SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
One of the biggest open
questions of this century is whether 144,000 different chemicals swirling
throughout the world are properly tested and analyzed for toxicity. By almost
all accounts, the scale of toxic risk is unknown. This may be the biggest tragedy
of all time, a black eye of enormous proportions.
Correspondingly and very
likely, not yet 100% proven but probably 99%, as a result of ubiquitous
chemical presence, one hundred fifty million (150,000,000) Americans have
chronic disease, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis,
heart disease, diabetes, fibromyalgia, cancer, stroke, asthma, cystic fibrosis,
obesity, and osteoporosis (Rand Corporation Review 2017). Why?
According to Dr. Paul
Winchester, who discovered the link between chemicals, like pesticides atrazine
and glyphosate aka Roundup and epigenetic human alteration, the findings are:
“The most important next discovery in all of medicine.” (Source: EcoWatch, Aug.
16, 2018)
Dr. Winchester was one of the
researchers/authors of “Atrazine Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational
Inheritance of Disease, Lean Phenotype and Sperm Epimutation Pathology
Biomarkers,” PLOS, published September 20, 2017.
The grisly underlying message
of that study is as clear as a bell: Chemicals found far and wide throughout
America alter human hormones as well as human DNA, which passes along
generation-to-generation known as transgenerational inheritance.
Frankly, nothing more should
need to be said to spur outrage and pissed-off people all across the land because,
if that seminal study is correct in its analysis that chemicals mess
up/distort/disrupt human hormones and alter human DNA in a destructive manner,
then the streets of America should be filled with people wielding pots and
pans, probably pitchforks, and ready for the fight of a lifetime because, by
any account, there has been massive failure of ethical standards and
regulations of chemicals for decades and decades. Who’s to blame?
The primary targets are (1)
the EPA and (2) FDA and (3) pesticide/chemical manufacturers, like Monsanto,
and ultimately the U.S. Congress.
The chemicals in the
aforementioned study include the herbicide atrazine, one of the most widely
used herbicides in the country and commonly detected in drinking water. The
study demonstrated that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that negatively
alters human hormonal systems, as chronic diseases overwhelm American society.
The European Union (EU) banned
atrazine in 2003 because of persistent groundwater contamination. However, as
for the EPA in America, it’s okay, no problem. But, doubtlessly one of those
jurisdictions is dead wrong because it’s a black and white matter. Either toxic
chemicals horribly messes up DNA and cause chronic diseases or not, no middle
ground. As for America, chronic disease is at epidemic levels at 60% of the
population. Where, why, and how if not from environmental sources?
Yet, the most disturbing issue
is the epigenetic impact, meaning that environmental factors impact the health
of people and also their descendants. It stays with and passes along the human
genome generation-by-generation-by-generation.
According to Dr. Winchester,
“This is a really important concept that is difficult to teach the public, and
when I say the public, I include my clinical colleagues.” (EcoWatch)
Still, atrazine is not the
only human hormone-altering chemical in the environment. Dr. Winchester tested
nearly 20 different chemicals and all demonstrated epigenetic effects, for
example, all of the chemicals reduced fertility, even in the 3rd generation.
Still, why do 150,000,000
Americans have chronic diseases?
Researchers believe that every
adult disease extant is linked to epigenetic origins. If confirmed over time
with additional research, the study is a blockbuster that goes to the heart of
public health and attendant government regulations.
According to Dr. Winchester:
“This is a huge thing that is going to change how we understand the origin of
disease. But a big part of that is that it will change our interpretation of
what chemicals are safe. In medicine I can’t give a drug to somebody unless it
has gone through a huge amount of testing. But all these chemicals haven’t gone
through anything like that. We’ve been experimented on for the last 70 years,
and there’s not one study on multigenerational effects.” (EcoWatch)
The U.S. Congress passed a new
chemical safety law for the first time in 40 years with the Frank R. Lautenberg
Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act in 2016, but the provisions for
regulation are totally overwhelmed by the tasks at hand. For starters, more
than 60,000 chemicals came to the market without safety testing, and the burden
of proof for regulators previously was so burdensome that the EPA wasn’t able
to ban asbestos when necessary.
As for the effectiveness of
the new law, consider this statement in the following article, “It Could Take
Centuries for EPA to Test all the Unregulated Chemicals Under a New Landmark
Bill,” PBS SoCal, June 22, 2016: “The new law requires EPA to test tens of
thousands of unregulated chemicals currently on the market, and the roughly
2,000 new chemicals introduced each year, but quite slowly. The EPA will review
a minimum of 20 chemicals at a time, and each has a seven-year deadline.
Industry may then have five years to comply after the new rule is made. At that
pace it could take centuries for the agency to finish its review.”
If that’s the best Congress
can do to protect its citizens from toxic chemicals, they should be run out of
town tarred and feathered on a rail. One more reason to abandon America’s
socio-economic-politico scenario; maybe socialism would work better at
protecting citizens.
Meantime, children are caught
up smack dab in the middle of this 70-yr. experiment of untested and
poorly/ill-tested chemicals.
Roundup (glyphosate) for
breakfast? Yes, independent lab tests by Eurofins Analytical Laboratories found
hefty doses of the weed-killer Roundup in oat cereals, oatmeal, granola, and
snack bars. (Source: Alexis Temkin, Ph.D. Toxicologist, Breakfast With a Dose
of Roundup? Environmental Working Group (EWG), Aug. 15, 2018)
“EWG tested more than a dozen
brands of oat-based foods to give Americans information about dietary exposures
that government regulators are keeping secret. In April, internal emails
obtained by the nonprofit US Right to Know revealed that the Food and Drug
Administration has been testing food for glyphosate for two years and has found
‘a fair amount,’ but the FDA has not released the findings.” (Environmental
Working Group, August 15, 2018)
California state scientists
and the World Health Organization have linked glyphosate to cancer. Yet, the
chemical is pervasively found in products. Yes, on regular ole grocery store
shelves.
EWG found the chemical in
several cereals such as Back to Nature Classic Granola, Quaker Simply Granola
Oats, Honey, Raisins & Almonds, Great Value Original Instant Oatmeal,
Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Barbara’s Multigrain Spoonfuls Original, Quaker Old
Fashioned Oats, etc.
Ironically, they all sound so
very very healthy.
Postscript: “Earth, and
all life on it, are being saturated with man-made chemicals…For the first time
in the Earth’s history a single species – ourselves – is poisoning the entire
planet… It is arguably the most under-rated, under-investigated and poorly understood
of all the existential threats that humans face in the twenty-first century.
(Julian Cribb, Surviving the 21st Century, Springer Publishing/Switzerland, p.
106)
