Over the past couple of days an “explosive scandal” has erupted in Germany.
Apparently traces of Monsanto pesticide product Glyphosate has been detected in 14 of Germany’s top beer brands, read background here. OMG!
Greens warn of a “health danger”: Those 50,000,000 micrograms of alcohol in 1 liter of beer might contain a whole 29 micrograms of “unlikely carcinogenic” Glyphosate! Photo: normalkneipe.de/
This story is just the latest that so vividly illustrates how Green clean-freaks can erupt into a fit of irrational hysteria. And the drone media just blindly run with it.
According to the Environmental Institute in Munich, tests on 14 German beer brands that have the highest sales figures in the country were found to contain “traces of the pesticide”.
The highest intensity of the pesticide was allegedly found in Hasseröder brand beer with over 29 micrograms of the chemical per litre. Note here that we are talking about a few millionths of a single gram, and per liter concentrations in the billionths.
According to the English-language The Local here, the World Health Organization (WHO) labelled Glyphosate “potentially carcinogenic” in 2015. That means they are not even sure. And the EU food safety authority Efsa concluded that it was “unlikely that Glyphosate poses a cancer risk to humans”.
In a nutshell: the evidence showing that Glyphosate is carcinogenic, especially at those low levels, is scant at best.
Alcohol concentration million times higher
What makes the story all the more comical is that by comparison German beer contains alcohol, and at concentrations of near 5%, or 50,000,000 micrograms. German blogger Ludger Weß here discusses just how ridiculous the reaction of the German Green clean-freaks has been. He notes that the chemical alcohol has been put in the highest hazard category (Class 1 – carcinogenic) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The German Greens are thus demanding the public be hysterically concerned about 30 micrograms of “unlikely carninogenic” Glyphosate in beer, and not to worry at all about the comparatively whopping 50,000,000 microns of Class 1 carcinogen alcohol in the beer.
Weß adds sarcastically (paraphrasing): “What’s next? Tests to see if cigarettes might contain trace amounts of Glyphosate ?”
So what motive could be behind the irrational hysteria that has been brewed up by the green-leaning Environmental Institute in Munich? The Local writes:
With Monsanto’s licence to sell the pesticide running out in the summer, the European Commission will have to once again consider whether the product is safe for use in the EU.”
Just the latest dirty attack by environmentalists and greens aimed at an industry it wants to destroy. Create a scare story about a non-problem.
It’s always a good idea to really put all scare stories of environmentalist greens into the correct perspective. Almost all the time they are completely false and irrational.
Just a small correction Pierre in an otherwise brilliant post, as usual: name is glyphosate. Keep up the good work. Cheers. Figaro
Thanks – corrected. (I’ll probably always spell that one wrong).
It is extremely far-fetched to consider Glyphosate to be carcinogenic. Germany’s presstitutes lap up anything served in the green slop buckets. Though to their credit they explain that one has to drink about 1000 litres of it (a day) for it to exceed the safe dose levels.
A recent review published in the USA
If IARC/WHO think that glyphosate is an important substance, then a search for that word on their web site should yield at least one hit. Lack of hits may be due to their incompetence. There is indeed mention of its mis-classification in a Lancet article which justifies it by leading to cancers in rats (bred to be especially sensitive to any carcinogens). Alarmists tend not to pay attention to the fact that people aren’t rats and that there exists no epidemiology to suggest that glyphosate is leading to cancers.
Nevertheless, German gardeners will be shopping for Hasseröder when spring comes. That’s the beer with the highest level of glyphosate; making it a pleasure to control the weeds at times of bladder relief. 😉
Look no further than here:
http://acsh.org/?s=glyphosate&cat=0&x=23&y=30
Especially this article:
http://acsh.org/news/2015/03/23/iarcs-ruling-on-glyphosate-ignores-the-science/
Greens please note: glyphosate is a herbicide NOT a pesticide.
Glyphosate is not a pesticide. It is a herbicide.
Scanning google news (German) for “Glyphosat Pestizid” – 139,000 hits.
Scanning google news (German) for “Glyphosat Herbizid” – 7970 hits.
You know, it’s hard.
Dirk, you are not suggesting that the incorrect label imposed by the consensus of the press and public opinion should be used instead of the correct one because it is hard to be correct? 😉
>>>The scientific debunker’s job may be compared to that of the trash collector. The fact that the garbage truck comes by today does not mean that there won’t be another load tomorrow. But if the garbage were not collected at all, the results would be worse, as some cities have found when the sanitation workers struck.
