The Need for a Closer Look at Pesticide Toxicity during GMO Assessment

Abstract

Public policy is regularly shaken by health crises or unexpected discoveries; future directions in toxicology assessment are therefore urgently needed. This chapter focuses on agricultural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because they are essentially pesticide-plants, designed to tolerate and/or produce new pesticide residues in food and feed. Moreover, the usual concepts of regulatory toxicology become erroneous or insufficient with regards to endocrine or nervous disruption, or epigenetic effects. Most pollutants affect cell-cell communication systems in the same way as unsolicited spam emails, and may promote chronic and environmental pathologies. We also describe how formulated pes ticides are mixtures which have not been investigated for their long-term toxicities. They contain adjuvants that are even more toxic than the sup posedly active principle. Finally, long-term and multigenerational testing in vivo often appears essential. This can be accomplished within two years on rats, independently of the biotechnology industry, with raw data being transparent to the scientific community to allow healthy debate before the next health crisis.

Alterations in cell viability, reactive oxygen species production, and modulation of gene expression involved in mitogen–activated protein kinase/extracellular regulating kinase signaling pathway by glyphosate and its commercial formulation in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

“…Dose dependent increases in cell death was observed as 10% and 25% at 10 mM–40 mM concentrations, respectively, after glyphosate exposure for 24 h; moreover, when exposure duration was increased to 72 h, the death rate was shown to increase to 50% in PC12 adrenal gland cells Gui et al (2012). As reported by Mesnage and Séralini (2014), the cytotoxicity of the active substance, glyphosate, alone was low; however, it dramatically increased when applied to cells in its commercial formulation in the presence of adjuvant substances which were thought to cause the increase in cytotoxicity. Mesnage et al (2013) showed that ethoxylated compounds (polyethoxylated alkylamines and ethoxylated etheralkylamine) found as adjuvants in commercial formulations had more toxic effects than glyphosate alone; therefore, the commercial formulation alone became more toxic as the ratio of ethoxylated adjuvants increased in the formulation.…”

Why glyphosate is not the issue with Roundup

“…As well, we argued that the effects of Roundup in drinking water at environmentally realistic levels like those present in tap water (the authorized threshold is around 0.1 ppb) should be tested. We published that in reviews, book chapters, and scientific reanalyses, and repeatedly alerted the scientific community and authorities [76][77][78][79]. In in vitro experiments we found that even Bt toxins in agricultural GMOs could have toxic effects, especially in combination with Roundup residues [80] (a growing proportion of GMOs combine herbicide tolerance and synthesis of modified Bt insecticidal toxins).…”