Monsanto's Herbicide Linked to Fatal Kidney Disease Epidemic: Could It Topple Monsanto?

[happyslug]

31. In Central America, most water is from wells.....

We are talking about peasants living in communal villages in the middle of huge fields. They only source of water is from shadow wells, that are known to be easily contaminated by ground sources. Thus the Glyphosate (Round up) sinks into the ground, where it combines with Heavy metals (know to exist in the soils in the mountains of Central America), and then taken into people's body by drinking the well water, or the run off that is the other main source of water intake in Central America.

Thus you have slow absorption over a time period, even if you are NOT actually working with Round up, for it is in the water. Thus no one time contamination, in fact the people using Roundup may not be affected at all, for they source of water may be filtered (Which is common for the upper classes/land owners of Central America (This is assuming aerial spraying or other mass spraying of Round up).

Similar situation occurred with Agent Orange during Vietnam, the crew dispersing Agent Orange had access and wore complete chemical suits for protection, but the men on the ground AND the crew cleaning the planes did not. Thus you had a low rate is Agent Orange affects on the Air Crew that dispersed it (and this fact was used for year to deny Agent Orange was toxic), but much higher rates on those who were sprayed by Agent Orange AND who had to clean the planes up after each spraying.

Now Round up is a lot less toxic then Agent Orange, but I bring up Agent Orange only to point out the people using it, may NOT be the same people affected by it. In the case of Central America it may be the affects is on people who DRINK water with trace amounts of Roundup AFTER it has gone through the soil and absorb heavy metals. Thus it is the water the is causing the problem and the best solution is to end the use of Round up, so that it works through the system and then once through the system will no longer bind with the heavy metals in the soil and infect people drinking the water.