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There's a video where a Monsanto lobbyist spouts circular talking-points about how glyphosate was safe to drink, offered either Round Up or glyphosate and refus

There's a video where a Monsanto lobbyist spouts circular talking-points about how glyphosate was safe to drink, offered either Round Up or glyphosate and refused to drink it. https://youtu.be/QWM_PgnoAtA?t=25s https://youtu.be/QWM_PgnoAtA?t=25s It's irrelevant if glyphosate alone is cancerous or not, because 99.9999% of deployment is via sprays like Round Up. The combined product, in both animal and human models, need thorough mutagenic research. It's just news shows don't want to give Monsanto free advertising or face libel laws, so they conflate the generic compound with the product.

parshimers 9y ago
>There's a video where a Monsanto lobbyist spouts circular talking-points about how glyphosate was safe to drink, offered either Round Up or glyphosate and refused to drink it. But, you can actually watch a video of someone else drinking some! (at about 8:00) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sgEhpHM4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sgEhpHM4k
- burntrelish1273 9y ago
  LOL. That's actually stupid or actually fake. :)
- briantakita 9y ago
  Here's a comment on the video by the user K SA: > The bar tender reaches down at 5:16 and brings up a different glass than the one he pours the chemicals in so this is a snow job. The two glasses have a different shape too and the new glass is greener. This is so fake. Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe?
  - Deestan 9y ago
    > Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe? The guy on the street outside wears thick waterproof pants and thick waterproof rubber boots when he cleans the street with a pressurized water hose. Water is generally considered safe [citation needed], but you still don't want to get hosed in it for hours on a daily basis. - Constantly wet feet catch fungus and foot rot. - Water lowers your body temperature, making you more susceptible to infection from and outbreak of common cold. - Containing water contamination to an surface - instead of your clothes and skin - makes it easier to rid yourself of surplus water when taking a break. - Wet clothes are highly impractical because they are heavy and shed water everywhere you go for hours after. TLDR; Protective clothing doesn't imply toxicity.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    > Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe They are protecting against a lifetime of large exposures.
    - briantakita 9y ago
      > They are protecting against a lifetime of large exposures Would eating food products everyday be considered a "lifetime of large exposures"?
  - olliej 9y ago
    Same reason the doctor leaves the room when you take an X-ray. The issue isn’t one time exposure it’s repeated exposure. The issue with roundup isn’t whether it’s safe if you drink it (most “safe” cleaners, etc will at least make you feel crappy if you just drink them - he’ll copper sulphate spray used for low level onset protection would send you straight to hospital if you drank it). It’s a matter of cumulative exposure and time. Most cancers, even chemically induced ones take time to become large enough to be noticed and people get many different cancers naturally - if a small amount of roundup cause cancer immediately it would be gone already. Much like Uber I take issue with the unethical behaviour of Monsanto in multiple areas. Maybe roundup is safe and could be used as icing at a five year olds birthday, but they shouldn’t be ghost writing papers for journals. Also unethical is allowing someone to ghostwrite a paper for you and publishing it with your name.
KekDemaga 9y ago
I think you'll find if someone who thinks you are evil offers you a glass of liquid of unknown providence you to would decline it as well.
- yourapostasy 9y ago
  This presents an interesting conundrum. Monsanto doesn't trust anyone who proposes a Monsanto employee drink a cup of Roundup because ostensibly they're afraid the cup is something other than Roundup. People who want to propose this "prove it" don't trust Monsanto to supply the cup of Roundup because they're afraid Monsanto will just give some colored, scented water that only looks like Roundup. The actual Roundup product toxicity is from the inactive ingredients used as a carrier for the glyphosate [1]. Supposedly pure glyphosate itself is low toxicity. If (and this is a big if) the LD50 for humans follows mice models [2], at the highest amount of glyphosate required of 10,000 mg/kg, then the average human at 70 kg would require 700,000 mg of glyphosate to incur a 50% chance of a lethal dose. That is 0.7 kg solid form glyphosate, well over what we might find in a cup that is roughly diluted to the concentration levels one finds in the least concentrated form of Roundup. The lower end of the animal models is rabbits, acute dermal LD50, at 2,000 mg/kg, five times lower, 0.14 kg solid form glyphosate for that average human. If there are 540 grams glyphosate per liter of Roundup R/T 540 Liquid Herbicide (the term of art is "540 grams acid equivalent per litre", please, some chemistry hacker out there correct my quantities, I'm sure I'm getting this wrong), then a US customary cup of this kind of Roundup contains 127.76 g glyphosate. I chose this kind of Roundup because it looks like the least concentrated. The rabbit LD50 toxicity translated to a 70 kg human is 140 grams. The mouse LD50 toxicity translated to a 70 kg human is 700 grams. That cup is uncomfortably close to those levels for me, if my numbers are close to the ballpark; I sure as hell wouldn't drink that cup if my numbers are correct. I welcome corrections. [1] http://www.roundup.ca/_uploads/documents/RT540_label_Mar2014.pdf http://www.roundup.ca/_uploads/documents/RT540_label_Mar2014... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Humans
- DarkKomunalec 9y ago
  > I think you'll find if someone who thinks you are evil offers you a glass of liquid of unknown providence you to would decline it as well. This goes both ways - shouldn't we decline Monsanto's products, because they've shown they value profit over safety, and corporate control over farmer independence?
tscs37 9y ago
The thing is, glyphosate/roundup is still a toxin. It may be safe in low doses but I wouldn't exactly try to drink large quantities of something that is made for the only purpose to kill some animal/plant.

