Emails Reveal: U.S. Officials Sided With Agrochemical Giant Bayer to Overturn Mexico's Glyphosate Ban
17 February
Politics
Protesters in Mexico City on May 19, 2018 call for Monsanto to get out of Mexican agriculture. Jesus Alvarado / dpa via Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
While Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has given farmers in the country a 2024 deadline to stop using glyphosate, The Guardian reported Tuesday that agrochemical company Bayer, industry lobbyist CropLife America, and U.S. officials have been pressuring Mexico's government to drop its proposed ban on the carcinogenic pesticide.
<p>The corporate and U.S.-backed attempt to coerce Mexico into maintaining its glyphosate imports past 2024 has unfolded, as journalist Carey Gillam detailed in the newspaper, "over the last 18 months, a period in which Bayer was negotiating an $11 billion settlement of legal claims brought by people in the U.S. who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma due to exposure" to glyphosate-based products, such as Roundup.</p><p>Roundup, one of the world's mostly widely-used herbicides, was created by Monsanto which was acquired by Bayer in 2018.</p>
<p>According to The Guardian, which obtained internal documents via a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), "The pressure on Mexico is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-usa-trade-exclusive/exclusive-in-the-weeds-how-bayer-u-s-government-teamed-up-against-thailands-glyphosate-ban-idUSKBN268076" target="_blank">similar to actions</a> Bayer and chemical industry lobbyists took to kill a glyphosate ban planned by Thailand in 2019. Thailand officials had also cited concerns for public health in seeking to ban the weed killer, but reversed course after U.S. threats about trade disruption."</p><p>In addition to instructing Mexico's farmers to stop using glyphosate by 2024, the López Obrador administration on Dec. 31, 2020 issued a "<a href="https://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5609365&fecha=31/12/2020" target="_blank">final decree</a>" calling for "a <a href="https://www.producer.com/markets/mexicos-gm-corn-ban-would-hit-u-s-hard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">phase-out </a>of the planting and consumption of genetically engineered corn, which farmers often spray with glyphosate, a practice that often leaves residues of the pesticide in finished food products," the news outlet noted.</p><p>The Mexican government has <a href="https://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5609365&fecha=31/12/2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">characterized </a>the restrictions as an effort to improve the nation's "food security and sovereignty" and to protect its wealth of biological as well as cultural diversity and farming communities.</p><p>Mexico's promotion of human and environmental health, however, "has triggered fear in the United States for the health of agricultural exports, especially Bayer's glyphosate products," Gillam wrote.</p>
<div id="342bb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e823fdf14f21c21a65641857c253e891"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1361671434934837257" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">But Mexico’s concern for the health of its citizens has triggered fear in the United States for the health of agric… https://t.co/d81tuhqYcl</div> — carey gillam (@carey gillam)<a href="https://twitter.com/careygillam/statuses/1361671434934837257">1613482743.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Based on its analysis of government emails from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other U.S. agencies from 2019 and 2020, The Guardian explained how the U.S., frustrated by the positions that Mexico has taken, is trying to use the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the Trump-led free trade deal that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/29/condemning-nafta-20-giveaway-fossil-fuel-industry-sanders-vows-immediately" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dubbed </a>NAFTA 2.0 — to force Mexico to abandon its plans to ban glyphosate and phase out <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism/">GMO</a> corn.</p><p>According to The Guardian, Mexico each year imports roughly $3 billion in corn from the U.S., where 90% of corn production relies on GMO seeds.</p><p>As the newspaper reported:</p><blockquote>One email makes a reference to staff within López Obrador's administration as "<a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/January-2020-USTR-email-regarding-glyphosate-and-meeting-with-Mexicos-de-la-Mora.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vocal anti-biotechnology activists,</a>" and another email states that Mexico's health agency (COFEPRIS) is "<a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/January-2020-USTR-email-saying-Mexico-health-agency-is-big-time-problem.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">becoming a big time problem</a>."<br>Internal USTR communications lay out how the agrochemical industry is "pushing" for the US to "<a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/February-2020-USTR-email-about-meeting-with-industry-and-push-to-fold-issue-into-USMCA-certification.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fold this issue</a>" into the<a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)</a> trade deal that went into effect 1 July. The records then show the USTR does exactly that, telling Mexico its actions on glyphosate and genetically engineered crops raise concerns "regarding compliance" with USMCA.<br>Citing discussions with CropLife, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined in the effort, discussing in <a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/August-2020-EPA-email-with-USTR-re-using-USMCA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an inter-agency email</a> "how we could use USMCA to work through these issues."</blockquote>
<p>Nathan Donley, a biologist at CBD, told The Guardian that "we're seeing more and more how the pesticide industry uses the U.S. government to aggressively push its agenda on the international stage and quash any attempt by people in other countries to take control of their food supply."</p><p>Corporate executives in the agrochemical industry reportedly became alarmed about the López Obrador administration's position on pesticides in late 2019 when Mexican officials explained their decision to refuse imports of glyphosate from China by referring to the "precautionary principle."</p><p>Detailing a series of emails between U.S. government officials and industry executives, Gillam described how the latter told the former "that they feared restricting glyphosate would lead to limits on other pesticides and could set a precedent for other countries to do the same."</p>
<p>The emails also indicated worries that "Mexico may also reduce the levels of pesticide residues allowed in food," a development that industry executives warned would undermine U.S. exports of corn and soybeans to Mexico.</p><p>As Gillam wrote, CropLife president Chris Novak told U.S. officials that "'if Mexico extends the precautionary principle' to pesticide residue levels in food, '$20 billion in U.S. annual agricultural exports to Mexico will be jeopardized.'"</p><p>According to The Guardian, "It is unclear if the efforts to push Mexico to change its policy position are still underway within the new Biden administration."</p><p>The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a progressive think tank working to build fair and sustainable food, farm, and trade systems,<a href="https://twitter.com/IATP/status/1361715440301584385" target="_blank"> tweeted</a> Tuesday that the USTR has a choice.</p><p>"Will they continue the pattern of doing the bidding of global biotech/seed firms like Monsanto?" asked IATP. "Or, will the USTR respect other countries' rights to protect the environment and indigenous crops? Will they recalibrate U.S. trade policy to be more transparent?"</p><p>IATP, for its part, has <a href="https://www.iatp.org/documents/ustr-nominee-katherine-tai-must-recalibrate-us-trade-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recommended</a> that Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden's pick to lead the USTR office, "break with the corporate free trade model" supported by previous administrations from both major parties.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/16/emails-reveal-us-officials-joined-agrochemical-giant-bayer-stop-mexicos-glyphosate" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Freeway traffic around Los Angeles, California. A new study warns drivers of exposure to dangerous chemicals inside their cars. Ron and Patty Thomas / E+ / Getty Images
Californians with long commutes may be inhaling chemicals that put them at risk for cancer and birth defects, a new study has found.
