• @wedleeneeber@lemm.ee
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    01 year ago

    Im sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I don’t think fear is a productive response. Bottom line concentrated chemicals can be dangerous. I don’t think that is in any way controversial.

    Here’s that:

    https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm “Atrazine is one of the most commonly applied herbicides in the world, often used to control weeds in corn, sorghum, and sugarcane crops.”

    Do you eat corn, corn syrup, or sugar? Corn chips?

    And evidence that endocrine disruptors affects age of puberty:

    https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.1104748#r17 “We estimated an inverse association between urinary 2,5-DCP concentration and age of menarche in girls 12–16 years of age who participated in the NHANES study during 2003–2008. To our knowledge, ours is the first population-based study to report an association between exposure to the putative environmental EDC dichlorobenzene and age of menarche, an outcome that may reflect endocrine-disrupting effects. “

    Fear can be good, it stops us doing things that are unnecessarily risky. I apparently hold the controversial opinion that we should treat our bodies better.

    :)

    • @blindsight@beehaw.org
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      11 year ago

      Pesticides ≠ GMOs.

      In fact, even organic foods can have pesticides. They can just use organic pesticides.

      GMOs have no more “chemicals” than any other food. In fact, they often have less “chemicals”, since they can often reduce pesticide use on pest-resistant GMO crops.

      • @wedleeneeber@lemm.ee
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        11 year ago

        Most of the modifications in Genetically Modified Organisms are modifications that allow the plant to resist pesticides, no? True this would not be necessary for organic pesticides, but then also we could have food that is not derived from a GMO…

        • @blindsight@beehaw.org
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          21 year ago

          I’m not an expert, but off the top of my head, there are GMOs for drought resistance, creating natural pesticides on leaves (of potatoes), increased vitamin A (for rice to prevent childhood blindness), higher yields, seed-free varieties of fruits, and many others.

    • Pesticides may have effects on the timing of puberty. But genetic modification is something completely different. GM crops have their own risks (contamination of wild populations, seed monopolies etc.) but as far as I know they do not affect human health.

        • Not fully, but I browsed through both, and I (mostly) agree with what they are saying. But they are talking about pesticides, not GM organisms. Again, I’m not claiming that there are no issues with GMOs. But pesticides and GMOs are completely different! You cannot show that pesticides cause X and then claim that therefore GMOs cause X.