Spiritual Forum

Days after a California jury awarded a school groundskeeper more than $289 million in damages after he claimed Monsanto’s best-selling weedkiller Roundup gave him cancer, the controversial ingredient – glyphosate — has been detected in popular kids’ breakfast cereals, including Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, according to an activist group.

Lab tests conducted by the left-leaning Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit advocacy group that specializes in toxic chemicals and corporate accountability, indicated almost three-fourths of the 45 food products tested detected high levels of glyphosate, which has been identified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization in 2015.

But makers of the foods EWG tested said they and their suppliers operate within U.S. government safety guidelines and dismissed the group’s findings as irrelevant.

However, many EWG scientists consider levels higher than 160 parts per billion of glyphosate above the safety threshold for children.

What’s more, about one-third of the 16 samples made with organically grown oats also had glyphosate, but at levels below EWG’s benchmark.

Popular children items, including General Mills’ Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal, Lucky Charm’s, Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran and Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oats, all had levels exceeding EWG’s safety guidelines.

But while those products exceeded the EWG’s threshold, they still fall within the EPA’s regulations, many food brands said.

In a statement to FOX Business regarding the report, a General Mills’ spokesperson says, “Our products are safe and without questions they meet regulatory safety levels.”

“The EPA has researched this issue and has set rules that we follow as do farmers who grow crops including wheat and oats. We continue to work closely with farmers, our suppliers and conservation organizations to minimize the use of pesticides on the crops and ingredients we use in our foods,” General Mills added.

Quaker also released a statement following the report, saying it does not add glyphosate during any part of the milling process,” and “glyphosate is commonly used by farmers across the industry who apply it pre-harvest.” Kellogg’s issued a similar statement, saying its food is safe and they follow the EPA’s strict standards for safely levels of these agricultural residues “and the ingredients we purchase from suppliers for our foods fall under these limits.”

The report come days after a jury at the Superior Court of California awarded $289 million in damages to Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a San Francisco school groundskeeper that claimed Roundup caused him to developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using the spray for more than two years.

Jurors concluded that Monsanto’s Roundup and Ranger Pro products did present a “substantial danger” to Johnson and that the company, which is now owned by Bayer, knew or should have known about the potential risks of the products posed.

Johnson’s case is the first of a long list of about 4,000 people looking to sue the weed-and-seed maker for similar allegations.

Monsanto, however, says it plans to appeal the court’s decision and the verdict “does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews – and conclusions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and regulatory authorities around the world – support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause Mr. Johnson’s cancer.”

In response to EWG’s report, a Monsanto spokesperson said, “Even at the highest level reported by the EWG (1,300 ppb), an adult would have to eat 118 pounds of the food item every day for the rest of their life to reach the EPA’s limit.”

“Of course, nobody eats close to that much food! Using oatmeal as an example, 118 pounds would equal 228 servings or 3,658 percent of the daily recommended intake of fiber. These numbers translate to 9 ½ servings every hour without sleep for a person’s entire life,” Monsanto said.

Yet, Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., and senior science adviser for the EWG, says the bottom line is that glyphosate does not belong in children’s food and that recent biomonitoring studies show detectable levels of the ingredient in people’s urine, which likely comes from dietary exposure.

“And tests show that glyphosate levels in American’s bodies have been rising over time,” she says.

Here’s a full list of food products EWG tested for glyphosate.

@https://www.ewg.org/childrenshealth/glyphosateincereal/#.W5HNrSLTWaO    

Weed Killer in $289 Million Cancer Verdict Found in Oat Cereal and Granola Bars

By Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., Toxicologist
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2018

Report by the numbers
Conventional Organic
Samples Tested 45 16
Glyphosate Detects 43 5
Detects Above EWG’s Health Benchmark (160 ppb) 31 0
Popular oat cereals, oatmeal, granola and snack bars come with a hefty dose of the weed-killing poison in Roundup, according to independent laboratory tests commissioned by EWG.

Glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization, was found in all but two of 45 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. Almost three-fourths of those samples had glyphosate levels higher than what EWG scientists consider protective of children’s health with an adequate margin of safety. About one-third of 16 samples made with organically grown oats also had glyphosate, all at levels well below EWG’s health benchmark.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the Monsanto weed killer that is the most heavily used pesticide in the U.S. Last week, a California jury ordered Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to a man dying of cancer, which he says was caused by his repeated exposure to large quantities of Roundup and other glyphosate-based weed killers while working as a school groundskeeper.

