Conacyt warned that glyphosate is present in a third of the corn tortillas consumed in Mexico, which is an agro toxic harmful to health, considered a teratogenic and carcinogenic agent
In the absence of an environmental health policy in Mexico, subject matter experts held the High-Level Meeting “Living in a Chemical World”, with the aim of working in a coordinated manner in the development of initiatives aimed at protecting the health of the population and preserve ecosystems.
In this context, María Elena Álvarez Buylla, general director of Conacyt, warned that glyphosate is present in a third of the corn tortillas consumed in Mexico, which is an agro toxic harmful to health, considered a teratogenic and carcinogenic agent, which is used in GM crops.
He stressed that health problems are a reflection of the deep environmental imbalances facing Mexico and the world.
For this reason, he urged government agencies to separate scientific and technological policies from corporate interests.
He regretted that, in past administrations, information and scientific evidence on the harmful effects of toxic substances on human health and the environment have been hidden from the population.
He explained that through several National Strategic Programs (ProNacEs), on Industrial Development and Toxicities, Water Basins and Environmental Health, Conacyt will articulate inter-institutional and multisectoral capacities to reduce exposure to toxic agents in Mexico.
During the inauguration of the High-Level Meeting, the head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur highlighted the need to articulate the capacities of the different public institutions and put them at the service of society, to reverse the damage and prevent future impacts that may be irreversible.
He said that the issue of environmental health has been forgotten for decades, and today it must be resumed in favor of public health and the planet.
He pointed out that this meeting will allow combining what had been reviewed separately from medicine and ecology.
And he stressed that in recent decades the issue of environmental health has been eliminated from public policies, so the picture in this area is complicated, “with tremendous pollution of air, sky, and water, with its negative consequences on human health “
At the headquarters of the National Academy of Medicine, Juan Rivera Dommarco, general director of the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), stressed the importance of the Government of Mexico being able to implement a national health and ecosystem protection policy, to mitigate the effects of pollution on the population, including the harmful consequences of exposure and consumption of toxic substances present in food by the use of pesticides or additives.
For his part, the representative of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) in Mexico, Cristian Roberto Morales Fuhrimann, said that 35 percent of the global mortality burden is linked to environmental factors, in Special to chemical substances.
He said that this international organization will support Mexico to achieve an environmental public policy that integrates the best strategies that allow it to achieve the objectives of sustainable development in this area.
Toxic US Corn Imports into Mexico
Mexico’s global purchases of imported corn totaled US$3.3 billion in 2018.
A leaked study examining genetically-modified corn reveals that the lab-made alternative to organic crops contains a startling level of toxic chemicals.
An anti-GMO website has posted the results of an education-based consulting company’s comparison of corn types, and the results reveal that genetically modified foods may be more hazardous than once thought.
The study, the 2012 Corn Comparison Report by Profit Pro, was published recently on the website for Moms Across America March to Label GMOs, a group that says they wish to “raise awareness and support Moms with solutions to eat GMO Free as we demand GMO labeling locally and nationally simultaneously.” They are plotting nationwide protests scheduled for later this year.
The report, writes the website’s Zen Honeycutt, was provided by a representative for De Dell Seed Company, an Ontario-based farm that’s touted as being Canadian only non-GMO corn seed company.
“The claims that ‘There is no difference between GMO corn and NON Gmo corn’ are false,” says Honeycutt, who adds she was “floored” after reading the study.
According to the analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively.
Honecutt says that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (FDA) mandates that the level of glyphosate in American drinking water not exceed 0.7 ppm and adds that organ damage in some animals has been linked to glyphosate exposure exceeding 0.1 ppm.
“Glyphosate is a strong organic phosphate chelator that immobilizes positively charged minerals such as manganese, cobalt, iron, zinc [and] copper,” Dr. Don Huber attested during a separate GMO study recently released, adding that those elements “are essential for normal physiological functions in soils, plants and animals.”
“Glyphosate draws out the vital nutrients of living things and GMO corn is covered with it,” adds Honeycutt, who notes that the nutritional benefits rampant in natural corn are almost entirely removed from lab-made seeds: in the samples used during the study, non-GMO corn is alleged to have 437-times the amount of calcium in genetically modified versions, and 56- and 7-times the level of magnesium and manganese, respectively.
These studies come on the heels of a recent decision on Capitol Hill to approve an annual agriculture appropriations bill, even though a provision within the act contained a rider that frees GMO corporations such as the multi-billion-dollar Monsanto Company from liability. The so-called “Monsanto Protection Act,” written by a lawmaker that has lobbied for the agra-giant, says biotech companies won’t need federal approval to test and plant GMO-crops, even if health risks are unknown.
“The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards,” reads a letter to the House of Representatives that was delivered to Congress last month with the signatures of dozens of food businesses and retailers, as well as interest groups and agencies representing family farmers. “Further, it would compel USDA to allow continued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in the course of its assessment the Department finds that it poses previously unrecognized risks.”
Source: excelsior, worldstopexports, usda
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