Category: Birth Defects

Glyphosate, the Main Ingredient in Roundup, Will be Added to California’s List of Carcinogens – A Cancer Warning Must be Placed on the Herbicide’s Product Label

The main ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, will be added to California’s list of substances known to cause birth defects, reproductive harm, or cancer in accordance with Proposition 65. Glyphosate has been the center-point of a battle between chemical giant Monsanto and the California Environmental Protection Agency over the classification of the chemical as a carcinogen. For years, various reputable agencies have suggested that glyphosate can cause cancer – Monsanto denied such claims. Widespread use of Roundup and glyphosate in industrial agriculture and on commercial farms is common. Now, thanks to California’s Proposition 65, glyphosate will officially be recognized by the state as a dangerous chemical.

What is Proposition 65?

Proposition 65, also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, was passed in California in 1986. This act requires products that contain chemicals deemed to be dangerous, such as substances known to cause birth defects, reproductive harm, or cancer to have warning labels displayed on their packaging. Proposition 65 not only allows consumers, including those in the commercial farming industry, to be aware of any harmful chemicals that might be in products, but it also encourages manufacturers to substitute out the harmful ingredients and make safer products that don’t need warning labels. The act has resulted in the addition of over 900 substances to the dangerous chemical list – glyphosate will be the newest addition.

What is Glyphosate?

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup. This product, common in commercial produce farming, is used all over the world despite glyphosate’s known health risks. In 2015, the World Health Organization said that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic.” Studies conducted in the U.S. have also indicated that it is linked to birth defects and reproductive problems. This is especially concerning because exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy, such as glyphosate, is all too common for female farm workers. Farm owners and labor contractors frequently neglect their responsibility to adequately warn and protect farm workers from the dangers of the chemicals that are being sprayed on the fields

According to the Centers for Disease Control, one baby in 33 will suffer from a birth defect. Yet some are completely preventable. One of the primary causes for birth defects in the US? A parent’s exposure to toxic chemicals, often unwittingly at the workplace. Three industries commonly known for potential of toxic exposure are the agricultural industry due to pesticides, semiconductor industry due to toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing of conductor components, and the coal industry due to the toxins found in the byproduct coal ash.

Pesticides and Birth Defects

Unless farmworkers are properly protected, the chemicals used to spray crops in several aspects of the agricultural process, could be passed through the mother or father to a baby in the womb. Animal studies in the U.S. have linked a chemical commonly found in Roundup to birth defects and reproductive problems, while other studies have found that glyphosate harms cell DNA in human embryos, the placenta and the umbilical cord. Other farm-based pesticides known to cause birth defects and childhood cancers include but are not limited to Brigade, Captan, Goal, Honcho, Pro 90, and a group called chlorinated pesticides (DDT, chlordane, and lindane). Be cautious if you work with these chemicals and take preventative measures to protect your unborn baby or those conceived in the future.

Semiconductors and Birth Defects

In the electronics and high tech industries, exposure to toxic chemicals can cause genetic damage to male and female workers. Workers involved in the manufacture of computer components, like silicon chips or video display equipment, often work in “clean rooms” where the air is constantly recirculated to protect the components from contamination. While the products are kept safe, employees are placed at risk as they are continuously exposed to air contaminated with toxic fumes from Glycol Ethers or Positive Photo Resist.

By inhaling these toxins or coming into contact with them on their skin, many workers develop genetic injuries. Parents unknowingly pass on damaged DNA to their children. This can result in a number of birth defects, including deformed or missing organs, abnormal or missing limbs, cognitive impairment, heart defects, and blindness.

This can result in a number of birth defects, including deformed or missing organs, abnormal or missing limbs, cognitive impairment, heart defects, and blindness.

Coal Ash and Birth Defects

The process of burning coal concentrates the chemicals found in coal ash, and that concentration creates a hazard. “Coal ash,” contains a number of heavy metals including arsenic, lead, and selenium. These heavy metals are confirmed causes of childhood birth defects, cancer, and neurological issues. Researchers also report that coal ash is ten times more radioactive than regular coal. If you were to work around the burning of coal or disposing of the waste, it would be very important not to inhale the ash particles.

Protect Yourself from Toxic Exposure to Avoid Babies with Birth Defects

Awareness is a key to avoiding the toxic exposure leading to birth defects at work. Keeping the skin and lungs properly protected with safe gear and staying clear of spray times or unsealed areas can help. Extra caution and preventative measures should be the primary concern of employers in these industries.

Scott Pruitt, the New Head of the EPA, Reverses Previous Steps Towards Banning a Dangerous Pesticide – Families of Farmworkers Will Suffer the Consequences.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent dismissal of scientific studies linking a common pesticide to birth defects could have harmful consequences on unprotected families of farmworkers. Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used to kill insects, was close to being banned until Scott Pruitt stepped in and reversed the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Last month, dozens of farmworkers on a cabbage farm in California suffered side effects from contact with this dangerous pesticide. Even more disturbing is the fact that these effects were caused by pesticide sprayed on a nearby field – not on the field where the workers got sick. This phenomenon is known as pesticide drift.

What is Pesticide Drift?

While pesticides sprayed directly over fields can cause farmers to come in contact with that dangerous chemical, there are also hidden ways for workers to come in contact with these chemicals. Pesticide drift occurs when pesticides are sprayed in the air over one field and then carried by wind to another field. Farmworkers in the nearby field, unaware that they are being exposed to this harmful pesticide, are defenseless to protect themselves.

What are Effects of Contact with Pesticides?

