Slack Science Destroys Monsanto Breast Milk Study

Washington State University (WSU) researchers, led by Dr. Michelle (Shelley) McGuire, working alongside Monsanto and the Monsanto service contractor Covance Laboratories, announced last week that U.S. women’s breast milk does not contain the world’s most sold herbicide, glyphosate.

However, following an investigation by Sustainable Pulse and Moms Across America, published last week, the study was found to be full of massive conflicts of interest and also many unanswered scientific questions.

Independent validated testing in Germany in 2015 and independent ELISA testing the U.S. in 2014 both point to glyphosate being found in mother’s breast milk, although there have still been no peer-reviewed scientific studies / surveys done anywhere on this subject.

Sustainable Pulse has now been supplied with the one-page presentation that Dr. Shelley McGuire made last week on the ‘study’ and supplied to the EPA.

You can find the one-page presentation here

The Presentation has Revealed some Major Faults in the Study:

• The LOD (lower limit of detection) for the Monsanto/Covance Laboratories breast milk methods mysteriously changes throughout the one page presentation from 2 PPB to 1 PPB.
• The LOQ (Limit of quantification) for the breast milk methods used is at a high 10 PPB.
• The urine results from the Monsanto/ WSU study are mysteriously much lower than current and recent Urine testing done across the U.S. using validated LC/MS/MS methods in a number of independent labs.
• The ‘new’ validated LC/MS/MS methods for breast milk used by Monsanto / Covance Laboratories have the same LOQs (Limits of Quantification) to methods used by many U.S. and global labs for testing dairy products. This leads us to ask have they just validated these methods for breast milk? These methods are not accurate enough for human biological samples according to experts in the field because of their very poor reproduce-ability.
• No explanation is given as to why the strange number of 41 samples was used.
• No explanation as to how and when the samples were collected is given.
• How can Monsanto /WSU claim that they have proved glyphosate does not bio-accumulate in this study considering the LOQ for urine is 0.2 PPB and the LOQ for breast milk is 10 PPB? They also did not test blood or tissue samples.

Dr McGuire Reveals More Study Faults

• Dr. McGuire herself has now confirmed to Moms Across America that the 41 samples were collected over the past few years for a National Science Foundation (NSF) study that was NOT designed to be on glyphosate and AMPA and was instead part of a NSF study on milk oligosaccharides and microbiota.
• Dr. McGuire stated that the methods used will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, however she did not suggest that the actual study on glyphosate and AMPA will undergo any review or peer-review process.
• Dr. McGuire made some outrageous and incorrect comments in the study press release considering her expertise is not related to the toxic, carcinogenic or endocrine disrupting effects of glyphosate, including: “Urinary glyphosate levels are extremely low and not of concern.”

Sustainable Pulse Explains Why Dr. McGuire is Wrong:

Levels in human urine of glyphosate have been shown to be mainly between 0.1 and 20 PPB in validated testing worldwide.

Glyphosate is a probable endocrine disruptor (hormone hacker) at the same levels that are found in human urine. We say ‘probable’ because the chemical industry and regulators have not performed comprehensive safety testing on glyphosate at these low levels. However, independent science has already pointed to glyphosate being harmful to health at these levels:

Study 1: Glyphosate alone increased the proliferation of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells by estrogenic mechanisms in vitro at a level permitted in drinking water in the EU (0.1 PPB): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23756170

Study 2: An in-vivo study of Roundup administered to rats in drinking water diluted to 50ng/L glyphosate equivalence (0.1 PPB) – half of the level permitted in drinking water in the EU and 14,000 times lower than that permitted in drinking water in the USA – resulted in severe organ damage and a trend of increased incidence of mammary tumours in female animals over a 2-year period of exposure. The latter observation of tumours needs to be confirmed in an experiment with larger numbers of rats: http://www.enveurope.com/content/26/1/14

Study 3: A study from 2015 in trout found that 10 PPB has toxic effects on the livers of the fish: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/16/32 

Endocrine disrupting chemicals harm health at low exposures as much or more than at higher exposures.

Glyphosate-based herbicides have already been proved to be toxic and endocrine disruptors in human cell lines at high exposures.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals were estimated to be costing the EUR $150 Billion a year in a study released in March 2015. The study stated that lower IQ, adult obesity and 5% or more of autism cases are all linked to exposure to endocrine disruptors.