Managers and workers of Costco, Safeway, Vim ‘N Vigor, HealthGo Market, and all other Kauai food establishments who promote “USDA Organic” and “Non-GMO Project Verified” food labels should get medals of honor. Why? There are unanticipated consequences of chemicals, called “off-target” outcomes. For example: red-tailed hawks. These birds are victims of “second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides” like Warfarin, used by exterminators, farmers and homeowners. Warfarin is used to kill mice. Then birds eat the dead mice and die from uncloted blood from the warfarin coming from inside the mice.
While biotech corporations have made many brilliant DNA discoveries, USDA Organic labels make sure there are not toxic pesticides like Roundup (glyphosate) and chlorpyrifos sprayed on our herbicide-resistant vegetables which may pass on to the consumer.
Ultra-low doses of Roundup, 1,000s of times lower than what is permitted by regulators, caused non-alcoholic, fatty-liver disease to rats, a condition that effects 25% of people in the U.S. and in Europe, reports Scientific Reports, 2017.
Low levels of Roundup caused liver disease, kidney disease and massive tumors in rats, reports Environmental Sciences Europe, 2014.
Glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, reports Mutation Research, 2019.
The higher the levels of glyphosate detected in the pregnant human mother’s urine, the shorter her pregnancy, reports Environmental Health, 2018. The main ingredient in Corteva Agriscience’s DuPont Abundit Edge herbicide is glyphosate.
“Non-acute, low levels” of prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure causes irreversible brain defects, detected by MRI tests, which are connected to low IQ scores, reports PNAS, 2012.
Similar, non-acute, low levels of chlorpyrifos were detected in Waimea Canyon Middle School’s air and drinking water, reports The Garden Island, July 14, 2013, in the article, “Attorney: Pesticides at WCMS violates federal law.” It should be noted that 1/4-mile pesticide buffer zones, as are required by California law, could help prevent atrazine, chlorpyrifos, 2,4-D, dicamba, bifenthrin, glyphosate, Liberty, and other pesticides sprayed by our friends Hartung Brothers and Corteva, from getting into the air and drinking water of Waimea’s schools, homes and employee buildings of Hartung Brothers and Corteva. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture can grant six-month chlorpyrifos permits to Hartung Brothers and Corteva, until 2021. Corteva (formerly DowDupont) owns the copyright to chlorpyrifos.
Non-GMO Project Verified label means free of problems like microRNA as occurs unintended from biotech corporations’ current RNAi crop technology, reports GMO Myths and Truths, pages 29 to 30. Cell Research, 2012, reports there is evidence to show that microRNA molecules present in food can survive digestion and enter the body of test mice and the consumer. Research indicates if such microRNA combines with glyphosate in the body of mice or humans, it can trigger aggressive breast cancer, reports Frontiers in Genetics, 2019.
Hair samples can be taken of people who live in Waimea, and sent to the Detox Lab, which tells exactly which pesticides are in your body. Please go to DetoxProject.org and order your kit. A person with non-Hodgkins lymphoma can combine a DNA saliva test which shows the genetic susceptibility for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, with a hair-sample test confirming glyphosate in the body, to sue Bayer, who bought out Monsanto. Like this, it may be possible, if more Waimea children who are born with heart birth defects to identify the reponsible pesticides and sue the responsible biotech corporations. In The Guardian published Aug. 23, 2015, pediatrician Carla Nelson reported there have been nine babies born in five years in Waimea with a severe heart malformation requiring complex surgery. Nelson said this is more than 10 times the national rate, and she and other physicians feel it was caused by the biotech pesticides.
For easy reading with references to 100s of peer-review studies for dangerous and unpredicted “off-target” outcomes of pesticides and genome-editing technologies used by biotech corporations, please read GMO Myths and Truths, written by genetic engineers Dr. John Fagan, PhD., and Dr. Michael Antoniou, PhD.
The Center for Food Safety reports biotech corporations in Waimea spray over 17 times the amount of pesticides compared to other American farms. If Kauai won’t mandate 1/4-mile pesticide buffers in Waimea for the children, please consider doing it for the Hawaiian green sea turtles. “Scientists are discovering that sea turtles are highly contaminated with industrial chemicals and pesticides,” reports Scientific American, 2013.
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Will Davis is a resident of Lihue.
Great article – so much information. Yes our community has had a burden of agriculture spraying for so many years. Waimea High school class of 1999 had 3 classmates die from cancer prior to their 12 grade- so very sad. Our home was exposed to agriculture chemicals from Pioneer Farm years ago- we were unable to get the name of chemicals we were exposed to and Dept of Health would not accept our complaint and referred us to Dept of Agriculture. Yet just months prior to that event we had gotten a “fugitive dust” warning from the Dept of Health. This is a major health concern and we will continue to see health problems related to this.
Research by Corteva (formerly DowDupont), the maker of chlorpyrifos, omitted key results on the brain-harming effects of the pesticide, undermining the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to accurately assess its safety, according to this 2018 peer-reviewed study published by the Environmental Health journal.
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0421-y
The Lancet medical journal published, 2014, that chlorpyrifos damages the developing nervous system, associated with lowered IQ at school age, at current levels of exposure.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(13)70278-3/fulltext
Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 2012, reports MRI scans reveal chlorpyrifos prenatal exposure at low levels is positively correlated to “disruption of normal sexual dimorphisms in brain structure, which reverses normal sex differences in learning, memory, and emotional behaviors.” Corteva owns the copyright to chlorpyrifos.
https://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/7871.full
Will, how can I be sure that the glyphosate found in my hair is not from my neighbor spraying roundup in his yard, or should I just go ahead and sue the biotech companies anyway…?
This is an election year. TGI should report any county council member or state or federal representative who receives funding from the major chemical companies and we, the people should vote them out of office and replace them with people who care about the safety and well being of the people of Hawaii. The poisoning of paradise has gone on too long!
Correction to my letter: A 4 year study found pesticides chlorpyrifos, bifenthrin, and metolachlor were mesured in the breathing air of the Waimea Canyon Middle School (WCMS). WCMS is located 300 feet from spraying of pesticides by biotech corporations. The study found none of those chemicals at Hanalei Elementary School, a location used as a control site. The pesticide atrazine, which is banned in Europe since 2004 due to groundwater contamination risks, was found in the water from drinking fountains at Waimea Canyon School, reports The Garden Island article, “Attorney: Pesticides at WCMS violates federal law,” published July, 14, 2013. “Studies have suggested atrazine is associated with a number of health problems, including cancer, birth defects and reproductive issues.” My letter incorrectly stated chlorpyrifos was found in the drinking water of WCMS. Sorry for the error.