Safe as Water’, findings presented by Dr.

Se ee

“Terrace Review —

Wednesday, August 24, 1988 7 . _

Fresh « concerns about ‘safe | as water’ herbicide

‘The common herbicide Roundup, used on crops,

_ forests, fields and domes- tically, has been touted by

media garden people as but recent

David Munro’ of Seattle,

Washington, at a pesticide - ‘appeal in British Columbia _— and my findings in the

literature — suggests the

7 opposite.

Roundup, a general purpose

herbicide, is a composite of the.

active ingredient glyphosate, and a surfactant, the name of

which was kept secret in Canada .

under Trade Secret Protection

policies of the Canadian federal

government, until Dr. Munro,

with his better access to infor- Iation, provided evidence that

it was in fact POEA (polyoxy-

-ethyleneamine).

In the manufacture of surfac-

tant, there is an- intermediate _ called dodecylphenol, which has -been linked to maternal toxicity,

embryotoxicity, fetotoxicity and

skeletal abnormalities when ad- ‘ministered at high doses.

Manufacturers are potentially

Letter

| Com men t ar 'Y — by Jorma Jyrkkanen

under risk of exposure to this substance.

There is also a N-nitroso con- taminant in Roundup which the company claims isn’t carcino- genic, although most n-nitroso compounds are,

Volunteers that were given this substance apparently ex- creted it very quickly from the body, with no short term ill ef- fect,

However, cancers can take many years to develop following exposure to a carcinogen, so perhaps the test was defective i in that regard,

R.E. Bollinger, Director of Occupational Health for Union

Carbide, citesina mémotoEPA’™ “‘.

that the surfactants caused an unusual pattern of toxicity, in the occluded cutaneous applica- tion to rabbits... ‘“‘characterized by delayed deaths and macro- scopic evidence of lung injury.’’

This may have ramifications for humans who may get it un-

der the skin from spraying in’

thistle patches or anywhere where they may contact it

‘through normal cuts and scrat- ches obtained in working in the

Deserving

To the Editor;

The Meanskinisht Village Historical Association has new information regarding the flowers that were taken and

removed from the Sutton family ‘graves, between June 18 and

July 3, 1988.

A foster son and his family of —

the late Philip and Agnes Sutton came to pay their respects on

August 11, 1988 and were in-

formed by a citizen of Cedarvale that the flowers were cleaned off by an ‘‘Evelyn’’. because the flowers were old.

We would like to explain this

Association’s position in this. . Village (the late Agnes Sutton

was a director and an honorary member). Before this Associa- tion was formed, Agnes was in authority of certain matters con- cerning this village and the graveyard. For approximately nine years this graveyard has been within the jurisdiction of

-this Association. Members in

charge of the graveyard checked the Sutton graves in the early springtime and noted the flowers

were all in new condition. These .

flowers were -purchased from flower shops by friends and

relatives. Agnes loved flowers .

and made it a point to place flowers on her family’s graves

“while she lived here and before

she was hospitalized in 1983. She planted roses on Philip and Fred’s grave with the help of her

friend Barbara Parfitt. After _

Agnes was ‘admitted to the hospital and before her death this Association saw that these graves were kept up for her.

Relatives and friends are

returning to Cedarvale to visit -

Agnes’ grave, only to find 1 no flowers.

of respect

Graves are usually left for two

“years. The late Agnes Sutton

was a Chieftainess, she also held the name of her uncle, Chief Ax- gawt, a High Chief of Git- wangak. She should be treated as a Chief and not continuously shown total disrespect.

It will be one year since Agnes passed away, on August 26, 1987. She is missed by all who knew her as her door was open ‘to all people from all walks of life. Today, when relatives and

‘friends come through Cedar-

vale, they have nowhere to go. The members of this Associa- tion who live here are doing their best to continue to try and make visitors. feel welcome. We are a non-profit association and our work is volunteer, Through

-membership fees and donations

we are able to take care of the museum and graveyard.

In conclusion, I’d like to add that the name Meanskinisht was the name of this village before the C.N. Rail came through; the post office across the river need- ed a name, and that is why this village is known as Cedarvale. It has. nothing to do with land claims or tribal ways.

M.G. Dalen, ' Cedarvale .

woods. (I am aware of one chap whose leg swelled up so much from this sort of thing that he had to be hospitalized. There are probably many other cases.)

Dr. Munro also stated that there have been cases of ana- phylactic reaction to this herb- icide, cause for concern to those with allergies.