So let us do our best to get rid of this ideological garbage, lest it inundate the earth. Our work will never be decisive, since old cults are almost unkillable and new ones keep springing up; but that is no reason for not doing what we can. If we can save even a few from the lure of the higher nonsense, our efforts will have been worthwhile.<<<
Source: 'LITTLE GREEN MEN FROM AFAR', by L. Sprague de Camp; http://bookzz.org/dl/215726/110827
I’m seeing this kind of hysteria in the States, people go crazy whenever anything “toxic” can even be detected. I call it regulation by chemistry, the allowable limits get lower and lower based on the improvements in analytical techniques, not any actual harm caused by those low concentrations.
oeman50:
And I wonder how careful they are in their checks. I remember many years ago a horror story about cadmium emissions by coal fired power stations. Fortunately the levels claimed were such that “if true everybody for 50 miles around would be dead”. It turned out that the analysts were using red and orange flask stoppers, coloured with cadmium pigments which aren’t that soluble, but enough for them to be detected and a high multiplication factor did the rest.
Switching to clear plastic stoppers lead to an embarrassing retraction.
It is a mechanism of self-worth protection in those who need it. From becoming a completely interchangeable lump of meat you turn into a world-saver – ONCE you accept that you are GUILTY of something that destroys the planet. Suddenly your actions determine the fate of the whole of humanity and it becomes enormously important that you wear plastic shoes instead of leather shoes. The plastic ones still suck so now you SUFFER FOR THE FATE OF HUMANITY. Jesus anyone?
So logically, the only people susceptible to this are some Christians and Christian atheists (who want to be the BETTER Christians by claiming that their superior (but automatic) brain automatically enforces Christian ethics in them (except for abortion) without the need for a creator, that’s why they’re CHRISTIAN atheists).
I probably get more exposure to the stuff when I spray the weeds in my yard, than I do when I go in for the cold beer after I’m done with my gardening.
“The German Greens are thus demanding the public be hysterically concerned about 30 micrograms of “unlikely carninogenic” Glyphosate in beer, and not to worry at all about the comparatively whopping 50,000,000 microns of Class 1 carcinogen alcohol in the beer.”
Ah very nice!
BTW I think we should kick Monsanto in the nuts anyway. First, the deployment of Glyphosate exactly tracks autism stats in USA.
http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/26/mit-states-that-half-of-all-children-may-be-autistic-by-2025/
Autism affects 1.5% of kids in USA, 1 to 2 of thousand in rest of world. (Numbers from wikipedia)
FWIW. Maybe just examine this more.
Second. Monsanto just bough Blackwater/Akademi.
Third. Some retaliatory socialist shakedown is in order after the ridiculous VW fine.
First (autism):
“Some individuals, such as M.D. and radio host Rima Laibow have speculated on the intentionality behind this ostensible chemical siege against our gray matter. Laibow believes that the impetus may be to create an entire class of autistic individuals who will be suited only for certain types of work.
This harks back, eerily, to Aldous Huxley’s classic Brave New World, in which individuals were preprogrammed from ‘conception’ for eventual placement in one of five groups, designated as Alpha, Beta, and so on down to Epsilon, based on their programmed brain power. In Huxley’s dystopian world, this class delineation by intellectual ability enabled society to function more smoothly.”
That’s a silly conspiratorial speculation by Laibow. Nobody in their right mind would put money into such venture. We have already completed the creation of preprogrammed individuals from Alpha to Omega:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1QiSi0_kTo
Second (Blackwater/Akademi):
Monsanto outbid WV. These Eastasia cheapskates must learn how to play the game.
Third (retaliatory shakedown):
You have a valid point there. Eastasia must retaliate against Oceania and Ingsoc.
“That’s a silly conspiratorial speculation by Laibow. Nobody in their right mind would put money into such venture.”
Just because a person called Laibow says or doesn’t say something doesn’t have any bearing on whether Seneff is right.
“Third (retaliatory shakedown):
You have a valid point there. Eastasia must retaliate against Oceania and Ingsoc.”
Oh, you mean, we should just let the US empire get away with anything it wants to do. Thanks for the offer, but no takers here.
For Saxnōt’s sake, Dirk, lighten up. I have my own opinion about this EPA affair but it has little to do with empires and much to do with our overreaching big government controlled by Progressive and Green agendas. Just like your big coalition headed by the talented Frau Merkel.
You linked an article and I read it. I don’t know much about Dr. Laibow but she sounds cuckoo. I made no judgment about Dr. Seneff’s statements. I worry about the rise of autism and I believe the whole problem is under-researched and underreported, in line with other MSM reporting on “official science”.
Now I have to go and see if there is any Ayinger left in the pantry.
