by Colin Todhunter September 13, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(If you are not eating organic, please read this. If you are. kudos to you!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The information below and the quotes were taken from the 12-page report that accompanied Rosemary Mason\u2019s recent open letter to the Chief Medical Officer to England, Sally Davies. It can be accessed here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of what follows focuses on the situation in the UK, but the chemical onslaught on our food chain is global. For instance, researcher and policy expert Devinder Sharma, cites that, according to Pesticide Action Network India, there are 291 pesticides registered; 112 of them are highly hazardous; 85 are possible carcinogens; 71 are possible endocrine disrupting chemicals; and 159 are possible reproductive and development toxins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Punjab, pesticide run-offs into water sources have turned the state into a \u2018cancer epicentre\u2018 and India is one of the world\u2019s largest users of pesticides and a profitable market for the corporations that manufacture them. Ladyfinger, cabbage, tomato and cauliflower in particular may contain dangerously high levels because farmers tend to harvest them almost immediately after spraying. Fruit and vegetables are sprayed and tampered with to make them more colourful, and harmful fungicides are sprayed on fruit to ripen them in order to rush them off to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research by the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering (SNSE) at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore has indicated disturbing trends in the increased use of pesticide. In 2008, it reported that many crops for export had been rejected internationally due to high pesticide residues. Moreover, India is one of the largest users of World Health Organization (WHO) \u2018Class 1A\u2019 pesticides, which are extremely hazardous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research by SNSE showed farmers use a cocktail of pesticides and often use three to four times the recommended amounts. It may come as no surprise that a report about children in Hyderabad are consuming 10 to 40 more times pesticides in their food than kids in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pushback against pesticides<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campaigner and environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has written an open letter to the Chief Medical Officer of England, Sally Davies. In it, Mason states that none of the more than 400 pesticides that have been authorised in the UK have been tested for long-term actions on the brain: in the foetus, in children or in adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK Department of Health (DoH) has previously stated that pesticides are not its concern. But, according to Mason, they should be. She says that Theo Colborn\u2019s crucial research in the early 1990s showed that endocrine disrupters (EDCs) were changing humans and the environment, but this research was ignored by officials. Glyphosate, the most widespread herbicide in the world, is an EDC and a nervous system disrupting chemical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a book published in 1996, \u2018Our Stolen Future: How Man-made Chemicals are Threatening our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival\u2019, Colborn (d. 2014) and colleagues revealed the full horror of what was happening to the world as a result of contamination with EDCs. There was emerging scientific research about how a wide range of these chemicals can disrupt delicate hormone systems in humans. These systems play a critical role in processes ranging from human sexual development to behaviour, intelligence and the functioning of the immune system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to glyphosate, EDCs include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). DDT, chlordane, lindane, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, toxaphene, heptachlor, dioxin, atrazine and dacthal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colborn stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe concentration of persistent chemicals can be magnified millions of times as they travel to the ends of the earth\u2026 Many chemicals that threaten the next generation have found their way into our bodies. There is no safe, uncontaminated place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason says that Colburn predicted that this would involve sexual development and adds this is why certain people may be confused about their sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She says to Davies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou were appointed as interim CMO by David Cameron in June 2010; you became the permanent holder in 2011. Was that once you had assured him of your loyalty by not mentioning pesticides?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She continues by saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou did not train as a specialist in public health but as a consultant haematologist, specialising in haemoglobinopathies. You joined the Civil Service in 2004 and became Chief Scientific Adviser to the Health Secretary. Did David Cameron instruct Tracey Brown OBE from Sense about Science, a lobby organisation for GMO crops, to be your minder? When the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published a paper saying that exposure to chemicals during pregnancy could damage the foetus, you and Tracey Brown publicly made fun of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter that I wrote to you about the Faroes Statement: in 2007, twenty-five experts in environmental health from eleven countries (including from the UK) met on the Faroes and contributed to this statement: \u2018The periods of embryonic, foetal and infant development are remarkably susceptible to environmental hazards. Toxic exposures to chemical pollutants during these windows of increased susceptibility can cause disease and disability in infants, children and across the entire span of human life.