GMOs are harmful for human health

Rebuttal to: “Reproductive Toxicology” First, it was mentioned that this study tested for “dangerous” chemicals in the blood of women. Below is the selected quote used from this paper: To our knowledge, this is the first study to highlight the presence of pesticides-associated genetically modified foods in maternal, fetal and nonpregnant women’s blood. 3-MPPA and Cry1Ab toxin are clearly detectable and appear to cross the placenta to the fetus. Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the fetus, more studies are needed, particularly those using the placental transfer approach. There are two issues with the conclusions made by my fellow debater based upon this passage and the article as a whole. The authors of this paper never claimed that 3-MPPA and Cry1Ab are chemicals dangerous to human health anywhere in their paper. They even state “Given the POTENTIAL toxicity of these environmental pollutants” showing that there isn’t any current evidence that shows these molecules are harmful to humans and they even go on to say more studies are needed which further suggests that this fact is not known. Second, even if these molecules are harmful to humans, it is all dependent upon amount. It is a well-known fact that EVERY molecule we know of is toxic to us when ingested in adequate amounts and this is a large part of the basic groundwork of toxicology (1). For example, water can kill you and has an LD50 (the amount required to kill 50% of tested animals) of 90 mL/kg of body weight (2). So, even if these molecules are harmful, this research does not demonstrate that they are present in high enough quantities to have an adverse effect. Rebuttal to: Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases First, I dispute your claim that 85% of all GMOs are herbicide resistant. Your source does not present the source of their information to this claim and it is not a trusted source such as a peer reviewed research paper, university website, or government agency therefore it could easily just be a made up figure. Second, you cite no source to your claim that glyphosate is toxic and “RoundUp Ready Crops” are NOT infused with glyphosate. You have a misunderstanding of how these particular GMOs work. From Monsanto (the company that produces the crops and roundup) themselves (3): Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup agricultural herbicides, kills plants by inhibiting the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS)…… Roundup Ready corn event GA21 contains a modified epsps gene from corn (Zea mays, L.). The modified maize EPSPS (mEPSPS) protein differs from wild-type maize EPSPS by two amino acids. This results in an EPSPS protein with greater than 99.3% sequence identity to that produced naturally in corn. The mEPSPS protein has a low affinity for glyphosate compared to the wild-type EPSPS enzyme. Thus, when corn plants expressing the mEPSPS protein are treated with glyphosate, the plants are unaffected. So essentially, the plants are normally killed by glyphosate, but because of the modified EPSPS enzyme, they are able to survive while microorganisms are killed by it because their wild type EPSPS loses it’s activity from the interaction with glyphosate. This isn’t very relevant to the argument as a whole, but I like to spread knowledge when I can. Now onto the paper you have quoted. There are many issues with this paper that have been exposed by multiple sources (4, 5). First, the researcher who wrote this paper is a computer science and artificial intelligence expert. She by no means at all has any sort of expertise in biology, chemistry, or health. Second, their claim that CYP enzymes are inhibited by glyphosate are made up as the two sources they cite for this (6, 7) say nothing about these class of enzymes at all. Lastly, their claims that it causes “gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease” are made up as they cite no studies for this at all and they come to these conclusions based on speculation. They have actually ignored the majority of the scientific literature that says that development and reproduction are not affected by glyphosate (8), non-cancer diseases are also not caused by glyphosate (9), and cancer is not a result of glyphosate (10). It is important to note that the studies I just published are review articles that look at many studies and determine what they say as a whole which is always more reliable than relying upon just one study. It’s like asking experts their opinion on something and when 99% of them say one thing, you decide that they are all wrong at that you will go with the opinion of the 1%. Except this is hard, data and not opinions. Finally, you have only attempted to present evidence of the harm caused by RoundupReady GMOs in all of your sources. Your argument would be much better if the claim you had to backup was that RoundupReady crops are harmful to human health, but the statement is that GMOs as a whole are harmful. There are many, many more GMOs that work in very different ways than RoundupReady crops. These include “rainbow papayas” resistant to a virus, “golden rice” that contain more vitamin A for places where there is malnutrition of this vitamin, and Bt crops such as soy and cotton (11). So tell me then, what is harmful about other GMOs such as these? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org... 2. http://www.sciencelab.com... 3. http://www.monsanto.com... 4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 5. http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org... 6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 11. http://recipes.howstuffworks.com...