<p>Led by UC Riverside, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202100026X?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">study published in<em> Environment International</em></a> found that up to 90 percent of the population with 30-minute commutes in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara and Alameda counties have at least a 10 percent exceeded risk of cancer due to inhaling unhealthy levels of chemicals stitched into the fabric of their cars.</p><p>Long periods spent in cars expose commuters to unsustainable levels of two carcinogens known as benzene and formaldehyde, the study found. "These chemicals are very volatile, moving easily from plastics and textiles to the air that you breathe," David Volz, a UCR professor of environmental toxicology, <a href="https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/02/15/commuters-are-inhaling-unacceptably-high-levels-carcinogens" target="_blank">told UCR.</a></p>
<p>While benzene and formaldehyde are listed under California's <a href="https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/about-proposition-65#:~:text=Proposition%2065%20requires%20businesses%20to,defects%20or%20other%20reproductive%20harm.&text=Proposition%2065%20requires%20California%20to,defects%20or%20other%20reproductive%20harm." target="_blank">Proposition 65</a>, which requires workplaces to post warnings of exposure to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals" target="_self">chemicals</a> that could cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm, how they infiltrate private spaces, like the inside of someone's car, is less recognized and therefore less regulated, UCR reported.</p><p>The average commute time for Californians is 30 minutes, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/databases/article238667598.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee reported</a>. This time spent is expected to grow as cities become more crowded and expensive.</p>
<p>"Of course, there is a range of exposure that depends on how long you're in the car, and how much of the compounds your car is emitting," Aalekhya Reddam, a graduate student and lead author of the study, told UCR. Keeping windows down during a long commute could allow "some air flow," diluting "the concentration of these chemicals inside your car," Reddam added.</p><p>But chemicals inside their cars are not the only toxins harming Californians. Heavy pollution, caused by on-road sources, on average disproportionately harm African American and Latino Californians compared to white Californians, <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/inequitable-exposure-air-pollution-vehicles-california-2019" target="_blank">according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. This exposure comes with a heavy cost, causing lung and heart ailments, asthma and premature death.</p>
<p>In response, plans to reduce emissions and pollution from passenger vehicles are underway. In September, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order, requiring the end of sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035, <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Governor%20Gavin%20Newsom%20today,passenger%20vehicles%20to%20be%20zero%2D" target="_blank">according to a statement</a>.</p><p>Yet while California is often celebrated for its climate policy, its high emissions from cars persist. "Passenger vehicles alone produce nearly a third of California's emissions, more than all of the electric plants, livestock, and oil refineries in the state put together," <a href="https://grist.org/article/whats-driving-californias-emissions-you-guessed-it-cars/" target="_blank">Grist reported</a>.</p><p>But increases in emissions, from car tailpipes, for example, have less to do with the lack of environmental policies and more to do with urban-planning decisions. In Los Angeles, the city's layout creates sprawling neighborhoods, causing longer commutes, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-california-insight/a-climate-problem-even-california-cant-fix-tailpipe-pollution-idUSKCN1PQ4MJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters reported</a>.</p>
<p>Long commutes are also a problem for Californians living in the Bay Area. "There's simply not enough housing to live in the Bay Area, and even housing units are very expensive," transportation researcher Giovanni Circella <a href="https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/abc10-originals/the-future-of-super-commuters/103-e1017771-6910-49cf-a56b-a40e005c4c3a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told ABC10</a>. "So, a lot of lower-income workers cannot afford to live in San Francisco and they need to commute long distances."</p><p>As the state becomes more crowded and more expensive, highlighting how the transportation sector in California harms its citizens could inform policymakers and auto manufacturers to safeguard commuters from the risks coming from both inside and outside of their cars.</p><p>"There should be alternatives to these chemicals to achieve the same goals during vehicle manufacturing," Volz told UCR. "If so, these should be used."</p>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
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CBDistillery
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FAB CBD
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NuLeaf Naturals
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Charlotte's Web
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Zantac heartburn medicine are seen at a store in Mountain View, California on Oct. 1, 2019. Yichuan Cao / NurPhoto / Getty Images
By C. Michael White
When consumers get a prescription drug from the pharmacy, they assume that it's been tested and is safe to use. But what if a drug changes in harmful ways as it sits on the shelf or in the body?
<p>
One dangerous result has been the creation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-10/documents/ndma_fact_sheet_update_9-15-17_508.pdf" target="_blank">probable carcinogen</a>, in certain drugs. NDMA is found in chlorinated water, food and drugs in trace amounts. To minimize exposure, the Food and Drug Administration has set an acceptable level of NDMA in each pill at less than <a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/laboratory-tests-ranitidine#:%7E:text=For%20reference%2C%20consuming%20up%20to,ingestion%20based%20on%20lifetime%20exposure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">96 nanograms</a>.
</p><p>
But over the past few years the FDA has found excessive amounts of NDMA in several drugs for <a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/information-about-nitrosamine-impurities-medications" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hypertension, diabetes and heartburn</a>. As a result, the agency has initiated recalls to protect the public. These products were contaminated with NDMA during the manufacturing process. The FDA recommended best practices for manufacturers to minimize this risk going forward.
</p><p>
Unfortunately for the buying public, emerging evidence suggests that NDMA can also be created as some pills sit on the store shelf or medicine cabinet, or even after the patient swallows it. Thus, there is no way to test for its presence in the factory.