parshimers 9y ago

>There's a video where a Monsanto lobbyist spouts circular talking-points about how glyphosate was safe to drink, offered either Round Up or glyphosate and refused to drink it. But, you can actually watch a video of someone else drinking some! (at about 8:00) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sgEhpHM4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sgEhpHM4k

burntrelish1273 9y ago
LOL. That's actually stupid or actually fake. :)
briantakita 9y ago
Here's a comment on the video by the user K SA: > The bar tender reaches down at 5:16 and brings up a different glass than the one he pours the chemicals in so this is a snow job. The two glasses have a different shape too and the new glass is greener. This is so fake. Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe?
- Deestan 9y ago
  > Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe? The guy on the street outside wears thick waterproof pants and thick waterproof rubber boots when he cleans the street with a pressurized water hose. Water is generally considered safe [citation needed], but you still don't want to get hosed in it for hours on a daily basis. - Constantly wet feet catch fungus and foot rot. - Water lowers your body temperature, making you more susceptible to infection from and outbreak of common cold. - Containing water contamination to an surface - instead of your clothes and skin - makes it easier to rid yourself of surplus water when taking a break. - Wet clothes are highly impractical because they are heavy and shed water everywhere you go for hours after. TLDR; Protective clothing doesn't imply toxicity.
- DanBC 9y ago
  > Why do the guys sprying this crap wear spacesuits if it is so safe They are protecting against a lifetime of large exposures.
  - briantakita 9y ago
    > They are protecting against a lifetime of large exposures Would eating food products everyday be considered a "lifetime of large exposures"?
- olliej 9y ago
  Same reason the doctor leaves the room when you take an X-ray. The issue isn’t one time exposure it’s repeated exposure. The issue with roundup isn’t whether it’s safe if you drink it (most “safe” cleaners, etc will at least make you feel crappy if you just drink them - he’ll copper sulphate spray used for low level onset protection would send you straight to hospital if you drank it). It’s a matter of cumulative exposure and time. Most cancers, even chemically induced ones take time to become large enough to be noticed and people get many different cancers naturally - if a small amount of roundup cause cancer immediately it would be gone already. Much like Uber I take issue with the unethical behaviour of Monsanto in multiple areas. Maybe roundup is safe and could be used as icing at a five year olds birthday, but they shouldn’t be ghost writing papers for journals. Also unethical is allowing someone to ghostwrite a paper for you and publishing it with your name.

KekDemaga 9y ago

I think you'll find if someone who thinks you are evil offers you a glass of liquid of unknown providence you to would decline it as well.

yourapostasy 9y ago
This presents an interesting conundrum. Monsanto doesn't trust anyone who proposes a Monsanto employee drink a cup of Roundup because ostensibly they're afraid the cup is something other than Roundup. People who want to propose this "prove it" don't trust Monsanto to supply the cup of Roundup because they're afraid Monsanto will just give some colored, scented water that only looks like Roundup. The actual Roundup product toxicity is from the inactive ingredients used as a carrier for the glyphosate [1]. Supposedly pure glyphosate itself is low toxicity. If (and this is a big if) the LD50 for humans follows mice models [2], at the highest amount of glyphosate required of 10,000 mg/kg, then the average human at 70 kg would require 700,000 mg of glyphosate to incur a 50% chance of a lethal dose. That is 0.7 kg solid form glyphosate, well over what we might find in a cup that is roughly diluted to the concentration levels one finds in the least concentrated form of Roundup. The lower end of the animal models is rabbits, acute dermal LD50, at 2,000 mg/kg, five times lower, 0.14 kg solid form glyphosate for that average human. If there are 540 grams glyphosate per liter of Roundup R/T 540 Liquid Herbicide (the term of art is "540 grams acid equivalent per litre", please, some chemistry hacker out there correct my quantities, I'm sure I'm getting this wrong), then a US customary cup of this kind of Roundup contains 127.76 g glyphosate. I chose this kind of Roundup because it looks like the least concentrated. The rabbit LD50 toxicity translated to a 70 kg human is 140 grams. The mouse LD50 toxicity translated to a 70 kg human is 700 grams. That cup is uncomfortably close to those levels for me, if my numbers are close to the ballpark; I sure as hell wouldn't drink that cup if my numbers are correct. I welcome corrections. [1] http://www.roundup.ca/_uploads/documents/RT540_label_Mar2014.pdf http://www.roundup.ca/_uploads/documents/RT540_label_Mar2014... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Humans
DarkKomunalec 9y ago
> I think you'll find if someone who thinks you are evil offers you a glass of liquid of unknown providence you to would decline it as well. This goes both ways - shouldn't we decline Monsanto's products, because they've shown they value profit over safety, and corporate control over farmer independence?

tscs37 9y ago

The thing is, glyphosate/roundup is still a toxin. It may be safe in low doses but I wouldn't exactly try to drink large quantities of something that is made for the only purpose to kill some animal/plant.