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Re: [Fwd: roundup]

Darryl Clark wrote:
> 
> Subject: roundup
> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 22:16:26 -0400
> From: "John A. Keslick, Jr." <treeman@pond.com>
> Organization: FishNet
> Newsgroups: rec.gardens
> 
> I
> 
> Ten reasons to "NOT" use roundup.
> 
> Compiled by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to
> Pesticides- (NCAP)
> 
>         Roundup, and related herbicides with glyphosate as an active
> ingredient, are advertised as products that can "eradicate weeds and
> unwanted grasses effectively with a high level of environmental safety."
> However, an independent, accurate evaluation of their health and
> environmental hazards can draw conclusions very different from those
> presented in the ads.  Consider these facts:
> 
> 1.    Glyphosate can be persistent.  In tests conducted by Monsanto,
> manufacturer of
> glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were required for half
> of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear from agricultural
> soils.  At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in lettuce,
> carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment.
> 2.     Glyphosate can drift.  Test conducted by the University of
> California, Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300
> feet) during ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during
> aerial applications.
> 3.     Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans.  Ingesting about 3/4 of a
> cup can be lethal.  Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung
> congestion, and erosion of the intestinal tract.  Between 1984 and 1990
> in California, glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause
> of illness elated to agricultural pesticide use.
> 
> 4.     Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in
> laboratory tests.  The National Toxicology Program found that chronic
> feeding of glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm
> counts, and a lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes
> into heat).  Other chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an
> increase in the frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an
> increase in frequency of pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along
> with an increase in the frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and
> cataracts. (ne fruit fly study used Roundup; the other studies used
> glyphosate.)
> 
> 5.     Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients.  These include
> polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and
> isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and
> bums.
> 
> 6.     Roundup kills beneficial insects.  Tests conducted by !he
> International Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup
> caused mortality of live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory
> mite, a lacewing, a ladybug, and a predatory beetle.
> 
> 7.     Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms, Tests using New Zealand's
> most common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20
> of standard application rates, reduced it- growth and slowed its
> development.
> 
> 8.     Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi.  Canadian studies have shown
> that as little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or
> colonization of mycorrhizal fungi.
> 
> 9.     Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation.  Amounts as small as 2
> parts per million have had significant effects, and effects have been
> measured up to 120 days after treatment.  Nitrogen- fixing bacteria
> shown to be impacted by glyphosate include a species found on soybeans
> and several species found on clover.
> 
> 10.     Roundup can increase the spread or seventy of plant diseases.
> Treatment with roundup  increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot
> in barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat
> disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves
> against anthracnose.
> 
>         These facts about Roundup are taken From a two-part article about the
> health and environmental hazards of glyphosate published in NCAP's
> Journal of Pesticide Reform.  Copies of the article, with complete
> references for all of .the information presented, are available from
> NCAP for $2.00. NCAP,  PO Box 1391; Eugene, OR 97440; (541) 344-5044.
> 
> --
> 
> John A. Keslick Jr.---Tree Anatomist & Tree Biologist.-
> End Commercial Logging on Federal Lands
> Organic Tree Treatment Web Site:
> http://www.pond.com/~treeman
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