</p>
<script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154531/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lWAD9d8AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pharmacist and distinguished professor </a> who has written extensively about manufacturing issues and FDA oversight associated with both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028019881692" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drugs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028019900504" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dietary supplements</a> in the past, including the issue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028019892222" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NDMA</a> contamination. In a new article, I discuss <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.35158" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">how NDMA can end up in a patient's medication</a> if it wasn't put there during its manufacture.</p>
NDMA Levels Creep Up After Manufacture
<p><a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-requests-removal-all-ranitidine-products-zantac-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ranitidine (Zantac)</a> was a commonly used heartburn and ulcer prescription and over-the-counter medication for decades before it was recalled by the FDA on April 1, 2020. It may now be the canary in the coal mine for the post-manufacturing creation of NDMA.</p><p>In one study, investigators found that ranitidine contained only 18 nanograms of NDMA after it was manufactured. However, when stored at 158°F for 12 days – as if the drug had been left in a hot car – <a href="https://emerypharma.com/news/emery-pharma-ranitidine-fda-citizen-petition/#:%7E:text=Alameda%2C%20CA%20%E2%80%93%20On%20January%202,brand%20names%2C%20including%20Zantac%C2%AE" target="_blank">NDMA dosages rose above 140 ng</a>. This is only slightly above the 96 ng limit the FDA has deemed safe, but this was only 12 days later.</p><p>In another study, storing ranitidine where it was exposed to higher temperatures or high humidity <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.oprd.0c00462" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">enhanced the creation of NDMA over time</a>. This suggests that some medications can leave the factory with a safe amount of NDMA but if kept for too long at home or on the store shelf can exceed known acceptable limits by the time patients use them.</p><p>In a new study in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.34766" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JAMA Network Open</a>, investigators simulated the stomach environment and found that when ranitidine was exposed to an acidic environment with a nitrite source, these chemicals could create more than 10,000 ng of NDMA.</p><p>These results support a clinical study in which urine samples were collected from 10 adults both before and after using ranitidine. After people swallowed ranitidine, the urinary NDMA doses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgw034" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rose from about 100 ng to more than 40,000 ng</a> over the next day.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="135f47dd0b30dc7c89ffe279413d5e65"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JPFiHHWFgms?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Other Drugs Need Closer Investigation
<p>In another study, investigators added <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_disinfection.html" target="_blank">chloramine</a>, a disinfectant routinely added to sterilize drinking water, to water samples that contained one of several medications that are structurally similar to ranitidine. They found that several commonly used drugs, including antihistamines (doxylamine and chlorpheniramine), a migraine drug (sumatriptan), another heartburn drug (nizatidine) and a blood pressure drug (diltiazem) <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.09.036" target="_blank">all generated NDMA</a>.</p><p>It is unclear whether the amount of NDMA created by these drugs when stored in hot and humid environments or after a patient swallows them is dangerous, as with ranitidine. I believe that more studies need to be done right away to find out. It is always better to be safe than sorry, particularly when dealing with a possible carcinogen.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-some-drugs-can-turn-into-a-cancer-causing-chemical-in-the-body-154531" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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A K-State weed specialist researches the impact of dicamba drift on non-resistant soybeans in 2018. K-State Research and Extension / YouTube
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of products containing the weedkiller dicamba for use on cotton and soybeans Tuesday. The EPA announcement means that two products that contain the herbicide found to cause cancer can be registered for five years. It also extended the use of a third product that also has dicamba in it, according to The Hill.
<p>The EPA said that two canceled dicamba herbicides — XtendiMax and Engenia — will now have a five-year registration. The same five-year extension was granted to the herbicide Tavium. The EPA argued that it provides relief to farmers who were unsure how they would treat their dicamba-resistant cotton and soybean crops.</p><p>"With today's decision, farmers now have the certainty they need to make plans for their 2021 growing season," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-2020-dicamba-registration-decision" target="_blank">statement</a>. "After reviewing substantial amounts of new information, conducting scientific assessments based on the best available science, and carefully considering input from stakeholders we have reached a resolution that is good for our farmers and our environment."</p>
<p>The new rules around the three products are meant to address the concerns of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down a 2018 registration of dicamba products, stating that the EPA "substantially understated" some of the risks associated with the chemical's use, as The Hill reported.</p><p>Also, a study earlier this year published in the <em><a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ije/dyaa066/5827818?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank">International Journal of Epidemiology</a></em> found that the chemical was linked to increased rates of liver and bile duct <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a>.</p><p>The EPA's new rules seek to mitigate the risk by increasing the required downwind buffer from 110 feet to 240 feet, and up to 310 feet in areas where endangered species are located. States can still impose their own restrictions on the herbicide, but they will have to work with the EPA and file the appropriate requests, according to the EPA's statement.</p>
<p>Lobbying groups for<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-ag" target="_self"> big agriculture</a> and industry insiders welcomed the decision.</p><p>"The economic damage that would result from not being able to use dicamba herbicides would be tremendous," said Ken Fountain, National Cotton Council chairman, as <a href="https://www.agweb.com/article/dicamba-approved-over-top-use-2021-and-beyond" target="_blank">Ag Web</a> reported. "We greatly appreciate EPA's timely issuance of a new five-year label for the critical crop protection product for cotton farmers."</p><p>Environmentalists and consumer advocacy organizations were predictably appalled by the decision that seems to be an end-run around the court's decision.</p>
<p>"Rather than evaluating the significant costs of dicamba drift as the 9th Circuit told them the law required, EPA rushed re-approval as a political prop just before the election, sentencing farmers and the environment to another five years of unacceptable damage," said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, according to Ag Web. "Center for Food Safety will most certainly challenge these unlawful approvals."</p><p>Other critics noted the damage already caused by dicamba use.</p><p>"Given EPA-approved versions of dicamba have already damaged millions of U.S. acres of crops and natural areas there's no reason to trust that the agency got it right this time," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement, as The Hill reported.</p><p>"At this point, the EPA has shown such callous indifference to the damage dicamba has caused to farmers and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> alike, and has been so desperate to appease the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides">pesticide</a> industry, it has zero credibility when it comes to pesticide safety," Donley added.</p>
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Nobel Prize for Medicine Goes to Trio Behind Hepatitis C Discovery
05 October 2020
Health + Wellness
The Nobel Assembly announces the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Oct. 5, 2020. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP via Getty Images
As the world continues to battle one deadly virus, the Nobel Assembly is honoring three scientists who discovered another.
