Argentine scientist warning of health hazards of Monsanto’s herbicide receives threats

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Posted in Health | Tagged Health

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There are reports coming our of Argentina of attempts to intimidate the lead researcher of the study showing that Roundup - the glyphosate herbicide developed by Monsanto, could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. The lead researcher for the new study, carried out in Argentina where Roundup is used on a massive scale in conjunction with GM herbicide-resistant soy, is embryology professor, Dr. Andres Carrasco.

Dr. Carrasco has worked for nearly thirty years in embryonic development, and was President and Assistant Secretary of Conicet (The National Commission for Scientific Research) and now works at the Defence Ministry in the Science and Technology innovation department. He apparently conducted the experiments in his laboratory of molecular embryology, based at the Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires.

Dr. Carrasco has warned that the doses of herbicide used in his study “were much lower than the levels used in the fumigations,” and so the situation “is much more serious” that the study suggests because “glyphosate does not degrade”.

According to an article in the Argentine press, after news about the study broke, Dr. Carrasco was the victim of an act of intimidation, when four men arrived at his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and acted extremely aggressively.

Two of the men were said to be members of an agrochemical industry body but refused to give their names. The other two claimed to be a lawyer and notary. They apparently interrogated Dr. Carrasco and demanded to see details of the experiments. They left a card Basílico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noël.

Dr. Carrasco also reports being subjected to offensive phone calls and there have been disparaging references to his research in newspapers with links to agribusiness. Dr. Carrasco however is resisting the intimidation, saying, “If I know something, I will not shut my mouth.”

The news report in Spanish is available at

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123932-2009-04-26.html