And We Wonder — DDT and Monsanto

[In part from “The Week” of July 3, 1015]
DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, but new research suggests this once ubiquitous insecticide is still causing cancer. Women born in the 1960s to mothers exposed to high levels of DDT while pregnant are nearly four times more likely to develop breast cancer, reports National Geographic. Scientists measured levels of DDT in blood samples taken from mothers of 118 women diagnosed with breast cancer by age 52, and compared them with samples taken from 354 women whose daughters did not get breast cancer. Women exposed to higher DDT levels in the womb were not only more likely to get breast cancer but they were also more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive and deadly forms of the disease……. Shanna Swan, an environmental health scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital said the finding were very troubling. “DDT could be responsible for raising the risk of breast cancer for a whole generation of women”.
And we still wonder if we should trust Monsanto, one of the primary producers of DDT from decades ago. This is the same company that has given us Dioxin, PCBs, 2/4/D, Agent Orange and more. It is the same company that has given us Roundup (glyphosate) that now has been declared a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization. It is the same company that has given us genetically engineered crops that can live through massive application of pesticide; pesticide whose residues follow the crop to the dinner table.
It does not take a genius to conclude that biocides — chemicals that cause death to organisms — are dangerous and harmful. We are poisoning ourselves and the planet. And who knows the ultimate damage to be done by genetically engineered crops and animals. We play with fire.