To: Ken Lacoste, First warden, André Boudreau, Second Warden, Sven Risom, Councilor, Martha Ball, Councilor, Christopher Willi, Councilor, and Edward Roberge, [email protected]
Ban Glyphosate on Block Island
Stop the use of these lethal environmental toxins on Block Island.
Why is this important?
Block Island’s groundwater supplies are finite, irreplaceable, and essential to the town’s quality of life and economic well being. Block Island also prides itself as a hub for forward thinking and preserving its robust ecosystems. The senseless use of lethal environmental toxins should be stopped in order to protect these irreplaceable resources that sustain Block Islands ecosystems and inhabitants.
In recent days, San Francisco jurors ruled that Roundup - the most popular weedkiller in the world - from the same department as Agent Orange and the Terminator Gene in GM food, gave a former school groundskeeper terminal cancer. They awarded him $289 million in damages.
This former groundskeepers victory could set a massive precedent for thousands of other cases claiming Monsanto's famous herbicide causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The significance of this case not only exposes the dangers of Roundup and other potentially dangerous (Glyphosate formulated) pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used on our gardens & lawns and in our GMO foods, but it is also an opportunity for the Block Island community to become more aware of its use at the expense of exposing these toxins to our children and pets, our neighbors, our water systems & soil microbiome, as well as to the insects that are vital to Block Islands ecological health.
There are many studies that suggest that Glyphosate (alone) in is not dangerous, and there are many studies that suggest it is dangerous. Very few studies have been conducted using Glyphosate in formulations such as Roundup and the illustrate an even uglier toxic stew. Sadly, we cannot rely on the biases and pseudoscience of the studies being published. Monsanto (Bayer) and our government agencies are not our leaders in advocating for our health and the health of our environment.
For example, most studies use Glyphosate (alone) in their experiments - You might find that you have this active ingredient that appears nontoxic - but that DOES NOT MEAN that the commercial formulation (co-formulants that fly under the regulatory radar) is also nontoxic. We all know that combining and mixing chemicals can make a toxic stew. Furthermore, other ingredients in products like Roundup are trade secrets and unavailable for inspection.
According to the Journal of Entropy (Jan, 2013), Glyphosate (alone) enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. The negative impact on the body is "insidious" and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. There is growing evidence that GMO foods are the culprits in the destruction of our intestinal microbiome which leads to gut permeability. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and a host of other autoimmune diseases.
The Journal of Entropy also explains the documented effects of Glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, showing that Glyphosate is the “textbook example” of the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.
We need to stand up to to these companies and government agencies and say no to dumping poison into our systems and say yes to keeping the health of our soil and water systems as healthy as possible.
We are asking that you place an island-wide ban on the senseless use of all Glyphosate containing formulas that gradually and inevitably destroys otherwise healthy systems.
Links to understanding the damaging affects:
https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/tag/glyphosate-map-lake-okeechobee/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808927/
Conclusion from this study:
Up to now, endocrine-disrupting effects of pesticides have been studied mostly based on tests on their declared active ingredient. Here we report for the first time that, below their toxicity thresholds, the co-formulants, generally classified as inerts and kept confidential, act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals at levels up to several hundred times below the level at which the declared active ingredient demonstrates the same activity. Glyphosate is never used alone, but always with its co-formulants. Thus the physiological effects of co-formulants should be more thoroughly tested and declared. We also recommend that the calculation of the ADI for pesticides should be based on toxicity tests of the commercial formulations rather than solely the declared active ingredient.
Countries that have banned or placed restrictions on the use of glyphosate:
Germany
France
Belgium
Bermuda
Colombia
Netherlands
Sri Lanka
El Salvador
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Qatar
Bahrain
Oman
United Arab Emirates
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
England
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
Scotland
Slovenia
Switzerland
In Connecticut:
Branford
Greenwich
Manchester
Cheshire
Watertown
Woodbridge
Roxburg
In Massachusetts :
Marblehead
Warwick
Wellesley
There's a saying -- If something is not eating something else in your garden, then your garden is not part of the ecosystem.
In recent days, San Francisco jurors ruled that Roundup - the most popular weedkiller in the world - from the same department as Agent Orange and the Terminator Gene in GM food, gave a former school groundskeeper terminal cancer. They awarded him $289 million in damages.
This former groundskeepers victory could set a massive precedent for thousands of other cases claiming Monsanto's famous herbicide causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The significance of this case not only exposes the dangers of Roundup and other potentially dangerous (Glyphosate formulated) pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used on our gardens & lawns and in our GMO foods, but it is also an opportunity for the Block Island community to become more aware of its use at the expense of exposing these toxins to our children and pets, our neighbors, our water systems & soil microbiome, as well as to the insects that are vital to Block Islands ecological health.
There are many studies that suggest that Glyphosate (alone) in is not dangerous, and there are many studies that suggest it is dangerous. Very few studies have been conducted using Glyphosate in formulations such as Roundup and the illustrate an even uglier toxic stew. Sadly, we cannot rely on the biases and pseudoscience of the studies being published. Monsanto (Bayer) and our government agencies are not our leaders in advocating for our health and the health of our environment.
For example, most studies use Glyphosate (alone) in their experiments - You might find that you have this active ingredient that appears nontoxic - but that DOES NOT MEAN that the commercial formulation (co-formulants that fly under the regulatory radar) is also nontoxic. We all know that combining and mixing chemicals can make a toxic stew. Furthermore, other ingredients in products like Roundup are trade secrets and unavailable for inspection.
According to the Journal of Entropy (Jan, 2013), Glyphosate (alone) enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. The negative impact on the body is "insidious" and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. There is growing evidence that GMO foods are the culprits in the destruction of our intestinal microbiome which leads to gut permeability. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and a host of other autoimmune diseases.
The Journal of Entropy also explains the documented effects of Glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, showing that Glyphosate is the “textbook example” of the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.
We need to stand up to to these companies and government agencies and say no to dumping poison into our systems and say yes to keeping the health of our soil and water systems as healthy as possible.
We are asking that you place an island-wide ban on the senseless use of all Glyphosate containing formulas that gradually and inevitably destroys otherwise healthy systems.
Links to understanding the damaging affects:
https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/tag/glyphosate-map-lake-okeechobee/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808927/
Conclusion from this study:
Up to now, endocrine-disrupting effects of pesticides have been studied mostly based on tests on their declared active ingredient. Here we report for the first time that, below their toxicity thresholds, the co-formulants, generally classified as inerts and kept confidential, act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals at levels up to several hundred times below the level at which the declared active ingredient demonstrates the same activity. Glyphosate is never used alone, but always with its co-formulants. Thus the physiological effects of co-formulants should be more thoroughly tested and declared. We also recommend that the calculation of the ADI for pesticides should be based on toxicity tests of the commercial formulations rather than solely the declared active ingredient.
Countries that have banned or placed restrictions on the use of glyphosate:
Germany
France
Belgium
Bermuda
Colombia
Netherlands
Sri Lanka
El Salvador
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Qatar
Bahrain
Oman
United Arab Emirates
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
England
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
Scotland
Slovenia
Switzerland
In Connecticut:
Branford
Greenwich
Manchester
Cheshire
Watertown
Woodbridge
Roxburg
In Massachusetts :
Marblehead
Warwick
Wellesley
There's a saying -- If something is not eating something else in your garden, then your garden is not part of the ecosystem.