<p>The assembly announced Monday it was awarding the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.</p><p>"Prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained," the Nobel Assembly said in a <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/press-release/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives."</p>
<div id="6b5e6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1bdff32b713fdf28946e2bcce6db49a3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313049505802194945" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING NEWS:
The 2020 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael… https://t.co/fzchOMYudC</div> — The Nobel Prize (@The Nobel Prize)<a href="https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/statuses/1313049505802194945">1601890372.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The three researchers each contributed to solving a deadly medical mystery.</p><p>Hepatitis, or liver inflammation, is typically caused by viral infections. By the 1940s, researchers had discovered two: Hepatitis A, which is food-and-water-borne and does not typically cause lasting harm, and a blood-borne hepatitis that can cause cirrhosis and liver <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a>. In the 1960s, scientists identified one blood-borne virus that they called Hepatitis B. But, after diagnostic tests and a vaccine were developed, people continued to catch a form of hepatitis after blood transfusions.</p><p>What follows is a timeline of how the winning researchers uncovered the culprit, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54418463" target="_blank">BBC News</a>.</p><p>1972: Professor Harvey Alter discovered while working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that people were still getting liver disease after blood transfusions. He injected chimpanzees with the blood of infected patients and showed that the chimps also developed the disease.</p><p>1989: While working at the pharmaceutical firm Chiron, professor Michael Houghton isolated the genetic sequence of the mystery virus, which was then called Hepatitis C.</p><p>1997: Professor Charles Rice conducted an experiment at Washington University in St. Louis in which he genetically engineered a Hepatitis C virus and injected it into a chimpanzee, proving that the virus did in fact cause hepatitis.</p>
<p>The discoveries enabled the creation of diagnostic tests for Hepatitis C, which have stopped it from being passed through transfusions in much of the world, the Nobel Assembly explained. Further, the findings have made possible the development of antiviral treatments. While blood-borne hepatitis still claims more than a million lives a year, the winners' work may contribute to a world in which that is no longer the case.</p><p>"For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world population," the assembly wrote.</p><p>The scientists all kept on researching after their discoveries. Alter continues to study Hepatitis C and other blood transfusion risks at the <a href="https://irp.nih.gov/pi/harvey-alter" target="_blank">NIH</a>. Houghton is a virology professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he directs the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/health/nobel-prize-medicine-hepatitis-c.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. Rice teaches at Rockefeller University in New York and directed its Center for the Study of Hepatitis C from 2001 to 2018.</p><p>Nobel Assembly secretary-general Thomas Perlmann told BBC News he was only able to reach Rice and Alter with the news of their win.</p><p>"They were definitely not sitting by the phone because I called them a couple of times before without any answer," Perlmann said. "But once I reached them, they were extremely surprised and they were really happy and speechless almost, so it was really fun to talk to them."</p>
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Trump's Latest EPA Rollback Lets Polluters Spew More Lead, Arsenic, Mercury
02 October 2020
Politics
A new Trump administration rollback of EPA regulations could allow plants to emit two to ten times more hazardous air pollutants than before. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has weakened yet another safeguard against air pollution in the midst of a respiratory pandemic.
<p>The agency finalized a rollback Thursday of the Clinton-era "once in, always in" policy that required major polluters like industrial plants and refineries to maintain the highest possible levels of pollution controls as long as they continued to operate, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-environment-airtoxics-idUSKBN26M7EU?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3DnYWkKalEHiFeBQRhFzRZPVWl2Z1Eb_F0rUc9czINsYwTV53qjgwLwDU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>"This is a lawless action that will undoubtedly increase carcinogens and other deadly pollution in our air," Clinton EPA administrator Carol Browner said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/519181-epa-finalizes-rule-allowing-some-major-polluters-to-follow-weaker" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "Taking this action during a global pandemic that preys upon people with existing respiratory ailments further confirms that for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" target="_self">Andrew Wheeler</a> and the political leadership of the EPA the cruelty is the point."</p>
<p>The agency <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-clean-air-act-2528831006.html" target="_self">first proposed</a> reversing the rule in 2018, according to Reuters. The 1995 policy required that major polluters use maximum achievable control technology standards (MACT) throughout the lifetime of their operations. The new policy will allow these facilities to use less stringent standards after they reduce emissions. The so-called "major sources" that reduce their emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) will be reclassified as "area sources," emitters like gas stations or dry cleaners that emit less than 10 tons of a single pollutant or 25 tons of multiple pollutants each year.</p><p>"This action reduces regulatory burden and provides a level of fairness and flexibility for sources that reduce HAP emissions below major source thresholds and reclassify as area sources," the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/documentation-reclassification-major-sources-area-sources-under" target="_blank">agency explained</a>.</p>
<p>EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler argued that the change would incentivize companies to invest in better technology to reduce emissions.</p><p>"Today's action is an important step to further <a href="https://thehill.com/people/donald-trump" target="_blank">President Trump</a>'s regulatory reform agenda by providing meaningful incentives for investment that prevents hazardous air pollution," he said in a statement reported by The Hill.</p><p>However, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) senior attorney John Walke said the reversal was entirely unnecessary. He said plants had already installed emission-reduction technology and had been maintaining the requirement that they reduce pollution 95 to 98 percent for decades.</p><p>"It's the triumph of extreme ideology over <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a>, common sense and the law," he told The Hill.</p><p>Walke further said <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDC/status/1311759616393572356" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on Twitter</a> that the rollback would allow plants to emit two to ten times more hazardous air pollutants than before. This includes toxins like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mercury" target="_self">mercury</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lead" target="_self">lead</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arsenic" target="_self">arsenic</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/asbestos" target="_self">asbestos</a> and benzene that can cause <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a>, brain damage, fetal damage and premature death.</p>
<p>The EPA itself acknowledged the new policy could cause as many as 1,258 tons of additional pollutants to enter the air every year.</p><p><a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/10/sierra-club-vows-fight-repeal-once-always-framework" target="_blank">The Sierra Club</a> pointed out that the change would disproportionately impact low income communities and communities of color that tend to live closer to polluting plants. It comes as scientists <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-air-pollution-fatality-2645656760.html" target="_self">warn</a> that exposure to air pollution might increase the risk of dying of the new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, and Black and Hispanic Americans are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html" target="_self">contracting and dying</a> of the new virus at higher rates.</p><p>"Despite … the renewed national focus on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/environmental-justice" target="_self">environmental justice</a>, Wheeler is showing there is no level that he will not stoop to in order to placate polluters and carrying out the wishes of his disgraced predecessor, <a href="https://debbiedingell.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1315" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt</a>," <a href="https://twitter.com/maryannehitt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">national director of campaigns for the Sierra Club</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/maryannehitt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mary Anne Hitt</a> said in a statement. "Sierra Club, however, will continue to fight for the communities Wheeler has chosen to ignore. We will fight this reckless and unlawful rollback, in order to ensure that the American public is safe from dangerous air pollution."</p>The NRDC also <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDC/status/1311759521929453570" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">promised</a> to fight the change, and the <a href="https://www.edf.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Environmental Defense Fund</a> told Reuters it would sue to reverse the rollback.
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Actress Jessica Smith gets her make-up done at the Point De Vue Salon on March 1, 2006 in Los Angeles, California. Marsaili McGrath / Getty Images
California became the first state in the nation to ban two dozen toxic chemicals from cosmetics Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to that effect into law.