EWG tested more than a dozen brands of oat-based foods to give Americans information about dietary exposures that government regulators are keeping secret. In April, internal emails obtained by the nonprofit US Right to Know revealed that the Food and Drug Administration has been testing food for glyphosate for two years and has found “a fair amount,” but the FDA has not released its findings.

Glyphosate Was Found on Most Samples of Oat-Based Foods
Type of Food Product Name Glyphosate (ppb)*
Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3
Granola Nature's Path Organic Honey Almond granola ND** ND
Back to Nature Classic Granola 620 170
Quaker Simply Granola Oats, Honey, Raisins & Almonds 430 400
Back to Nature Banana Walnut Granola Clusters 30 30 340
Nature Valley Granola Protein Oats 'n Honey 220 170
KIND Vanilla, Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds 50 60
Instant Oats Giant Instant Oatmeal, Original Flavor 760
Simple Truth Organic Instant Oatmeal, Original ND ND
Quaker Dinosaur Eggs, Brown Sugar, Instant Oatmeal 620 780
Great Value Original Instant Oatmeal 450
Umpqua Oats, Maple Pecan 220 220
Market Pantry Instant Oatmeal, Strawberries & Cream 120 520
Oat Breakfast Cereal Kashi Heart to Heart Organic Honey Toasted cereal ND ND
Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal 490 470 530
Lucky Charms**** 400 230
Barbara's Multigrain Spoonfuls, Original, Cereal 340 300
Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran oat cereal 250 120
Snack Bar Cascadian Farm Organic Harvest Berry, granola bar ND ND
KIND Oats & Honey with Toasted Coconut ND 120
Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars, Oats 'n Honey 340 120
Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip granola bar 120 160
Kellogg’s Nutrigrain Soft Baked Breakfast Bars, Strawberry 30 80
Whole Oats 365 Organic Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats ND ND
Quaker Steel Cut Oats 530 290
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats 390 1100 1300
Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats 300 ND
Nature's Path Organic Old Fashioned Organic Oats 30 20
Whole Foods Bulk Bin conventional rolled oats 10 40
Bob's Red Mill Organic Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (4 samples tested) ND 10 20, 20***
Source: EWG, from tests by Eurofin Analytical Laboratories

*EWG's child-protective health benchmark for daily exposure to glyphosate in food is 160 ppb.

** ND = none detected

*** Two product samples tested both had 20 ppb glyphosate concentration.

**** Lucky Charms Frosted Toasted Oat Cereal with Marshmallows. Marshmallows were manually removed from the samples prior to shipping to the lab and testing for glyphosate.

Each year, more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops, primarily on “Roundup-ready” corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. But when it comes to the food we eat, the highest glyphosate levels are not found in products made with GMO corn.

Increasingly, glyphosate is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans that are not genetically engineered. Glyphosate kills the crop, drying it out so that it can be harvested sooner than if the plant were allowed to die naturally.

Get Glyphosate Out of Our Food!

Join EWG and tell General Mills, Quaker and Kellogg’s to get glyphosate out of their products!

Roundup was produced for decades by Monsanto, which this year merged with the German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG. In the case decided last week, the jury found that Monsanto knew for decades of the product’s hazards and not only failed to warn customers, but schemed to publicly discredit the evidence. The California case that ended Friday was the first of reportedy thousands of lawsuits against Monsanto. These suits have been brought by farm workers and others who allege that they developed cancer from years of exposure to Roundup.

In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, reviewed extensive U.S., Canadian and Swedish epidemiological studies on glyphosate’s human health effects, as well as research on laboratory animals. The IARC classified the chemical as probably carcinogenic to humans, and has steadfastly defended that decision despite ongoing attacks by Monsanto.

In 2017, California listed glyphosate in its Proposition 65 registry of chemicals known to cause cancer. The state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, or OEHHA, has proposed a so-called No Significant Risk Level for glyphosate of 1.1 milligrams per day for an average adult of about 154 pounds. That level of exposure is more than 60 times lower than the safety level set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

California’s level represents an increased lifetime risk of cancer of one in 100,000 for an average adult. But for many cancer-causing drinking water contaminants, OEHHA’s lifetime risk factor is set at one in 1 million. Additionally, because children and developing fetuses have increased susceptibility to carcinogens, the federal Food Quality Protection Act supports including an additional 10-fold margin of safety. With this additional children’s health safety factor, EWG calculated that a one-in-a-million cancer risk would be posed by ingestion of 0.01 milligrams of glyphosate per day.

