"Combining the operations of Monsanto and Pharmacia will save the new company dlrs 600 million within three years. Hassan said there would be some layoffs, though he could not say how many."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/monsanto-in-50-billion-merger-740767.html
Did you know Monsanto owns the largest pharma co. in the world too?
Herbicides an insidious enemy of good health
POSTED: June 7, 2009
Please help me stop ignorance about herbicides and their effects. The state says you need to die or be in the hospital 25 hours before enforcement, one year in bed doesn't count. You need 10 feral animals to die. I only had five chickens. This problem is invisible. To this day, I have had no recourse but to appeal to the intelligence of the community for a law to control the use of chemical weed killers - possibly limiting use to only those with licenses or permits for any kind of spraying. There are a lot of people out there who think they have arthritis or other health problems who would be surprised that it was caused by checking their mailboxes where herbicides have been sprayed. Look on the Internet for herbicides and death for some good information.
Kim Usher
Wailuku
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/519464.html
Drinking Roundup less toxic than eating salt
POSTED: June 25, 2009
Lately, we have seen letters on how terrible it is to use herbicides, or "toxic herbicides," etc. This is just another tactic to remove all pesticides from the marketplace by scaring everyone.
If you are going to talk toxicity, then let's see some numbers with the application rates. Frequently used Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide in its pure form has is the same oral toxicity as table salt.
When the normal 40 percent concentrate product is used at the rate of two ounces per gallon of water, we end up with 0.0062 ounce of pure Roundup in the gallon of spray mix. Could you even taste this much table salt in a gallon of water, and would it cause cancer, blemishes or some other toxic effect on your body? I think not. Household bleach is more toxic and dangerous.
More environmental scare tactics. If a person does not want the county to use herbicides, then why not volunteer to do hand-weeding on the roadsides and in the parks. Or come and weed the garden spurge out of my paspalum lawn.
Don Gerbig (note: he's the official State of HI rep. for pesticide industry)
Lahaina
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/520200.html
Warning label on Roundup more cautious about use
POSTED: June 30, 2009
Attention Monsanto: Your unofficial spokesman in Lahaina is advising Hawaii residents that "drinking Roundup (is) less toxic than eating salt" (Letters, June 25). I was not aware that Monsanto was advocating the drinking of Roundup - even in the standard 0.0062 concentration with water.
In fact, from reading the warning label for Roundup posted on the Monsanto Web site, I am advised to avoid contact of the chemical with eyes or skin and to avoid breathing the vapor. I am further advised to "wash hands before eating, drinking, chewing gum, using tobacco, or using the toilet." I am also told to even discard clothing that becomes heavily contaminated with the chemical and to always wear chemical-resistant gloves when handling Roundup.
I see nothing that indicates that ingesting Roundup is a good idea. Your "spokesman" does not cite any scientific studies in support of his suggestion.
I agree with the statement that chlorine bleach can also be dangerous, due primarily to its alkaline properties. But in the proper concentration (0.00026), it can and is used to purify untreated water for drinking. Water purification is not listed as an approved use for Roundup.
Monsanto lawyers may want to review the "drinking Roundup" letter. I am sure that plaintiffs' attorneys around the country will be reviewing the letter and using it in support of their claims. You may also want to consider limiting the list of people who are authorized to speak on your behalf.
For the rest of us, we will continue to rely on the dire warnings contained on the Roundup label. For many of us, that means that we will avoid using Roundup altogether.
Richard Lucas (note: President of Sierra Club)
Haiku
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/520432.html
Aloha Honorable Mayor Arakawa,
Another very beautiful day to celebrate and be grateful for on our beloved Island Maui. An Island of true spiritual love to give thanks for. Mahalo and Aloha O'ka Aina.
Today there is hope to start an action to monitor and re-educate the County of Maui Workers on the use of pesticides. The more I try to get this action to happen the more they spray. So I am turning to you, Mayor Arakawa, to bring some sense into this situation. Which I find to be totally against the values of keeping our island clean, protected, safe, beautiful, and loved as a precious jewel in the ocean.
To keep it simple for people to understand I approach this matter as a Rainbow Warrior.The warriors of the Ali'i are called Ali'i Nuenue Kane or Wahine in my case. The Wahine is known to be wise in the ways of understanding how everything fits together in life and how to make it work well so that things go smoothly.