<p>The Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act, or <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2762" target="_blank">Assembly Bill 2762</a>, targets 24 toxic chemicals including <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mercury" target="_self">mercury</a> and formaldehyde that have been linked to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a>, birth defects, hormone disruption and other negative health impacts, <a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/california-first-state-ban-24-toxic-chemicals-personal-care-products-and-cosmetics?utm_campaign=EWG%20Content&utm_content=1601499406&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0RfuFMZMMoF3cHBcF-JY934c7B_X9MMDJUt-rKeSLJGkkn3S9o3un8uj4" target="_blank">Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported</a>. While these ingredients have been barred from cosmetics and personal care products in the EU, they are not regulated in the U.S. on the national level.</p><p>"Every day, Californians are exposed to hazardous chemicals hiding in their cosmetics and personal care products. Children, communities of color and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to these ingredients, which are not actively regulated by the federal government," Newsom said in a <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/30/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-making-california-first-in-the-nation-to-ban-toxic-chemicals-in-cosmetics/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "California is leading the nation by banning toxic ingredients from our cosmetics. This legislation will save lives and keep Californians and our environment safe."</p>
<p>The bill was introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi and will go into effect in 2025, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-legislation-cosmetics-gavin-newsom-e8895b4a711194f6f41b16622859cdef" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>.</p><p>"The science is clear on the harmful nature of these chemicals and AB 2762 will provide Californians with the same consumer protections already provided in the European Union," Muratsuchi said in the press release.</p><p>Cosmetics regulations have not been significantly updated in the U.S. since <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/michelle-pfeiffer-safer-cosmetics-2638043856.html" target="_self">1938</a>. Currently, the makers of beauty products do not have to register their products with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), supply the government with an ingredients list, follow safe manufacturing standards or report safety records and any adverse health impacts.</p><p>This lack of regulation is an issue of health and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/environmental-justice" target="_self">environmental justice</a>, supporters of the California bill pointed out.</p>
<p>"Some of the most toxic ingredients are being aggressively marketed to Black women," <a href="https://www.bwwla.org/" target="_blank">Black Women for Wellness</a> policy director Nourbese Flint told EWG. "Levels of formaldehyde that could be used to embalm a body are being used in hair straighteners, and Black women who dye their hair are 60 percent more likely to develop breast cancer. That's why we demand safe cosmetics now. This law means we can finally protect women from the toxic exposures they currently face on every trip to the salon."</p><p>The law will also protect salon workers, who are 47 times more likely to develop fragrance skin allergies than people in other professions, the California government pointed out.</p>
<p>Also on Wednesday, Newsom signed <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB312" target="_blank">Senate Bill 312</a>, which mandates that cosmetics makers report any harmful fragrances or flavors to the California Department of Public Health Safe Cosmetics Program.</p><p>"I thank Governor Newsom for signing SB 312 which will ensure that consumers in California know what ingredients are in the beauty and personal care products they bring home to their families and use on their bodies," Democratic State Senator Connie Leyva, who introduced the bill, said in the press release. "This first-in-the-nation legislation empowers consumers and underscores the belief that no toxic ingredients should be kept secret."</p>
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Honeybee Venom Kills Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells, Study Shows
02 September 2020
Health + Wellness
Honeybee venom has shown promise against an aggressive type of breast cancer. Susan Walker / Moment / Getty Images
Could honeybees hold the key to treating an aggressive form of breast cancer?
A new study out of Australia found that honeybee venom rapidly killed the cells for triple-negative breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that currently has few treatment options.
<p>"It provides another wonderful example of where compounds in nature can be used to treat human diseases," said Western Australia Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken in a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901093412.htm" target="_blank">Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research press release</a>.</p><p>The research, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-020-00129-0" target="_blank">published in Nature Precision Oncology</a> Tuesday, was led by Dr. Ciara Duffy of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and the University of Western Australia.</p>
<div id="82bdc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ed2c281143c65c36dc400dc7f947a8a8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1300955670452158464" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Perkins and @uwanews researcher Dr Ciara Duffy has found that honeybee venom can induce cancer cell death in hard t… https://t.co/N29IwLsu0s</div> — The Perkins (@The Perkins)<a href="https://twitter.com/PerkinsComms/statuses/1300955670452158464">1599006977.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>As far back as 1950, bee venom was shown to kill tumors in plants. It has also been shown to work against other cancers like melanoma, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53994058" target="_blank">BBC News explained</a>. However, Duffy said in the press release that this was the first time honeybee venom had been tested against every type of breast cancer cell, as well as normal breast cells.</p><p>Duffy and her team tested both the venom itself and a synthetic version of a compound in the venom called melittin. They found that both were effective against triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells. In fact, a certain concentration of honeybee venom could kill 100 percent of cancer cells without seriously impacting healthy ones.</p><p>"The venom was extremely potent," Duffy said.</p><p>Duffy explained to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-01/new-aus-research-finds-honey-bee-venom-kills-breast-cancer-cells/12618064" target="_blank">Australia's ABC News</a> how the melittin worked.</p><p>"What melittin does is it actually enters the surface, or the plasma membrane, and forms holes or pores and it just causes the cell to die," Duffy said.</p>
<p>The researchers also found that the melittin interfered with the cancer cells' messaging system, which is essential for the cancer to reproduce and grow.</p><p>The fact that melittin makes holes in the cancer cells actually means it could potentially be paired with existing chemotherapies that would enter the cancer cells through the openings it carved and kill them. Duffy found this treatment strategy worked to shrink tumors in mice.</p><p>However, outside <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> cautioned that there is a big difference between killing cancer in a lab and successfully treating it in humans.</p><p>"It's very early days," Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney associate professor Alex Swarbrick told BBC News. "Many compounds can kill a breast cancer cell in a dish or in a mouse. But there's a long way to go from those discoveries to something that can change clinical practice."</p>
<p>Duffy agreed that more research had to be done before the melittin could be used on human patients.</p><p>"There's a long way to go in terms of how we would deliver it in the body and, you know, looking at toxicities and maximum tolerated doses before it ever went further," she told ABC News.</p><p>For the study, Duffy gathered venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Perth, Western Australia; England; and Ireland.</p><p>"Perth bees are some of the healthiest in the world," she said.</p><p>She found that the national origin of the honeybees did not alter their venom's impact on the cancer. The bumblebee venom, however, had no cancer-killing powers.</p>
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The Anderson Community Group. Left to right, Caroline Laur, Anita Foust, the Rev. Bryon Shoffner, and Bill Compton, came together to fight for environmental justice in their community. Anderson Community Group
By Isabella Garcia
On Thanksgiving Day 2019, right after Caroline Laur had finished giving thanks for her home, a neighbor at church told her that a company had submitted permit requests to build an asphalt plant in their community. The plans indicated the plant would be 250 feet from Laur's backdoor.