\u2019 You asked Dr John Harrison from Public Health England to write to me to reassure me that there was no evidence that it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou made an announcement in 2011 that antibiotic resistance was an apocalyptic threat to humans and the issue should be added to the government\u2019s national risk register of civil emergencies\u2026 When I informed you that one of glyphosate\u2019s many actions was as an antibiotic, you ignored me. Dr Don Huber, a Plant Pathologist from Purdue University, Indiana, says that glyphosate is an antibiotic, an organic phosphonate, a growth regulator, a toxicant, a virulence enhancer and is persistent in the soil. It chelates (captures) and washes out the following minerals: boron, calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, nickel and zinc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason doesn\u2019t waste much time in drawing conclusions as to why her previous letters to Davies and other officials have been ignored or sidelined. She notes that between May 2010 and the end of 2013 the UK Department of Health alone had 130 meetings with representatives of industry and concludes that commercial interests are currently in control of key decisions about the public\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2014, an open letter from America warned citizens, politicians and regulators in the UK and EU against adopting GM crops and glyphosate. It was endorsed by NGOs, scientists, anti-GM groups, celebrities, food manufacturers and others representing 60 million citizens in the US. Mason draws attention to the fact that the letter outlined eight independent papers describing environmental harm and six about the threat to human health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But David Cameron, PM at the time, ignored it. The European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority also ignored it. Glyphosate was relicensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason asked relevant officials why the EFSA was regularly increasing the maximum residue levels of glyphosate in foods at the request of Monsanto but has received no reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Philippe Grandjean, the leader of the conference that issued the \u2018Faroes Statement\u2019, released the book: \u2018Only One Chance: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Brain Development \u2013 and How to Protect the Brains of the Next Generation\u2019 (2013). In reviewing the book, Theo Colbern said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis book is a huge gift to humankind from an eminent scientist. Grandjean tells the truth about how we have been ruining the brain power of each new generation and asks if there are still enough intelligent people in the world today to reverse the problem. I cannot rid myself of the idea that too many brains have been drained and society is beyond the point of no return. We must learn from the follies and scandals that Grandjean reveals and stop the chemical brain drain before it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But pesticides are ignored<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A key point that Mason wants to make to Davies is that lifestyle choices are not to blame for rising rates of diseases, cancer and obesity; these increases are the outcome of the toxic cocktails of pesticides and other chemicals we are consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason says to Davies about the Chief Medical Officer for England\u2019s 2019 annual report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor your final report, you failed to mention many diseases afflicting people in the UK\u2026 You claim that you work independently and you are going to write about childhood obesity in September. But why did you collude with Cancer Research UK to blame the people for obesity?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only did David Cameron ignore the \u2018Letter from America\u2019, he also appointed Michael Pragnell, founder of Syngenta and former Chairman of CropLife International, to the board of Cancer Research UK in 2010. He became Chairman in 2011. As of 2015, CropLife International\u00b4s member list included BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC Corp., Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. Many of these make their own formulated glyphosate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason says to Davies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCRUK, you, the Chief Medical Officer for England, and Public Health England, linked cancer to alcohol, obesity and smoking. You all blamed the people for \u2018lifestyle choices\u2019. Where is the scientific evidence for this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syngenta is a member of the European Glyphosate Task Force, which sought to renew (and succeeded) European glyphosate registration. Not surprisingly, Mason says, the CRUK website denies that there is any link between pesticides and cancer. Its website says the following about pesticides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor now, the evidence is not strong enough to give us any clear answers. But for individual pesticides, the evidence was either too weak to come to a conclusion, or only strong enough to suggest a \u201cpossible\u201d effect. The scientific evidence on pesticides and cancer is still uncertain and more research is needed in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason refers to a survey commissioned by CRUK, \u2018People lack awareness of link between alcohol and cancer\u2019, but