In the case of the use of pesticides there is no oversight here on Maui. If the wind is blowing do not spray; as simple as that. If it is sprayed never sprayed in near water or water beds the water will move this toxic poison to another place; common sense. If water moves with pesticide in it; the water will move towards and in the ocean.
All along the way the poisoned water is used by people and other life forms; unknowingly. If poison is applied on the ground it does not just kill weeds but kills all the life forms in the soil. The moisture in the soil is used through convection to gather rain clouds. If there is no life form in the soil to hold moisture there will be no rain. Rain creates rainbows, which Maui is so well known for. I will include some nice rainbow pics in this email. feel free to share.
I am not writing today to get a job but I would surely volunteer to sit down and put together a presentation to show how this all works. Because we are in a severe drought there is a need to recognize and show effort towards changing our attitude. This drought is man made.
Even the Govenor is aware of this as he is putting aside 13 million a years to plant trees to try and help correct what we are doing to the Aina.
Our bodies and our Aina cannot handle all this abuse. And why? For money? Certainly not to make our island beautiful. I am very disappointed with what I see at the Iao River in Wailuku in Happy Valley. Spraying in the river where people swim right afterwards, not knowing. Or even along the side of the river dogs and people playing, not knowiing. Even if it is colored blue they can't see it at night. I want this to stop.
Please refer to complaint # MA-10-07 with the State Dept. of Agriculture report of misuse of pesticide. Lester Chin conducted an investigation. A written request to obtain his report can be made to Avis Onaga, Environmental Specialist IV - Department od Agriculture-Pesticide Branch, 1428 S. King Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814-2512. Or through email. avis.s.onaga@hawaii.gov
I have a bunch of pictures over a period of time that I would like you to look at. Some are of the posoning and some are even of people swimming in it. Also some of when on Friday Oct 5th when I was walkig down Market between Vineyard and Mill. The wind was blowing up the street in my face and it wasn't until I got to Mill I saw the "WEED"? control workers spraying. It was a horrible smell and I got very ill afterwards. The wind was blowing very hard that day too.
Who knows? Maybe in a few years pesticides will be fingered and then alll these kids will start blaming every illness they have on swimming in this water. The law suits could be crippling to Maui, besides the crippling to people from the nerve damage, swollen joints, blood clotting and variety of other disorders these chemicals cause. It won't be long before Monsanto is exposed as profit machine with no regard to life.
Let's teach our children to be Rainbow Warriors, for them to enjoy a happy and healthy life.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Kimberly Usher
***Still no email back.. I have tried for the past 3 weeks to send this email at 3 different addresses to the mayor's office it keeps getting bounced back as undeliverable. I sent the pictures that are in the slide show to the right. Spraying on the side of the bank, in the bed, people walking on it, kids swimming in it. Pictures of when sprayed as I walked on Market St. are not in the slide show.
( A lady, I know, who owns a store right there died 9 days later- will find out why soon- she was perfectly OK, and never said she was ill of anything {listened to my ills and never said a word of any she had}...and 9 hrs. later; my iffy tooth started to abscess after all that day of my mouth and tongue burning- it's pulled out now.)
No matter what we do to stop this the main thing is our actions bring others to a certain awareness. This same awareness opens the door to all of the other activities that are also being done to Earth and her inhabitants.
Remember this one...
2010-- Supreme court heard a case to stop GMO alfalfa--Easy to read.
Monsanto final argument quote--
"their harm really boils down to the question of their psychological objection to genetically engineered alfalfa."
-- telling someone that they are imagining things is just wrong, unscientific and not a useful arguments premise.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/
http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/09-475.pdf
Similar to what we always hear: "No scientific evidence." This is not true.
Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who explains why Merck's vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide. Start at 3 minutes and you will find out about the polio vaccine- stuff you may have never known.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP3EOPSHCCk&feature=plcp
MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES UNDER SIEGE
...show how difficult it is for people to hold corporations responsible for the harm they have caused. Whether individuals are injured by exposures to contaminated air or water, silicone breast implants, cigarettes, or other chemicals, their quest for justice is usually a David versus Goliath battle that pits average citizens against giant corporations.
When confronted with the harm they have caused, corporations typically blame the victims, deny the problem, and try to avoid responsibility for the harm caused.