<p>Laur has a premalignant blood disease, and for the past two years, she has been trying to build up her immune system to prevent the disease from evolving into a terminal form of cancer. "When I heard about this plant," Laur says, "I went to the Duke Cancer Research Center, and a Duke scholar in my illness told me this would be a life-threatening situation for me, and I would have to leave." Having to move from her home, where she has lived for 15 years, would be devastating for Laur, not to mention a monetary loss. Who would buy a home 250 feet from an asphalt plant?</p>
<p>Laur lives in Anderson, North Carolina, a rural <a href="https://northcarolina.hometownlocator.com/counties/subdivisions/data,n,township%2520of%2520anderson,id,3703390056,cfips,033.cfm" target="_blank">township with just over 2,000 people</a> (and zero cell towers). It is one of the many predominantly Black communities in the United States experiencing a perfect storm of injustices threatening the health of residents and their environment.</p><p>An informal community survey shows that more than 70% of Anderson residents are Black, while the <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/caswellcountynorthcarolina,NC/PST045219" target="_blank">county and state's populations</a> are 32% and 22% Black, respectively. Predominantly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5844406/" target="_blank">Black neighborhoods in the U.S. have historically been exposed to higher rates of air pollution</a>. Specifically, Black people in America are exposed to about 1.5 times more particulate matter—a form of air pollution known to cause cancer—than White people. This <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm" target="_blank">exposure leads to higher incidences of health problems</a> such as heart attacks, asthma, and decreased lung function.</p><p>A growing number of studies show <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016301386" target="_blank">polluting facilities are disproportionately located in Black and minority communities</a>, so it's hardly surprising that the asphalt plant was slated for construction in Anderson. A 2018 study from the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5844406/" target="_blank">the discrepancy goes beyond geography or poverty</a>, too: Not only are more factories in minority neighborhoods, but these factories are more likely to produce greater emissions than those in non-minority neighborhoods.</p><p>These days, the risks are even higher. Because <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/ambient/health-impacts/en/" target="_blank">exposure to air pollutants decreases lung function</a>, communities in polluted areas are more susceptible to COVID-19; a recent <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm" target="_blank">Harvard study found that people in areas with high particulate matter are 8% more likely to die</a> of the coronavirus than those in areas where the pollution is just one unit lower. That's been borne out in North Carolina, where <a href="https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/cases" target="_blank">Black residents make up 33% of the state's 1,568 COVID deaths as of July 15</a>, despite only making up only 22% of the population.</p><p>"This is not just an Anderson community health crisis," Laur says. "This is a North Carolina health crisis. It's an American health crisis."</p>
Grassroots Resistance
<p>The plant that would threaten Laur's health and home was awaiting the approval of an air permit by the North Carolina Department of Air Quality which, if approved, would basically greenlight the project. "This made me get out and go door to door," Laur says. One by one, she alerted her neighbors to the prospect of the asphalt plant. "I got to meet some of my neighbors I never knew before," she says. "There's no secret that there has always been a pretty strong line between the White community and the Black community here." In the end, three neighbors joined her efforts—the Rev. Bryon Shoffner, Anita Foust, and Bill Compton. Together, they formed the Anderson Community Group to advocate for environmental justice in their community.</p><p>"We are all the four corners of the community," Laur says with a laugh. "You've got a sick old White lady, Rev. Shoffner is a disabled vet, you've got Anita, who is a Black woman, and you've got a White, old country farmer. We all come from different faiths, but we've all come together as one."</p><p>Suddenly thrust into activism, the group contacted the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, a coalition that provides resources and connections with other groups. "We advocate, we organize, and we assist communities with whatever actions they are thinking of trying to protect themselves," says Naeema Muhammad, the network's co-director. Muhammad met with the activists from Anderson and recognized their need for legal advice, so she connected them with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The legal resources were key when the group determined that the data from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's environmental justice report wasn't adding up.</p><p>The report—a requirement for all DEQ permit requests—stated that the Anderson community was 33% minority. That seemed far too low to the residents, so the Anderson Community Group did a census of each house within a 1-mile radius of the proposed plant—the same radius considered in the DEQ's environmental justice report.</p><p>"Rev. Shoffner went out into the community and did his own survey and found out that it was more than 70% minority," Laur says. "That was huge, because that changed the situation to a Title VI matter." Title VI is a federal civil rights law that prevents people from being discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. Title VI cases require a more rigorous and comprehensive environmental justice report, so recognizing the Anderson community as a Title VI matter increases the strength of their request for a more in-depth report.</p><p>The massive difference in race demographics comes down to census data, Laur says. The DEQ was using race data from the 2010 census, which was only <a href="https://www.censushardtocountmaps2020.us/?latlng=35.77385,-78.73807&z=7&query=coordinates::36.44038,-79.36343&promotedfeaturetype=states&arp=arpRaceEthnicity&baselayerstate=4&rtrYear=sR2010&infotab=info-rtrselfresponse&filterQuery=false" target="_blank">completed by about 64% of the population of Caswell County</a>—the county where Anderson is located. Laur says the Anderson population response rate could be even lower because the community is considered <a href="https://www.nccensus.org/about-the-census#hard-to-count-communities" target="_blank">"hard-to-count" by the U.S. Census Bureau</a>.</p><p>"The people who don't fill it out are rural people who want to keep their land and don't want zoning and minorities," Laur says, which creates skewed race demographics. The Anderson Community Group said that when they brought up this issue with the director of North Carolina DEQ, he said he was aware of the problem.</p><p>"So that tells me that all the EJ reports in North Carolina that have been done may not even be valid, just like ours," Laur says. "We were told that we are the first [community members] who have ever doubted it and checked it out."</p>Elevating Voices
