The Poison Papers

Documenting the history of pesticide hazards in the United States

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Environmentally-Caused Disease Crisis? Pesticide Damage to DNA Found ‘Programmed’ Into Future Generations

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The EPA, chemical companies like Monsanto (now Bayer) and mainstream news media are ignoring research indicating pesticides (including the herbicides atrazine and glyphosate, the fungicide vinclozolin and many more) cause heritable disease by introducing epigenetic changes to DNA.

“A chemical (glyphosate) that didn’t come onto the scene until the 1970s has now managed to find its way into every single pregnant woman in the U.S, except seven percent of them. We thought that should be news. But in the current paradigm, which is definitely pro-business, the only thing companies have to prove is that it doesn’t kill you if you drink it or take a big dose of it.”

He [Winchester] sees a potentially catastrophic outcome resulting from the epigenetic damage caused by pesticides.

Read the full story by Ken Roseboro, published on EcoWatch, August 16 2018 at: https://www.ecowatch.com/generational-harm-of-pesticides-2596453994.html

Vietnam demands Monsanto pays compensation for Agent Orange victims

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“Toxic defoliant has been linked to birth defects, cancers and other deadly diseases from which millions suffer to this day.”

“Vietnam has demanded Monsanto pay compensation to the victims of Agent Orange, which the company supplied to the US military during the Vietnam War.

It came in response to the firm being ordered to pay $289m (£226m) to a school groundsman who claims his use of its Roundup weedkiller contributed to his terminal cancer.”

Read the full story, written by Samuel Osborn and published in The Independent on 25 August 2018, at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/vietnam-agent-orange-monsanto-victims-compensation-a8508271.html

We hope the lawyers for the Vietnamese victims will read and utilize the data in The Poison Papers — they will find ample evidence that the companies knew of the extreme toxicity of the dioxins in their products long before the US Military sprayed agent orange in Vietnam.

 

U.S. Right To Know Provides Access to Key Monsanto Documents Relating to Glyphosate Cancer Lawsuits

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On its webpage entitled: The Monsanto Papers: MDL Glyphosate Cancer Case Key Documents & Analysis, US Right To Know has links to the key documents involved in the lawsuit, as well links to excellent articles based on the documents. The lawsuit alleges that Roundup herbicide caused plaintiffs or their loved ones to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

As discussed in the many news articles linked to on the site, the documents reveal Monsanto’s collusion with researchers, editors of scientific journals and regulators to hide or dismiss evidence of harm caused by glyphosate.

You can find this valuable resource of primary court documents and news stories at: https://usrtk.org/pesticides/mdl-monsanto-glyphosate-cancer-case-key-documents-analysis/.

How an Oregon activist’s barn produced the ‘Poison Papers’ that aids in a lawsuit against Monsanto

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St. Louis Public Radio has published a new article about The Poison Papers and Carol Van Strum. Van Strum is an activist who collected the documents during her past 40 years involved in lawsuits against chemical companies and the federal government.

“It began in the early 1970s, when Van Strum’s family saw an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle and moved to a farm in the Siuslaw National Forest.

Soon after, she said, they were sprayed by a helicopter with 2,4,5-T — a component of Agent Orange — that was meant to treat a timber crop on nearby public land.

She banded together with neighbors, sued and won an injunction to stop the spraying.”

The hope is that the newly digitized Poison Papers will aid in current efforts to protect the public from toxic exposure.

“Bill Sherman, assistant attorney general for the state of Washington, said he was reviewing the new documents and expected they would be involved in the state’s lawsuit against Monsanto.

‘They confirm that Monsanto was aware of the harms that their PCBs were causing and continued to sell them without telling the public or their customers,” Sherman said of the documents.’”

Read the full article, “How an Oregon activist’s barn produced the ‘Poison Papers’ that aids in a lawsuit against Monsanto” on St. Louis Public Radio (August 24, 2017) at: http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/how-oregon-activists-barn-produced-poison-papers-aids-lawsuit-against-monsanto#stream/0

Collusion Or Coincidence? Records Show EPA Efforts To Slow Herbicide Review Came In Coordination With Monsanto

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Newly released documents from 2015 show the EPA working with the Pesticide Industry to keep toxic chemicals on the market for as long as possible.

“Newly released government email communications show a persistent effort by multiple officials within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to slow a separate federal agency’s safety review of Monsanto’s top-selling herbicide. Notably, the records demonstrate that the EPA efforts came at the behest of Monsanto, and that EPA officials were helpful enough to keep the chemical giant updated on their progress.”

Read the full Huffington Post article by Carey Gillam “Collusion Or Coincidence? Records Show EPA Efforts To Slow Herbicide Review Came In Coordination With Monsanto” (published August 17, 2017) at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5994dad4e4b056a2b0ef02f1