> from New Scientist (UK)
>
> CANCER THREAT FROM GLYPHOSATE
>
> New Scientist says researchers in Sweden have linked pesticides to one of
the
> most rapidly increasing cancers in the Western world, non-Hodgkins
lymphoma -
> which has risen by 73% in the USA since 1973. This, says the journal, is
> probably caused by several commonly used crop sprays.
>
> The Lund University Hospital has found that Swedish sufferers of the
disease
> were 2.7 times more likely to have been exposed to the herbicide MCPA than
> healthy people. "MCPA, which is used on grain crops, is sold as Target by
the
> Swiss firm Novartis," says the journal.
>
> "The patients were also 2.3 times more likely to have had contact with
> glyphosate."
>
> "Use of [glyphosate] sold as Round-Up by the US firm Monsanto, is expected
to
> rocket with the introduction of crops such as Roundup-Ready soya beans
that
> are genetically modified to resist glyphosate. The researchers suggest
that
> the chemicals have suppressed the patients' immunity, allowing viruses
such as
> Epstein-Barr to trigger cancer."
>
> The report, on page 23 of New Scientist is by Fred Pearce and Debora
> Mackenzie
>
> PESTICIDE RAIN
>
> The rain over Europe contains illegal quantities of pesticide - FOL Today
Rain
> falling over Europe contains such high levels of pesticide dissolved in
it,
> that it would be illegal to supply it as drinking water, says this week's
> reporting Swiss work.
>
> Common cancers may well be caused by pesticides, says other research, from
> Sweden. These reports help to explain why politicians are so keen to
impose
> tax on the use of pesticides - it would be a popular tax with a vast
majority
> of the public.
>
> Studies in Switzerland, says New Scientist, have found toxic levels of
> atrazine, alachlor and other commonly used crop sprays in rain. A
chemistfrom
> the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology,
Stephan
> Müller, says that drinking water standards for such chemicals are
regularly
> exceeded in rain.
>
> The chemicals appear to have evaporated from fields and become part of the
> clouds. In the first minutes of a rain shower, the rain can contain far
more
> than the limit of 100 nanograms/litre of any particular pesticide that's
> permitted in drinking water.
>
> One sample of rainfall contained 4,000 nanograms per litre of 2,4D;
another
> contained around 900 nanograms of atrazine per litre.
>
> The highest concentrations appear in the first rainfall after a long dry
> period, especially when local fields have been sprayed.
>
> ----
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> ----
>
> Date: Wed, 07 Apr 1999 09:25:27 +0000
> From: Jon <mail@icsenglish.com>r
> Subject: B-GE: GLYPHOSATE DANGERS
>
>
> --
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