17/May/21

 

In a blow to Monsanto owner Bayer AG’s bid to block continued liability over Roundup cancer litigation, a federal appeals court shot down the company’s argument that federal regulatory backing of the company’s herbicides preempts claims made by cancer patient Edwin Hardeman. In a ruling issued Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment in favour of Hardeman, and said Monsanto erred in asserting that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts state laws and a duty to warn. US Right to Know

 

 

Is it a good idea to pick and eat wild raspberries and blueberries in forest cutblocks in the Central and Northern Interior of British Columbia? Not if these lands have been sprayed with glyphosate weedkiller some time in the last few years. And the same caution holds true for wildlife like moose and bears who, besides berries, also consume large quantities of fireweed, willow and dogwood shoots, all of which can contain low levels of glyphosate residue for relatively long periods of time, according to a study by a team of University of Northern British Columbia scientists. Some 26% of wild berries at edges of glyphosate sprayed cutblocks were unfit for consumption; low levels of glyphosate residue persisted in raspberry shoots, fireweed shoots, willow shoots for at least 6 years and in fireweed roots for 12 years. The findings go directly against the message repeated by the manufacturer of glyphosate, Bayer-Monsanto, that the weedkiller quickly disappears from the plants and general environment after it is sprayed and is not harmful to humans or wildlife. Prince George Daily News

 

 

Glyphosate exposure impairs insect immune systems and may make mosquitoes better vectors for malaria, a new study has found. The researchers found that glyphosate inhibits the production of melanin, which insects often use as part of their immune defences against bacteria and parasites, thereby reducing the resistance of these species to infection by common pathogens. In A. gambiae mosquitoes, glyphosate inhibited melanin production and melanization, and thereby made the mosquitoes more susceptible to infection by Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous species of malaria parasite. First author Daniel Smith said, "These results raise concerns about the increasing use of glyphosate in regions of the world where malaria is endemic." The study itself is here. Glyphosate alone, not a glyphosate-based herbicide formulation, was tested. EurekAlert!

 

 

A new study, currently in pre-print format (so not yet peer-reviewed), has found 109 pesticides, including 28 that are banned, in air samples from 69 sites in Germany. Glyphosate was found in every sample – even ones taken in national parks and forests, including the Harz national park's highest mountain summit. The researchers found that more than half of passive air samplers contained chlorothalonil, metolachlor, pendimethalin, terbuthylazine, prothioconazole-desthio, dimethenamid, prosulfocarb, flufenacet, tebuconazole, aclonifen, chlorflurenol, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (ɣ-HCH). Research Square