Workers on the cabbage farm in California suffered nausea and fainting from the pesticide drift of a nearby orchard, but the most harmful effects likely will not come to light until later. The worst effects of pesticides such as chlorpyrifos are on the unborn children of these farmworkers. Chlorpyrifos is a poison used in pesticide products like Vulcan. It is known to cause birth defects such as brain damage in children born to parents who have come in contact with the pesticide. This is a list of birth defects of farmworkers exposed to pesticides during pregnancy:

• Baby born with missing limbs
• Cognitive impairment
• Blindness
• Deformed organs
• Heart defects
• Premature death

Why are These Dangerous Pesticides Still Legal?

The EPA, under the previous presidential administration, had begun taking steps towards making chlorpyrifos illegal after studies showed that it was linked to harmful effects in farmworkers, as well as unborn babies of pregnant farmworkers. However, under the new presidential administration, the EPA has reversed its stance on chlorpyrifos.

The EPA released a statement saying “sound science in decision-making – rather than predetermined results” would guide its decisions. In that quote, the EPA also mentioned that chlorpyrifos is “one of the most widely used pesticides in the world.” Now the reason that Mr. Pruitt wanted this dangerous chemical to remain legal comes to light – economics. Although the EPA recognized findings that the pesticide can cause birth defects, the fact that the pesticide is so widely used has “Trumped” concerns over the safety of farmworkers.

Who Continues to Use Dangerous Pesticides?

The dangers of using harmful chemical pesticides are well known. However, farm-owners continue to use dangerous products without providing protection to the defenseless farmworkers. These farmworkers should not have to risk their own health, and the health of their children, in order to make a living and help put fresh food on the table for families across America.

Relieving News for Parents of Children with Heart Defects – Denmark Study Indicates that Treating Children Earlier Increases Survival Rates

A study of data collected in Denmark has provided good news for parents of children with congenital heart defects (CHD). According to the study, children with CHD are being treated for this birth defect earlier in their lives, which is likely associated with the increased survival rate of children with CHD.  As stated in a 2014 issue of Pediatric Cardiology, CHD is the most common of all birth defects. While the cause of CHD is often unknown, a growing number of studies point to pesticides and solvents as risk factors, according to the medical journal.

What Were the Results of the Study?

The study collected 39 years’ worth of data from the lives of 9,372 children born in Denmark with CHD. The data was split into three time periods – 1977 to 1989, 1990 to 2002, and 2003 to 2015. The following table provides some of the most important findings from the study.

Data from Denmark Study of Children with Congenital Heart Defects (CHD)
	1977-1989	1990-2002	2003-2015
Median Age for First Procedure	3.4 years	0.8 years	0.6 years
Percent to Survive for Over 30 Days	97%	98%	100%
Percent to Survive for Over 10 Years	80%	87%	93%

The first row of data indicates that children with CHD are now having their first interventional procedure earlier and earlier in their lives. An interventional procedure is a medical procedure used to diagnose and treat the birth defect. This appears to have a positive connection with the survival rates of these children. As the second and third rows of data show, children with CHD have had an increasingly higher percentage chance of surviving past the 30-day and 10-year mark with each consecutive time period.

The Denmark study suggests that if children with CHD have their first interventional procedure at a younger age, they may survive longer. The data provides a promising story of how medical advancement is prolonging the lives of children with CHD, and offering relief to the suffering of parents and their children.

What Causes Congenital Heart Defects (CHD)?

CHD can be caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy. Two major sources of toxic exposure to chemicals results from pesticides and those chemicals used in the production of semiconductors.

Pesticide exposure during pregnancy, which can occur when fields are sprayed with pesticides while harvesters are working, has been linked to birth defects such as CHD. When corporations fail to warn or protect pregnant farm workers from the dangers of pesticide exposure, birth defects can result.

Additionally, exposure to chemicals used in the production of semiconductors has been found to be a cause of birth defects such as CHD. Examples of such chemicals used in the production of semiconductors are solvents, cleaning fluids, and etching materials. As with pesticides, if corporations fail to warn or properly protect pregnant workers from exposure to these chemicals, birth defects can occur.

In both of these instances of toxic exposure, corporations are to blame for the birth defects that result from their negligent business practices.

The Herbicide Glyphosate, a Key Ingredient of Roundup Weed Killer Products, Will be Sent to California’s Cancer-Causing Chemicals List Despite Monsanto’s Efforts to Stay the Decision

The herbicide glyphosate will be added to California’s list of cancer-causing chemicals, as required by Proposition 65, after the state’s Supreme Court rejected Monsanto Co.’s request to stay the ruling of the lower court. Glyphosate is a key ingredient of popular pesticides used in commercial farming, such as Roundup Weed Killer.

Earlier in the year, the lower court rejected Monsanto’s claim that the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment violated the state constitution by delegating authority to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). It was IARC that determined that glyphosate belonged on the cancer-causing chemical list. Monsanto appealed the lower court’s decision in California’s Fifth District, but the state’s Supreme Court ruled that glyphosate can be added to the state’s list of cancer-causing chemicals even while the appeal is still pending.

California’s Proposition 65 was a state ballot initiative that requires the state to publish a list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. Monsanto’s arguments that listing glyphosate would violate its right to free speech and that such listing would force the company to include a warning label that the product might cause cancer, was rejected by the judge of the lower court.

Is Glyphosate a Substance Known to Cause Birth Defects?

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, is a substance well known to cause birth defects. Many studies have linked the herbicide to reproductive problems and severe malformations. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common experience for pregnant farm workers employed on commercial farms. Frequently, farm owners and labor contractors will fail to warn or protect farm works from exposure to these harmful pesticides.