Press Release

Monsanto Poisoning Indians with Arsenic, new scientific study

New Delhi, January 8, 2018: A shocking discovery from the French scientific group CRIGEN led by world renowned toxicology and biosafety scientist Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini reveals that Monsanto’s Round up (Glyphosate based herbicide) and other types of Glyphosate based herbicides(GHB) contain universally banned heavy metals like arsenic, etc., in the formulant which are a thousand times more harmful than the active compound Glyphosate(G) itself. G is a herbicide and a “green killer” which is used to extensively all over the world including India. Worldwide, 9.4 million tons of the chemical has been sprayed onto field.

GHB is the world most used herbicide and in fact it is sprayed over crops from wheat to tea in India too. Indians are already at a major health risk as arsenic is being freely sprayed on Indian foods.

The major pesticides of the world are glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH), and their toxicity is highly debated. To understand their mode of action, the comparative herbicidal and toxicological effects of glyphosate (G) alone and 14 of its formulations were studied in the scientists, as a model for pesticides. GBH are mixtures of water, with commonly 36–48% G claimed as the active principle. As with other pesticides, 10–20% of GBH consist of chemical formulants. They previously identified these by mass spectrometry and found them to be mainly families of petroleum-based oxidized molecules, such as POEA, and other contaminants.

They exposed plants and human cells to the components of formulations, both mixed and separately, and measured toxicity and human cellular endocrine disruption below the direct toxicity experimentally measured threshold. G was only slightly toxic on plants at the recommended dilutions in agriculture, in contrast with the general belief. In the short term, the strong herbicidal and toxic properties of its formulations were exerted by the POEA formulant family alone. The toxic effects and endocrine disrupting properties of the formulations were mostly due to the formulants and not to G. In this work, they also identified by mass spectrometry the heavy metals arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead and nickel which is known to be toxic and endocrine disruptors, as contaminants in 22 pesticides, including 11 G- based ones. This could also explain some of the adverse effects of the pesticides.

In vivo chronic regulatory experiments that are used to establish the acceptable daily intakes of pesticides, G or other declared active ingredients in pesticides are assessed alone, without the formulants. Considering these new data, this assessment method appears insufficient to ensure safety. These results, taken together, shed a new light on the toxicity of these major herbicides and of pesticides in general.

Dr Vandana Shiva, biosafety scientist and environmentalist said, “Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini was the first scientist to do a 2- year in depth study on glyphosate and GMOs, which showed the impact on vital organs such as kidneys and tumors and published in reputed scientific toxicology publications. Monsanto attacked him but Dr Seralini has been vindicated by the revelations in the Monsanto Papers which shows Monsanto’s direct involvement in trying to discredit Dr Seralini. Legal proceedings have established Dr Seralini’s high credentials as an independent scientist and that scientific frauds are being repeated by Monsanto. Dr Seralini has come up with new findings which give scientific evidence that the formulants inside the GHB herbicides contain toxic heavy metals such as arsenic. They are spreading the poisons in every Indian home and making each home a site of the Bhopal gas genocide.”

In conclusion she added, “It is time society and government wake up to this threat to protect science and public health. They should ban glyphosate/ Round up/GHB as well as round up resistant crops. A CICR-Nagpur reports in April confirmed that Monsanto has illegally planted unapproved Roundup Ready BT Cotton. They should criminally be investigated for poisoning India with arsenic. Monsanto is also promoting the role of Round up (GHB) as a desiccant, poising our wheats, our dals and our other crops. The government needs to ban the use of Round up as a desiccant (spraying poisonous chemicals on crops to dry them faster) and criminally investigate who is responsible for this public health disaster.”

New Discovery: Toxicity of formulants and heavy metals (arsenic) in glyphosate-based herbicides and other pesticides

Also read:

The Toxic Story of RoundUp: Freedom From the Poison Cartel through Agroecology

Navdanya International Report – 2017

A matter of fraud: hidden poisons in pesticides

Message from prof. Gilles Eric Séralini to the Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly –  8 November 2016

Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly – Report

The Hague, 14 – 16 October 2016