To reach this maximum dose, one would only have to eat a single 60-gram serving1 of food with a glyphosate level of 160 parts per billion, or ppb. The majority of samples of conventional oat products from EWG’s study exceeded 160ppb, meaning that a single serving of those products would exceed EWG’s health benchmark. As part of a glyphosate risk assessment, the EPA estimated potential highest dietary exposure levels for children and adults. The EPA has calculated that 1-to-2-year-old children are likely to have the highest exposure, at a level twice greater than California’s No Significant Risk Level and 230 times EWG’s health benchmark.

Studies suggest that glyphosate-sprayed crops such as wheat and oats are a major contributor to glyphosate in the daily diet. In EWG lab tests, 31 of 45 samples made with conventionally grown oats had 160 ppb or more of glyphosate.

Oat-Based Samples that Exceeded 400ppb on Average.

The highest levels, greater than 1,000 ppb, were detected in two samples of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. Three samples of Cheerios had glyphosate levels ranging from 470 ppb to 530 ppb. Twelve of the food samples had levels of glyphosate lower than EWG’s health benchmark, ranging from 10 ppb to 120 ppb. Only two samples had no detectable glyphosate.

Glyphosate was also detected at concentrations of 10 ppb to 30 ppb in five of 16 samples made with organic oats. The five samples came from two brands of organic rolled oats: Bob’s Red Mill and Nature’s Path. A third brand of organic rolled oats and all other organic oat products tested did not contain detectable concentrations of glyphosate.

How does glyphosate get into organic foods? It could come from glyphosate drifting from nearby fields of conventionally grown crops, or by cross-contamination during processing at a facility that also handles non-organic crops. Nature's Path explains:

While organic farming certifications prohibit the use of glyphosate, organic products do not always end up completely free of glyphosate residue. While this news may come as disappointing, it is not entirely surprising. Glyphosate use has skyrocketed in the past decade, and it maintains the ability to adhere to water and soil particles long enough to travel through the air or in a stream to nearby organic farms.
The problem of glyphosate contamination of organic foods underscores the need to restrict pre-harvest uses of glyphosate and the need for more data on glyphosate levels in products, an area where U.S. federal agencies are falling short.

Two years ago, under pressure from the Government Accountability Office, the FDA began testing for glyphosate in a limited number of foods. At the 2016 North American Chemical Residue Workshop, an FDA scientist presented data showing that glyphosate has been detected in several oat-based food products.

After a Freedom of Information Act request by US Right to Know, earlier this year the FDA released documents that said the agency has found “a fair amount” of glyphosate in several processed foods. The results have not been released, but could be made public later this year or in early 2019.

The EPA has calculated that 1-to-2-year-old children are likely to have the highest exposure, at a level 2x greater than California’s No Significant Risk Level and 230x EWG’s health benchmark.

In 2016, the non-profit Food Democracy Now tested for glyphosate in single samples of a variety of popular foods. “Alarming levels” of glyphosate were found in a number of cereals and other products, including more than 1,000 ppb in Cheerios. More recently, the Center for Environmental Health tested single samples of 11 cereal brands and found glyphosate levels ranging from about 300 ppb to more than 2,000 ppb.

EPA has denied that glyphosate may increase the risk of cancer, and documents introduced in the recent California trial showed how the agency and Monsanto worked together to promote the claim that the chemical is safe. EWG has been urging the EPA to review all evidence linking glyphosate to increased cancer risk and other adverse health effects in human and animal studies. The EPA should limit the use of glyphosate on food crops, including pre-harvest application.

Oat-based foods are a healthy source of fiber and nutrients for children and adults, and oat consumption is linked to health benefits such as lowered cholesterol and decreased cardiovascular risk. Parents should not have to wonder whether feeding their children these heathy foods will also expose them to a pesticide that increases the risk of cancer.

Glyphosate does not belong in cereal. Act and urge the EPA to restrict pre-harvest applications of glyphosate and tell companies to identify and use sources of glyphosate-free oats.

Better @ https://www.ewg.org/childrenshealth/glyphosateincereal/#.W5HNrSLTWaO