Rounding Up Glyphosate: Is it really safe?
Tags: Biodiversity, Genetic Modification, Health and diet, Land, Policy, Pollution, Research, Soil fertility
Date: June 18th 2014
Time: 1:30 – 3:30pm
Room: Committee Room 10
Chair: Countess of Mar
Meeting Outline:
Glyphosate is the most widely used weed-killer in the world. In addition to its use in agriculture and horticulture it is also used for weed control in many other circumstances, e.g. on paved surfaces. Two uses of glyphosate greatly increase the chances that it will be ingested by humans and farm animals – to desiccate cereal, pulse and oilseed crops prior to harvest and when used on Roundup Ready GM soya, maize and cotton crops. Glyphosate is being routinely detected in the blood and urine. It has also recently been found in human breast milk
Is it really safe?
Glyphosate is often presented as a benign chemical which is inactivated in the soil. However this is far from the case. Glyphosate interferes with enzymes in plants and microbes because of its ability to chelate (bind) trace metals and by its antibiotic action (it is patented for both). Other chemicals used in formulated products sold to farmers and gardeners enhance its toxic effects.
This meeting examined how these properties of glyphosate impact on the health of humans, the soil and wildlife from residues and traces being detected in humans and the environment as use of glyphosate based weed-killers , such as Roundup, escalates.
Speaker Presentations:
Michael Antoniou – Presentation
Speakers:
Professor Don Huber
Dr. Don M. Huber is Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Idaho (1957, 1959), a Ph-D from Michigan State University (1963), and is a graduate of the US Army Command & General Staff College (AMED) and Industrial College of the Armed Forces. His agricultural research the past 55 years has focused on the epidemiology and control of soil-borne plant pathogens with emphasis on microbial ecology, cultural and biological controls, nutrient-disease interactions, and the physiology of host-parasite relationships.
Dr. Huber is a former member of the Advisory Board for the Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress; and Office of The Surgeon General Global Epidemiology Working Group. In addition to these assignments, he is an active scientific reviewer; consultant to academia, industry, and government; and international research cooperator with active projects in various countries as well as the U.S. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in the development of nitrification inhibitors to improve the efficiency of N fertilizers, interactions of the form of nitrogen, manganese and other nutrients in disease, herbicide-nutrient-disease interactions, techniques for rapid microbial identification, and cultural control of plant diseases.
Professor Malcolm Hooper
Following retirement in 1992 as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sunderland Malcolm Hooper became in evolved in major areas of scientific controversy including Gulf War Illness/Syndrome, Myalgic encephalomyleitis (ME) organophosphate poisoning of farm workers and airline staff, and GM issues initially with regard to glyphosate and glufosinate herbicides.
His background is in medicinal chemistry that concerns drug (and pesticide/herbicide development). He has been asked to provide independent scientific assessments of all the above issues and in the course of this work been involved with a number of Government committees, legal cases and their scientific advisers. He has given evidence to various Parliamentary groups and committees.
He is concerned that the independent scientific voice is increasingly not being heard since almost all science is at the behest of and controlled/funded by major corporations and government who re on record as saying “they fund to support policy”.
Pete Myers
Dr. John Peterson “Pete” Myers is founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, a not-for-profit organization that promotes public understanding of the science underpinnings of two of today’s great environmental challenges: environmental health and climate. As publisher of Environmental Health News and Daily Climate, Myers helps reporters, policy experts, scientists and advocates stay apace with rapid changes in scientific understanding of these two fields, with a special emphasis on what those changes mean for people.
Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, Myers wrote “Our Stolen Future” (1996) a groundbreaking book that explored the scientific basis of concern for how environmental chemical contamination threatens growth and development, sometimes with life-long consequences. Myers now publishes in peer-reviewed scientific journals on endocrine disruption and is currently Principal Investigator of basic research on bisphenol A in people.
Myers is the 2013 winner of the Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service, awarded by the John Merck Fund, a national foundation based in Boston, MA. He also received the Jean and Leslie Douglas “Pearl” Award in 2013 from the Cornell Douglas Foundation.
Dr Michael Antoniou
Michael Antoniou, PhD is a Reader in Molecular Genetics and Head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King’s College London School of Medicine, UK. He has 30 years’ experience of using genetic engineering technology in the investigation of gene organisation and control, with over 50 peer-reviewed publications of original work, and holds inventor status on a number of gene expression biotechnology patents. His discoveries in gene control mechanisms are being used for the production of research, diagnostic and therapeutic products, and safe and efficacious human somatic gene therapy for inherited and acquired genetic disorders.
Dr Antoniou has also taken an active interest in the safety of genetically modified crops and their associated pesticides and is co-author on a number of reports on the subject [GMO Myths and Truths: An evidence-based examination of the claims made for the safety and efficacy of genetically modified crops (www.earthopensource.org); Antoniou M et al. (2012) Teratogenic Effects of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides: Divergence of Regulatory Decisions from Scientific Evidence. J Environ Anal Toxicol., S4: 006. doi:10.4172/2161-0525.S4-006].