asks what credible scientific evidence is there that alcohol causes seven different types of cancer and that obesity causes 13 different types of cancer? She concludes, none, and writes that certain top scientists have questioned (ridiculed) the messages being conveyed to the public about alcohol use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Observer and the Guardian in July 2019, CRUK took out half-page advertisements stating that obesity (in huge letters) is a cause of cancer. In a smaller box, it was stated that, like smoking, obesity puts millions of adults at greater risk of cancer. Bus stops and advertising hoardings were replete with black text on a white background. The adverts invited people to fill in the blanks and spell out OBESITY, asking the public to \u2018Guess what is the biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason notes that CRUK has also paid for many TV adverts, describing how it looks after people with cancer and encourages donations from the public. It claims to have spent \u00a342 million on information and influencing in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She says that the Department of Health\u2019s School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS) has residues of 123 different pesticides that seriously impact the gut microbiome. Mason states that obesity is associated with low diversity of bacteria in the microbiome and glyphosate destroys most of the beneficial bacteria and leaves the toxic bacteria behind. In effect, she argues (citing relevant studies) that Roundup (and other biocides) is a major cause of gross obesity, neuropsychiatric disorders and other chronic diseases including cancers, which are all on the rise, and adversely impacts brain development in children and adolescents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She asks Davies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy did you not attend the meeting in the Houses of Parliament on Roundup? If you were away, you have hundreds of staff in the DOH or Public Health England that could have deputised for you. Dr Don Huber, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, Indiana, and one of four experts on Roundup, spoke at a meeting in the House of Commons on 18th June 2014 on the dangers of Roundup. In what was one of the most comprehensive meetings ever held in Europe on Glyphosate and Roundup, experts from around the World gathered in London to share their expertise with the media, members of a number of UK political parties, NGO representatives and members of the general public. EXCEPT THAT NONE OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WAS PRESENT, NOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH NOR PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND. They are protecting the pesticides industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason makes much of the very cosy relationship between the Murdoch media and successive governments in the UK and asks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRoundup weed killer is present in all our foods: why does the UK media not want us to know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She notes that women in the UK are being warned to cut back on sweet treats or risk cancer. Sally Davies says women are consuming \u201ctwo biscuits too much each day\u201d and should lose weight. Davies says obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of cancer in women by 2043. Last year, official figures revealed 30 per cent of women in the UK are overweight and 27 per cent are obese. Obesity levels across all genders have risen from 15 per cent to 26 per cent since 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as Mason has shown time and again in her reports and open letters to officials, pesticides (notably glyphosate) are a key driver of obesity. Moreover, type 2 diabetes is closely associated with being very overweight. According to NHS data, almost four in five of 715 children suffering from it were also obese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cType 2 diabetes is a disaster for the child and their family and for the NHS,\u201d says Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular health at Queen Mary University of London who is also the chair of the campaign group Action on Sugar. \u201cIf a child gets type 2 diabetes, it\u2019s condemning them to a lot of complications of that condition, such as blindness, amputations and kidney disease,\u201d he said. \u201cThese figures are a sign that we are in a crisis and that the government doesn\u2019t seem to be taking action, or not enough and not quickly enough. The UK obesity levels now exceed those of the US.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am one of the many British women in 2014-16 who were spending nearly 20 years of their life in poor health (19.3 years) while men spend just over 16 years in poor health. Spanish women live the longest, with UK longevity ranked 17th out of 28 EU nations, according to Public Health England\u2019s annual health profile. Each year there are steady increases in the numbers of new cancers in the UK and increases in deaths from the same cancers, with no treatments making any difference to the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She concludes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBritain and America are in the midst of a barely reported public health crisis. These countries are experiencing not merely a slowdown in life expectancy, which in many other rich countries is continuing to lengthen, but the start of an alarming increase in death rates across all our populations, men and women alike. We are needlessly allowing our people to die early.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colin Todhunter is an extensively published independent writer and former social policy researcher based in the UK and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n