Before kicking others in the nuts just because you hate them, check the facts and the evidence. The article (no reference to a serious study) mentions the same fallacy climate science suffers from: correlation vs. causation.
Read up on both glyphosate and autism:
http://acsh.org/?s=glyphosate&cat=0&x=23&y=30
http://acsh.org/?s=autism&cat=0&x=8&y=22
Well, thanks for giving me a search result set for Glyphosate and a different set for autism. What am I supposed to do now? Read both of them and try to find the intersection manually?
Well somehow that sounded boring so I went to Seneff’s homepage instead
https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/
where she links to a powerpoint.
https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/WAPF_Slides_2012/offsite_Seneff.pptx
I don’t have powerpoint here so I’m out of luck but maybe someone is interested.
As I said; just prophylactically kick Monsanto in the nuts, let them run their large scale experiment on the Americans and watch it from a safe distance.
This will likely not happen as the top vassals of SPD and CDU are US-controlled and will enforce TTIP so we’ll become part of Monsanto’s experiment anyways.
“The article (no reference to a serious study) mentions the same fallacy climate science suffers from: correlation vs. causation.”
Just because two charts look exactly the same doesn’t mean there AIN’T a causal connection.
A potential mechanism could be based on the fact that Americans put the stuff in their bodies.
I admit that Eastasia cornered the Alpha-Omega market first but we’ve caught up! Yes we can!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAzvVtwsW_8
These poor souls are forced to drink beer?
“…alcohol has been put in the highest hazard category (Class 1 – carcinogenic) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).”
RIIIIGHT!
(I’d love to know how much champagne is guzzled at some of those UN meetings.)
Red meat is also a carcinogen, according to WHO.
Personally, I think the danger is a matter of degree. While too much beef is clearly hazardous to one’s health, I seriously doubt that more moderate amounts are.
And don’t even try to take away my lamb!
I began drinking beer about 1955 (although just a little then, as I was little).
I began using Roundup® in 1977.
Most beers do taste better.
When I get cancer — who do I sue?
that’s funny, you are accusing the alarmists for faking the ‘scientific’ data about the climate, and yet you think the ‘scientific’ data about the safety of the glyphosate (produced by the company that gave Vietnamese ‘Agent Orange’, btw) is genuine…?
There are lots of substances that are dangerous, some of which people consume an awful lot more of than beer containing traces of Glyphosate, for instance like cottonseed oil.
Why might one be concerned? See here
“CYCLOPROPENOID FATTY ACIDS (CPFA), NATURALLY PRESENT IN COTTONSEED OIL, ARE CARCINOGENS & EXHIBIT A POTENT SYNERGISTIC EFFECT ON AFLATOXIN B1 HEPATOCARCINOGENESIS IN RAINBOW TROUT. THE PREDOMINANT CPFA CONSTITUENTS OF COTTONSEED OIL ARE MALVALIC & STERCULIC ACID.”
With regard to carcinogenicity, that same website states:
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+3432
“Evidence for Carcinogenicity:
Glyphosate was originally classified as C, possible human carcinogen, on the basis of increased incidence of renal tumors in mice. Following independent review of the slides the classification was changed to D on the basis of a lack of statistical significance and uncertainty as to a treatment-related effect.”
Nothing to see here, at least not yet. But don’t ingest the stuff, because large quantities of it can be fatal – a LOT more than is allegedly contained in beer.
Off topic – but very interesting and encouraging:
BREAKING
Again a bitter defeat for green fanatics in a Swiss national referendum!
The Swiss voters decided today to built a second car tunnel trough the GOTTHARD mountains in the Swiss alps despite a keen anti-campaign by green activists (who simply hate car traffic and fossil fuel consumption) and the rather green biased MSM of Switzerland:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/february-28-vote_alpine-road-tunnel-set-to-win-majority-vote/41988542
This is the second defeat for green activists in a Swiss referendum within a short time span after the truly crushing rejection of a much higher CO2 tax (instead of VAT) only one year ago. Details see here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/03/09/green-fiasco-92-of-swiss-voters-reject-carbon-tax-in-referendum/
So we see, despite very intensive and nearly daily green anti-CO2 propaganda in the Swiss MSM, the voters of Switzerland are not as suggestible and brain-washed as green zealots would like it to be… 🙂
Here’s Seneff again on the possible link between Glyphosate and autism
http://www.medicaldaily.com/autism-rates-increase-2025-glyphosate-herbicide-may-be-responsible-future-half-316388
and here’s a paper where she describes the proposed mechanism
http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416
Glyphosate kills off the gut flora (as it kills all plants). Quite simple really.
Sounds so similar to the nonsense that surrounded the Alar on apples scare in the US.
See http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alar_and_apples for more.