<p>Determined to have new data collected, the Anderson Community Group rallied in early 2020. After learning from the state Department of Air Quality, the department responsible for approving or rejecting the asphalt air permit, that 100 statements of concern from community members would be sufficient to trigger a public hearing, the Anderson group gathered letters of concern from their community. They submitted more than 108.</p><p>"Then we were told there wasn't enough concern to have a public hearing," Laur says. "So, we started inundating the [Department of Air Quality director with emails and phone calls from the community."</p><p>Finally, in February 2020, the DEQ declared a public comment period for the issue, effectively placing the air permit for the asphalt plant on hold until a public hearing August 3. The public hearing will be held online because of COVID-19, but Laur says most people in Anderson don't own computers, and won't be able to attend. When the community group filed a complaint regarding accessibility, the DEQ then allowed public comments to be submitted via voicemail.</p><p>"Well, we don't have a cell tower out here," Laur says. She has personally never been able to use her cellphone in her home, and even her landline phone drops calls frequently. Even being able to afford a landline is a luxury in Anderson, Laur says.</p><p>To make sure community voices are heard, Laur says, the Anderson Community Group is "begging, fighting, scratching, and screaming" for the public comment period to be extended until the hearing can be held in person. The group fears that the community won't be able to properly participate, and as a result, the DEQ will approve the asphalt permit without listening to residents' concerns or considering accurate data.</p><p>The health impacts on the community could be huge. During Shoffner's unofficial survey, he also found that more than 90% of those within a 1-mile radius of the proposed plant have health conditions such as asthma, lung disease, and previous strokes and heart attacks that would be exacerbated by polluting industries.</p><p>"That's the thing that we feel they are truly missing: They're not allowing data to catch up," Shoffner says. Not only is the existing data outdated and inaccurate, he argues, but even data from 2018 would only provide a partial picture, because it does not account for the effects of COVID-19 on the community. "Of course, our ultimate goal is for them to say they're not going to build a polluting industry in a Black neighborhood, but our next move is to get them to postpone it until they get the data that shows how the asphalt plant and COVID-19 is affecting Black and brown people."</p><p>Shoffner says that the pandemic has thankfully slowed down the whirlwind of decisions on the asphalt plant and given the team time to consider what else they can do to halt its construction. For example, in July, the group <a href="https://acejustice.org/ej-petition" target="_blank">created a mail-in petition</a> for the North Carolina governor to stop the permit process.</p><p>"This team has been able to research and dig and get in a lot of doors," he says, noting that they have had productive conversations with leaders from the North Carolina DEQ. "We're winning as long as we're on the phone and getting conference calls. When they stop taking our calls, that's when we'll start asking what to do now."</p><p><em>CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Anita Foust. Text has been updated.</em></p><p><em>Isabella Garcia </em><em>is a former solutions journalism intern for YES!.</em></p><p><em><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/07/23/north-carolina-community-pollution/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646927403#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></em></p>
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Modern Medical Techniques Reveal Malignant Cancer in 77-Million Year-Old Dinosaur Bone
07 August 2020
Science
Centrosaurus apertus was a plant-eating, single-horned dinosaur that lived 76 to 77 million years ago. Sergey Krasovskiy / Stocktrek Images / Getty Images
Scientists have discovered and diagnosed the first instance of malignant cancer in a dinosaur, and they did so by using modern medical techniques. They published their results earlier this week in The Lancet Oncology.
<p>In 1989, a badly-deformed lower leg bone of a <em>Centrosaurus apertus</em> was found in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. One end of the fossilized fibula was enlarged and warped, leading scientists to originally presume a healed fracture.</p><p><em>Centrosaurus apertus</em> was a plant-eating, single-horned dinosaur about 20 feet long. The particular animal that the fossil comes from lived 76 to 77 million years ago and likely died in a flood that killed its entire herd.</p>
<p>After the bone was excavated, it sat in a museum until 2017, when a team led by David Evans, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Mark Crowther, a professor of pathology at McMaster University, looked at it with fresh eyes.</p><p>"We basically went on a hunt for dinosaur cancer," Evans told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/899060875/scientists-discover-malignant-cancer-in-a-dinosaur" target="_blank">NPR</a>.</p><p>On a mission to find signs of cancer, the scientists searched through hundreds of injured or partially healed fossils before they found the malformed leg bone. The team invited multidisciplinary specialists and medical professionals from many fields, including pathology, radiology, orthopedic surgery and paleopathology, to help diagnose the suspected tumor, the news report said.</p>
<p>"The approach we took in this case was very similar to how we approach a patient that comes in with a new tumor, and we don't know what kind of tumor it is," said Seper Ekhtiari, an orthopedic surgery resident on the team, reported NPR.</p><p>The team performed high-resolution CT scans and examined thin sections of bone cells under a microscope, according to a <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/rare-malignant-cancer-diagnosed-in-a-dinosaur" target="_blank">Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) press release</a>. This allowed them to visualize the progression of cancer through the bone, discounting the initial hypothesis of a fracture and leading to the diagnosis of osteosarcoma, Evans told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-dinosaur-cancer/gnarly-tumor-shows-dinosaurs-got-cancer-too-idUSKCN24Z2QU" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>Osteosarcoma generally occurs in rapidly growing bones, and is found in children and young adults, said Mark Crowther, the study's co-author and a professor of medicine, pathology and molecular medicine, Reuters reported. The tumor destroys the bone and can spread to other tissues. Dinosaurs presumably would also be at risk because they grew at enormous rates, he added.</p>
<p>"One of the ways they got to such massive sizes is that they grew extremely rapidly from the time when they were born," Ekhtiari told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/899060875/scientists-discover-malignant-cancer-in-a-dinosaur" target="_blank">NPR</a>. "So finding this in a dinosaur is not surprising." He also noted that bone cancer "is probably more common than we think, or more common than we have found so far."</p><p>The findings suggest that dinosaurs likely suffered from other diseases that affect bones, like tuberculosis and osteomyelitis, Crowther said, NPR reported.</p><p>To confirm the diagnosis, the scientists compared the fossil to a healthy <em>centrosaurus </em>fibula as well as to a human fibula confirmed with osteosarcoma, the <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/rare-malignant-cancer-diagnosed-in-a-dinosaur" target="_blank">ROM release</a> explained.</p>
<p>"It is both fascinating and inspiring to see a similar multidisciplinary effort that we use in diagnosing and treating osteosarcoma in our patients leading to the first diagnosis of osteosarcoma in a dinosaur," Ekhtiari said in the ROM release. "This discovery reminds us of the common biological links throughout the animal kingdom and reinforces the theory that osteosarcoma tends to affect bones when and where they are growing most rapidly."</p><p>Evans, an expert on <em>centrosaurus</em>, told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/899060875/scientists-discover-malignant-cancer-in-a-dinosaur" target="_blank">NPR</a>, "We often think of dinosaurs as sort of mythical, powerful creatures, and I think this discovery really underscores that they can be afflicted by diseases that we see around us today, even horrible fatal cancers. I think in an odd way it brings them even more back to life."</p>
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A doctor administers a blood test. Yvonne Hemsey / Getty Images
Cancer survival rates dramatically increase when the disease is caught early, but there has not been an effective, non-invasive test that will detect most types of cancer early.
