributed to industrial activity.

While this effort is still ongoing, people are getting ready to conduct their own tests, thus bypassing the political process if need be, to find out if harmful contaminants have entered their neighbourhood.

From documents released by Environment Canada, I tried to use the information on latest records of pesticide use in different provinces, and by dividing that with area and population of each province, tried to get a per capita and per unit area pesticide load in a table. I include this table for your reference.

We note from the Environment Canada document, that a high percentage of pesticide use in BC is on wood preservatives, presumably due to concentration of lumber processing plants.

We would therefore like to know what kind of wood preservatives have been used in the past and being use now. Specifically, we are looking for figures, in Kg of toxic metals such as chromium, copper, tin or arsenic.

Further, we wished to know if Tributiltin (TBT) had been or is being used as wood preservative in the province and the Kg amount that may have been used so far.

All these are toxic and harmful to human health. Many of these items are now banned from industrial use in various parts of the world. TBT for example, has been banned from Marine use, where earlier it was used as anti-fouling paint on ships underwater hull, to prevent encrustation of barnacles. This was killing marine lifeforms and is now banned.

Based on information thus received, it is the wish of the people, to engage in conducting tests of the ground water, soil, and human and animal body fluids for the presence of these materials.

Ideally, such tests should have been conducted by the health and/or environment ministry, and not left to the industry which may have a vested and conflict of interest in such tests.

In absence of such tests performed by the BC Government, we plan to do it ourselves.

Meanwhile, we request information, from the Government and through you, on :

  1. A year upon year breakdown of the amount (by weight) of which kind of pesticide has been sold and used in the province.
  2. Specific types of wood preservatives that have been and are being used in the wood processing industry in BC and in which areas these are concentrated.
  3. Has the Govt of BC conducted independent study of presence of toxic chemicals or elements used by the industry, in the environment where they could harm the living planet including humans and livestock? If “yes” I would request for copies of these reports for public consumption.

Since I am part of a large body of grassroots organizers and since many of them are involved in this effort, and since this is a transparent above board effort of the people, this email may be put up on line or circulated for information.
In the coming March Against Monsanto event this May 24th in Vancouver, where thousands are expected to gather, I have been asked to address the people, and would have liked to mention a few elected officials that are working for us in finding the information thus requested.

I would have preferred to get encouraging feedback from the elected politicians, and thus would have mentioned them at the rally. Unfortunately, we have not received a single response from any elected official at the provincial level, although a number of elected Councillors have shown support for the effort, and a few MPs are also considering it.

I would therefore appreciate if you could assist us in finding the right answers to the pesticide distribution in BC, and help reduce cost of endless tests to find out what is more prevalent where. I would be glad to speak with you on phone on this, and pay you a visit should you so prefer. I would also like to take your name, in case you offer help and if you allow, in the march against Monsanto, as an example of an elected MLA that is helping us find further information on this very important issue.

Hoping for a positive response
With much regards
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada
tony.mitra@gmail.com