...the chemical manufacturing industry has launched an anti-MCS campaign designed to create the illusion of controversy about MCS and cast doubt on its existence.
...It is a credit to the chemical industry’s public relations efforts that we frequently hear that multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) is “controversial” or find journalists who feel obligated to report “both sides” of the MCS story, or attempt to give equal weight to those who say MCS exists and those who say it does not.
...there are not two legitimate views of MCS. Rather, there is a serious, chronic, and often disabling illness that is under attack by the chemical industry.
...the chemical industry often uses non-profit front groups with pleasant sounding names, neutral-appearing third party spokespeople, and science-for-hire studies to try to convince others of the safety of their products. This helps promote the appearance of scientific objectivity, hide the biased and bottom-line driven agenda of the chemical industry, and create the illusion of scientific “controversy” regarding MCS.
...Unfortunately, this plan has been relatively successful. The industry has enlisted the aid of vocal anti-MCS physicians who promote the myths that people with MCS are “hypochondriacs,” “hysterical,” “neurotic,” suffer from some other psychiatric disorder, belong to a “cult,” or just complain too much.
...Drug companies, which usually work with the medical profession to try to help patients, are working to deny help for those with MCS. This is extraordinary, but can be explained by the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is intimately linked to the chemical industry. That is, many companies that make medications also manufacture pesticides, the chemicals most implicated in causing MCS and triggering symptoms in people who are chemically sensitive. For example, Novartis (formerly Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz) is a pharmaceutical company that makes and sells the widely used herbicide atrazine (3).
...Novartis is also a large manufacturer of the organophosphate insecticide diazinon (3), a neurotoxic pesticide currently being reviewed for its safety by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (6). The EPA recently banned a related organophosphate pesticide, chlorpyrifos (commonly sold as Dursban), from household uses because of concern about its toxicity, especially to children (7). The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly used to be a part of DowElanco (now Dow Agroscience), the primary manufacturer of chlorpyrifos (8). Aventis (formerly Hoeschst and Rhone-Poulenc) manufactures the allergy medicine Allegra as well as the carbamate-containing insecticide Sevin (active ingredient carbaryl) (9). Monsanto, known for making Roundup and other herbicides, is a wholly owned subsidiary of a pharmaceutical company called Pharmacia (10, 11). Zeneca manufactures pesticides (12) and pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca), including drugs to treat breast and prostate cancer, migraine headaches, and epilepsy (13) -- illnesses whose cause or exacerbation have been linked to pesticide exposures.
Pfizer and Abbott Laboratories make both pharmaceuticals (14) and pesticides (15), while BASF makes pharmaceutical ingredients and pesticides (16). Even Bayer, famous for making aspirin, manufactures the popular neurotoxic pyrethroid insecticide Tempo (active ingredient cyfluthrin) (17). Novartis, Ciba, Dow, Eli Lilly, BASF, Aventis, Zeneca, and Bayer are all members of the American Chemical Council (formerly the Chemical Manufacturers Association), as are other pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as Dupont, Merck, Procter & Gamble, and Roche (18).
...Sandoz (now Novartis) was scheduled to sponsor a one day workshop that characterized people with MCS as mentally ill (24). This company was a large manufacturer of pesticides and pharmaceuticals (25), including anti-psychotic, anti-depressant, and sedative medications (14). Therefore, Sandoz stood to benefit both from pesticides being exonerated as the cause of MCS and from people with MCS being treated with psychiatric drugs. As it turned out, people with MCS outraged by the workshop risked their health to protest the event and were able to shut it down (26).
...The pharmaceutical industry also influences research on MCS. First and foremost, it is not pursuing research on MCS (other than to perhaps fund a few studies to try to discount it), despite being a major source of funding for medical research to help those with other diseases. Secondly, as was evident when the Ciba-Geigy lobbyist opposing funding for MCS research in New Mexico, the industry is not only refraining from doing research on MCS itself but is attempting to block research by others as well.