<p>Now, an international team of researchers has developed a blood test that can diagnose certain cancers years before symptoms occur.</p><p>"What we showed is: up to four years before these people walk into the hospital, there are already signatures in their blood that show they have cancer," study coauthor and University of California bioengineer <a href="http://igm.ucsd.edu/faculty/profiles/kun-zhang.shtml" target="_blank">Kun Zhang</a> told <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experimental-blood-test-detects-cancer-up-to-four-years-before-symptoms-appear/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a>. "That's never been done before."</p>
<p>The test is part of a larger effort to create a "liquid biopsy" for early cancer detection, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/21/researchers-unveil-test-that-can-detect-cancer-years-before-symptoms" target="_blank">The Guardian explained</a>. While other studies have reported positive results for blood tests that detect cancer relatively early, few can detect it before any symptoms develop.</p><p>But the new test, called PanSeer, detected cancer in 95 percent of asymptomatic patients who went on to receive a diagnosis.</p><p>The study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17316-z" target="_blank"><em>Nature Communications</em></a> Tuesday, is also unique because of how the test was developed, Scientific American explained.</p><p>Most tests are developed by taking blood samples of people already diagnosed with cancer and then seeing if they can find a way to detect the cancer they already know is there.</p>
<p>"The best you can prove is whether your method is as good at detecting cancer as existing methods," Zhang explained. "You can never prove it's better."</p><p>So Zhang's team worked with blood samples collected from more than 123,000 healthy people in Taizhou, China, around 1,000 of whom went on to develop cancer over 10 years.</p><p>The researchers decided to focus on detecting five of the most common types of cancer: stomach, esophageal, colorectal, lung and liver.</p><p>In 2018, those cancers were responsible for 783,000, 508,000, 862,000, 1.76 million and 782,000 deaths respectively, <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/blood-test-finds-cancers-before-standard-diagnosis-study/" target="_blank">AFP reported</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers developed their test based on 414 blood samples of people who remained cancer-free five years later, 191 people who later developed one of the five cancers and 223 patients who had already been diagnosed, according to The Guardian.</p><p>The test uses something called DNA methylation analysis to look for genetic signatures common to tumors, AFP explained.</p><p>The researchers developed their method using around half of the samples and tested it on the other, The Guardian reported. The tests were accurate for 88 percent of people already diagnosed, 95 percent diagnosed later and 96 percent of those who were cancer-free.</p><p>Outside researchers said that the results showed promise, but both they and the research team agreed that the method needed to be tested further.</p><p>"The PanSeer test has achieved encouraging initial resulte," Samantha Harrison, a senior early diagnosis manager at Cancer Research UK, told The Guardian. "Promisingly, the test may be able to detect cancer in blood samples taken years before diagnosis. But these are early results that now need to be validated in larger studies."</p>
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About 30,000 claims contending that Roundup caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are currently unsettled. Mike Mozart / CC BY 2.0
Bayer's $10 billion settlement to put an end to roughly 125,000 lawsuits against its popular weed killer Roundup, which contains glyphosate, hit a snag this week when a federal judge in San Francisco expressed skepticism over what rights future plaintiffs would have, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
<p>The $10 billion settlement does not actually need judicial review and is set to move forward. The issue is that $1.25 billion from the settlement does need a court order to be approved. That part deals with future lawsuits by <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a> patients who have not yet gone to court and by others who have not yet been diagnosed. The U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said in an order Monday that he had questions about the legality and fairness of the agreement and was "tentatively inclined" to reject it, as the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/SF-judge-questions-Bayer-s-1-25-billion-plan-15391982.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reported.</p><p>In a court filing on Monday, the judge described a plan to create a class action for future litigants as problematic, and he set a July 24 hearing date to address the matter, as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-07/bayer-s-roundup-cancer-settlement-plan-hits-snag-as-judge-balks" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported.</p>
<p>"We appreciate the judge's order raising his preliminary concerns with the proposed class settlement, which we take seriously and will address" at the hearing, Chris Loder, a U.S.-based spokesman for the Germany-based chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, said in an interview.</p><p>Chhabria said he "is skeptical of the propriety and fairness of the proposed settlement." He raised concerns about the creation of a scientific panel to decide whether the key ingredient, glyphosate, causes cancer and whether the agreement unfairly limits potential plaintiffs from suing, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/roundup-lawsuit-settlement.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>Right now about 30,000 claims contending Roundup caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are left unsettled. Some lawyers in the U.S. have vowed to file another wave of new suits that could add tens of thousands to the logjam of existing cases, according to Bloomberg.</p>
<p>"Thankfully, Judge Chhabria has seen the ruthless plan as an outrageous attempt to deprive every future victim of Monsanto's killer Roundup of their right to fair and full compensation and to a jury trial," Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, plaintiffs' attorneys for users of the weedkiller who haven't settled their suits, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg on Tuesday.</p><p>Bayer has lost a series of high-profile multi-million dollar cases for Roundup's role in causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in people who used the Monsanto brand herbicide. That series of losses has seen investors flee from Bayer since it acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.</p><p>To stem the tide of suits, Bayer insisted that the protection against future suits is a linchpin of the current settlement. Without it, the bulk of the $10 billion deal has the potential to fall apart, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>In addition to the $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to cover about 95,000 cases, $1.25 billion was set aside to finance the scientific panel and assist impoverished Roundup users with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. As The New York Times described, that panel would then decide whether glyphosate caused cancer and, if so, what exposure level was dangerous. Both Bayer and claimants would be bound to accept the findings in future litigation.</p><p>New York-based lawyer Hunter Shkolnik opposed the novel class-action idea from the onset. He described it as "nothing more than a legally infirm, backroom deal to protect Monsanto rather than compensating Roundup cancer victims," in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.</p>
<p>Judge Chhabria asked on Monday whether it was lawful to remove judges and juries from the equation and to shift the question of whether Roundup caused cancer to a panel of scientists.</p><p>According to The New York Times, he also noted the three previous multimillion-dollar verdicts and asked, "Why would a potential class member want to replace a jury trial and the right to seek punitive damages with the process contemplated by the settlement agreement?"</p><p>Furthermore, Chhabria also worried that the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a> on glyphosate's cancer-causing properties is still evolving. That led him to question whether it would pass legal muster to have claimants bound by one study that didn't find toxicity when a future, more rigorous study may find the opposite, as Bloomberg reported.</p>
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