That there are other health ramifications for humans is sug-

‘gested by human deaths report-

ed by the Japanese in the scien- tific literature, attributable to Roundup.

Yusuke Sawada and others report in the Feb. 6 issue of the Medical Journal the Lancet, that . 56 cases of toxicity were reported in Japan between June, 1984 and March, 1986.”

Of these people, nine died. Forty-eight cases were attempted suicides, three were. accidents (all infants); in the other five, the circumstances were un- known.

The authors attribute most of the acute toxicity to the surfac-

‘tant in Roundup. Because the federal and pro- -

vincial fisheries departments have been concerned with

Roundup and especially the sur-

factant, and because of its high fish toxicity, water solubility and the finding. of it in streams by Mike Wan, B.C, researcher,

the ‘manufacturer -has. reduced |

the concentration of surfactant to ten percent from fifteen.

My questions are: (1. How many people have died world- wide to date? (2, What circum- stances surrounded known deaths? (3. Has there been a cover-up in Canada and the U.S.A. of deaths here? (Iam certain’ there has because the Japanese workers made no ref- erence to mortality in the U.S.A. or Canada, and this is almost certain to have occurred.) (5. Were the parents of the children who were poisoned adequately aware of the danger, or were they deluded by false advertising even as the people of Vancouver have been by our gardening eX- perts?

I attended an accidental overspraying of residents of Kitimat last year. There were complaints of nose bleeds, headaches, rashes on the ‘skin. The press reported statements

from the Skeena Health Unit but

refused my story. However, the chief medical officer phoned me

‘when he was appraised of the in-

cident and asked if I could loan him material on Roundup, which I did.

However, subsequent to that, I. received information about

‘itheppen”.

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the un-

people who worked with Round- up, indicating that chronic nose bleeds were a problem.

I reasoned that if the nasal mucosa were to be damaged, that the lungs were in even more danger.

I was consequently vindicated when I found the article in the British Journal.

‘How many people are out there running

around and damaging

their lungs, thinking that this stuff is safe?’

How many people are out there running around damaging their lungs thinking that this stuff is safe?

In another related develop- ment, it has come to light that one of the degradation (break-

down) producis of Roundup is .

formaldehyde,

When I phoned the Cancer In- stitute in Vancouver, I was told that formaldehyde was common in the home, it was found in plywood glues, furniture and so on, it was common in nature and very reactive so that it didn’t last long in the environment, and a

review done in 1983 showed that.

there was no problem, nothing to worry about, it caused nasal cancer in rats but it wasn’t a pro- ven carcinogen in humans. Being distrustful of assurances based on literature from five years ago, I went to the UBC research library at Van- couver General Hospital and found a recent article on for- maldehyde and carcinogenesis. It contradicted the gentleman from the Cancer Institute, and in fact constituted evidence that it was a rat, mouse and Auman carcinogen though the results were couched in the usual

cautious rhetoric of the scientist (Roush, George C. et al. 1987 JNCI. Vol 79. No.6, Dec. 1221 -1224, see also his bibliography).

Formaldehyde has been linked to nasopharyngeal cancers as well as to allergenic reactions in

humans.

It would appear that by apply- - ing Roundup to the environ- ment, we are in fact applying formaldehyde by this same pro- cess.

That this process has the potential to go on for a long time is evident from studies by Finnish researchers, who found as much as 55 percent of the pesticide present eight months after spraying.

I note now how clever it was on the part of industry to em- phasize the toxicology of glyphosate, the so-called -active ingredient in Roundup, and to not mention the toxicity of the surfactant or the formaldehyde, and also to insist on the protec- tion of the surfactant’s name as a trade secret,

Because we are being told it is as safe as water, because it can persist for over eight months in the environment, because of the widespread use of this pesticide globally, and because of these poisonings and toxicological findings, there should be great concern about Roundup to those involved with public health.

In my view, the evidence sug- gests that it is an unreasonable and an unacceptable risk to human and environmental health to continue -using this pesticide and it should be bann- ed immediately from. registra- tion in Canada...

Dr. Munro said that it hadn’t yet received final approval in the U.S.A. Why it has been approv- ed in Canada should be the sub- ject of vigorous investigation.

This material raises two legal questions: (1. Is it possible that the false representations may have contributed to human deaths, especially amongst any children victims? (2. Is there criminal culpability in this mat- ter and grounds for,a class ac- tion?

Who is responsible ultimately

for protecting the health and

safety of the public? Well, the Handbook for Pesti- cide Dispensers and Pesticide

continued on page 14

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