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In anย opinion piece was published on August 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, written by Dr. Philip Landrigan (M.D.) and Dr. Charles Benbrook (PhD), the authorsย cite concerns with two herbicides (glyphosate and 2,4-D), and use those concerns … to support a call for labeling of GMO foods. But the herbicide 2,4-D can already be used on a vast number of crops that are not GMO (including corn, wheat, barley, and oats), so the GMO label would provide no indication about use of this herbicide. If the authors are truly concerned about the use of herbicides, their focus here on GMO crops seems misplaced. Someย GMO crops significantly reduce pesticide use, so citing herbicide use concerns for a broad โGMOโ label is counterproductive.
Dr. Landrigan and Dr. Benbrook make several misleading statements, including that the Enlist Duo registration decision by EPA โfailed to consider ecologic impact, such as effects on the monarch butterfly and other pollinators.โ The EPA provides all relevant regulatory decision information on its website, including the environmental risk assessment documents. Just one of the risk assessment documents for Enlist Duo contains over 100 pages of โecologic impactโ data and interpretation, including environmental fate, degradation, aquatic and terrestrial organism toxicity and exposure estimates. The EPA also explicitly addresses how Enlist Duo will affect pollinators on an FAQ page dedicated to the Enlist Duo registration.ย
Another misleading statement is that the โrisk assessment gave little consideration to potential health effects in infants and children, thus contravening federal pesticide law.โ This claim was also addressed explicitly by EPA in their FAQ document. EPA concluded that after incorporating a 10X safety factor for children, and based on a โcomplete and very robustโ data set, that the โrisks were still acceptable for all age groups ….
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There isย nothing new presented here. And in fact, the information that is presented doesnโt really support the actions Dr. Landrigan and Dr. Benbrook are proposing.
Read full, original post:ย GMOs, Herbicides, and the New England Journal of Medicine
