Tag Archives: Pesticide

Canadians testing if Glyphosate accumulates in the body

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While speaking with Dr. Don Huber and Dr. Anthony Samsel about GMO and Glyphosate, I came to learn of Moms Across America group, lead by Zen Honeycutt, and their efforts to have presence of Glyphosate tested in volunteers urine and breast milk.

While this was going on, there were fledgeling groups of people across Canada that were getting ready to have their water, and body fluids tested for presence of pesticides, including Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer trade named ‘Roundup’.

I ended up asking a few labs for quotation for testing for pesticides. The labs approached were :

I had asked them to quote for testing for the following products:

  • Glyphosate
  • AMPA
  • Mancozeb
  • 2,4-D,
  • Bacillus theuringiensis H-14
  • MCPA

Gamma Dynacare cannot do it now. LLSG tests for trace elements, but not molecules such as pesticide. That leaves only Maxxam Analytics for now who will offer a quote for Glyphosate around next Tuesday. Brody Mossman of Maxxam lead me to the Nova Socita site for pesticide tolerance limits. You can find it here. I am also including parts of their tabulated chart with limits for Glyphosate here:

Glyphosate limit in soil - just under 1 ppm in fine and 1.4 in course

As you can see, the limits to ground (potable) water allowed is (at 280 ppb) is almost five times higher than allowed in surface water (65 ppb). Is that good ? We intend to ask around.

Meanwhile, Moms Across America used a lab called Microbe Inotech Labrotories (MIL) in St Lois, MO. I spoke with them too. They can do it, and are preparing a quote.

In order to popularize the effort and get more volunteers to come forward, I spoke with Rose Stevens of Manitoba to make a video and an audio podcast.

While all this was going on, I got linked with Henry Rowlings of Sustainable Pulse, who spoke about the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC) which is going to be announced on Tuesday (4 days from now). And now I know that it may be better, to find double samples from the same person, urine and breast milk from a nursing mother. Even better may be three samples, including urine from the baby, to see if:

  • Glyphosate can bio-accumulate, and get from being in the gut and urine, into breast milk
  • and if that Glyphosate can then establish itself into babies, who are inherently more vulnerable than grown ups.

Also, it may be an idea to take sample from people that have not been careful of where they get their food from.

All this is happening as we speak. Meanwhile, here is the talk between myself and Rose Stevens, to help kickstart the awareness drive on this issue.

[youtube kfpzLbdFtQs]

You can also listen to the audio podcast by clicking on the player below, or download and listen at leisure.

Hope you like it. You can send me your comments at tony.mitra@gmail.com

Sheryl McCumsy of Alberta and her efforts to ban lawn pesticides

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I met Sheryl in December 2013 during the GE Foods Talk event at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is among the many ordinary citizens of Canada attempting to engage in extra-ordinary work, of singly and collectively trying to wrench Canadian democracy back from the clutches of lobby power, in the field of food, health and environment.

Sheryl McCumsy

It has been my perception that this war on our soil, water and air by an unending avalanche of toxic GMO and pesticides in the name of corporate profit, will be won or lost not so much by bigwigs, famous people, NGOs, politicians, scientists or activists, but by the ordinary people like Sheryl McCumsy that are coming out of the woodwork everywhere, in their effort to do something to resist this menace.

Sheryl is a homemaker and a student with a background in microbiology. She intends to meet with the Municipality of Edmonton, Alberta, to enquire and cajole them into adopting a by-law that bans use of harmful cosmetic lawn pesticides. This is something that has been done by hundreds of Municipalities across Canada, but not so much in Alberta and not in Edmonton. She also intends to work with groups such as Albertans for food safety, to further take on the issues of Municipalities adopting resolutions to declare themselves to be GMO free.

I spoke with Sheryl on phone on December 22, 2013, to prepare this podcast of her hopes and plans. It is a 20 minute podcast. You can listen to it by directly clicking the player at the bottom of this page. You can also subscribe to it through iTunes, where my podcasts are available under my name – Tony Mitra – save it on your iPod, iPhone or other music players, and listen to them at leisure. The logo of my podcast in iTunes is shown at right.