The dangers of pesticides are being increased. According to a study by the controversial Professor Seralini, they are up to 1000 times more toxic than previously estimated.
Have the dangers of pesticides been underestimated? This is what a new study led by Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini, the researcher who conducted the controversial study on the effects of GMOs, says. And he hits hard again. According to his work carried out with his colleagues from the University of Caen and the Independent Research and Information Committee on Genetic Engineering (Criigen), published in the journal BioMed Research International, pesticides would be “two to a thousand times more toxic” than what has been announced until now.
If Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini achieves such alarming results, it is because he evaluated the toxicity of pesticides not only on the active substance but on the complete formulations of the pesticides on the market. In other words, with adjuvants, “which are often kept confidential and called inert by the manufacturers”, specify the authors of the study.
The “Roundup” at the top of toxicity
The toxicity of 9 pesticides was therefore tested, by comparing the active ingredients and their formulations, on three human cell lines. Among herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, it is the last – fungicides – that have been shown to be the most toxic, yet with concentrations 300-600 times lower than agricultural dilutions.
“Despite its relatively benign reputation,” the researchers write, Roundup was by far the most toxic of the herbicides and insecticides tested. And above all, 8 out of 9 formulations were several hundred times more toxic than their active ingredient.
The admissible daily intake to be reviewed
These results led Professor Séralini and his colleagues to say that the acceptable daily intake for pesticides must be reviewed because this standard is calculated from the toxicity of the active principle alone.
It remains to be seen what reception will receive this new paving stone in Pr Séralini’s pond. Her previous study on rats was ultimately withdrawn from the journal where it was published. She considered that “the results presented, if they are not incorrect, do not allow a conclusion”. In addition, the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) concluded in October 2013 that “despite a large volume of data, firm conclusions cannot be established for the majority of the health effects considered. Efsa indicated that it had identified only two pathologies whose risk of occurrence was statistically associated with exposure to pesticides: childhood leukemia and Parkinson’s disease.
A few months earlier, in June 2013, Inserm, on the other hand, considered that there was “a positive association between occupational exposure to pesticides and certain pathologies in adults”. And the list was long: prostate cancer, leukemia, neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s …
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