Eduardo Neaves was a healthy and happy twelve-year-old, the son
of migrant farm workers. But after swimming in a canal in Coral
Gables, Florida, he became a "total quadriplegic." The canal was
contaminated with four times the recommended-use level of Roundup, a
herbicide produced by The Monsanto Company. Toxicologists were not
surprised by the central nervous system damage that still afflicts the
boy five years after the incident but were unable to prove a
connection between Roundup and the paralysis in court.
But whether Roundup can cause damage to the central nervous
system may never be known. Although Monsanto's original neurotixicity
studies were ruled invalid by the EPA because of "extensive gaps in
the raw data supporting study findings and conclusions," there is no
requirement that a new study be made. However, Roundup is far more
dangerous than the public has been led to believe. Records of
pesticide poisoning compiled over the last five years by California's
Department of Agriculture show that among some 200 pesticides widely
used in the state, Roundup has been linked to the greatest numbers of
eye, skin, and internal injuries. The EPA's own Pesticide Incident
Monitoring System (which was dissolved by the Reagan administration)
recorded more than 100 cases of Roundup poisoning in 1980. Despite its
own findings, the EPA concluded the weed killer is "not a primary skin
irritant, and is only minimally irritating to the eye." That judgement
was based solely on data provided by Monsanto.
Dr. Ruth Shearer, a genetic toxicologist, charged that Monsanto's
claims about the safety of the product are dishonest because they are
based on phony studies on cancer and birth defects performed by the
now defunct Industrial Bio-Test lab (IBT). Once the nation's leading
generator of health effects studies for companies whose chemical
products require government approval, IBT was found to have conducted
shoddy tests and falsified results. Monsanto was IBT's biggest
customer, according to court documents, and was reported to be one of
four chemical companies that knew of IBT's fraudulent testing
practices. One IBT executive, Paul L. Wright, was employed by Monsanto
before and after his tenure at the testing lab. It was during
Wright's stay at IBT that the lab performed tests involving Roundup's
connection to mutation in mice and tumors in rabbits. Wright was
convicted of fraudulent testing in 1983. (The IBT story was the top
"censored" story of 1982.) Despite the known hazards, the danger is
compounded by the variety of new uses for which the herbicide is being
promoted. It is applied to citrus and grape groves in California,
soybeans in the Middle West, Christmas trees in Maine, coffee beans in
Brazil, as well as crops grown for vitamins and spices, house plants,
and government forests in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, Roundup
is the world's most popular brand-name herbicide. It is easily
Monsanto's most important product, the first herbicide to reach annual
sales of $1 billion. It is marketed in 120 countries and accounts for
more than half of Monsanto's foreign sales.
Given Roundup's fraudulent approval; its significant health and
environmental hazards; and that it is the most widely used brand-name
herbicide in the world, the issue deserves significant media
attention. At the very least, Monsanto should be required to redo the
studies that are now known to be invalid.
SOURCE: THE PROGRESSIVE, July 1987, "Weed Killer," by Anthony L.
Kimery, pp 20-21.