...A recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined a myriad of ways that financial ties with the pharmaceutical industry may influence physicians (27). “The ties between clinical researchers and industry include not only grant support, but also a host of other financial arrangements. Researchers serve as consultants to companies whose products they are studying, join advisory boards and speakers’ bureaus, enter into patent and royalty arrangements, agree to be the listed authors of articles ghost written by interested companies, promote drugs and devices at company-sponsored symposiums, and allow themselves to be plied with expensive gifts and trips to luxurious settings” (p. 1516). In fact, some industries, including the tobacco industry, have paid authors up to $10,000 to publish letters in high-profile scientific journals (28, 29). The author of another New England Journal of Medicine article wrote, “The practice of buying editorials reflects the growing influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical care” (30). Since these conflicts of interest are increasingly encroaching on the medical profession in general, it is highly likely that some of them apply to physicians opposed to MCS as well.
...Referring to MCS as a “phenomenon” rather than an illness and using the term “multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome” also tend to be code for “it doesn’t really exist” or if it does, “it’s all in people’s heads.” Articles using these names are usually accompanied by other myths and put-downs, such as MCS has no definition, no objective findings, and no known prevalence, and is “only symptom-based,” a “belief system,” or “chemophobia.” People with MCS are also frequently dismissed as having an “unexplained illness,” as if they, rather than their physicians, were to blame for not adequately “explaining” it.
...World Health Organization (WHO) supports the name change from MCS to IEI. The WHO was one of the sponsors of an International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPSC) workshop on MCS held in Germany in February 1996. This workshop was dominated by industry-associated participants and had no representatives from environmental, labor, or consumer groups. Instead, the non-governmental participants were individuals employed by BASF, Bayer, Monsanto, and Coca Cola (43). It was at this meeting that the decision was made to try to change the name of MCS to IEI.
Besides getting the word “chemical” out of the name, the workshop participants chose to add the term “idiopathic,” apparently because they thought it meant the illness was “all in someone’s head” rather than of unknown etiology (cause) (44). But lots of “real” illnesses are considered idiopathic, such as idiopathic epilepsy (i.e., epilepsy not resulting from trauma, surgery, infection, or other obvious cause). Still, implying that MCS has no known cause helps the industry. They do not want to be held responsible for their products causing MCS, or for that matter, triggering symptoms in people sensitized to them. It’s hard to understand, however, how IEI is much of an improvement over MCS, since the term MCS does not address the cause of the illness either. It is just a good description of the condition, that sufferers are sensitive to multiple chemicals, which is not that different from having multiple “environmental intolerances.”
In any case, the WHO issued a statement to the workshop participants after the meeting to try to put a stop to claims that WHO supported the name change from MCS to IEI. It stated that “A workshop report to WHO, with conclusions and recommendations, presents the opinions of the invited experts and does not necessarily represent the decision or the stated policy of WHO.” It goes on to say that “with respect to ‘MCS,’ WHO has neither adopted nor endorsed a policy or scientific opinion” (45). Despite this explicit disclaimer, claims that the World Health Organization supports IEI continue to be made by MCS opponents.
...The impact of MCS on individuals and society is huge, both in terms of its potential severity and the number of people affected. Many people with MCS have lost everything - including their health, homes, careers, savings, and families. They are chronically ill and struggle to obtain the basic necessities of life, such as food, water, clothing, housing, and automobiles, that they can tolerate. Finding housing that does not make them sicker, that is, housing that is not contaminated with pesticides, perfume, cleaning products, cigarette smoke residues, new carpets or paint, and formaldehyde-containing building products, is especially difficult. Many people with MCS live in cars, tents, and porches at some time during the course of their illness. In addition, people with MCS usually have financial difficulties. One of the most unjust aspects of the anti-MCS movement is that many expert witnesses are paid $500 per hour to testify against people disabled with MCS who are seeking that much money to live on per month.
The impact on society is no less severe. An increasing number of physicians, lawyers, teachers, computer consultants, nurses and other skilled workers who were once productive members of society can no longer support themselves or contribute their skills to society. Their loss of earning power also translates into less money spent in the marketplace and less tax revenues. Deputy state epidemiologist Ron Voorhees of New Mexico estimated in a letter to the governor that the state may be losing 15 million dollars a year in tax revenues due to the decreased earning capacity of those with MCS (55).
And this medical condition is not rare.
It should be of great concern to everyone that this devastating and potentially preventable illness is affecting an increasing percentage of the population and disabling a significant portion of the work force. It is affecting people in all walks of life throughout the country and around the world.
The pharmaceutical industry has been able to spread misinformation about MCS and limit the amount of accurate information received by physicians and other health care providers through its financial influence over medical journals, conferences, and research.
