Glyphosate (RoundUp) study about human safety retracted 8 years later

[Darren_Garrison]

Turns out that RoundUp is critical to US national security.

Trump order seeks to protect weedkiller at center of barrage of lawsuits

[Jackmannii]

RFK Jr. promoted the idea that glyphosate causes cancer.

I’m going to create enough science identifying these exposures and the impacts of them (so) that then the lawyers will come in and sue. I was part of the Monsanto team that took out glyphosate and we did it because we got 15 studies and that allows us to go to take that case to a jury.

There’s a threshold in federal court called the Daubert threshold. You need a certain amount of studies before you can bring the case. And I’m going to create those studies at NIH for all these exposures and then the lawyers will do the rest and we’ll eliminate the exposures very very quickly.

RFK, Jr. claims chronic diseases are soaring, urges government to support...

RFK Jr. now that his boss is prioritizing glyphosate production:

“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” he said. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families.”

Vani Hari and the rest of the MAHA shouters are big mad.

And so RFK Jr. goes down the same path as other Trumplicans who supposedly had principled stands on issues, but are so fearful of losing their shreds of power that they’ll do and say anythiing to placate the Leader.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Doncha just love how positive he was that his 15 studies, that he would instigate and fund, and anticipated the correct results from, would all find the smoking guns?

[DrDeth]

@wolfpup

I had a gigantic mutant shrub that was chopped down twice with a chainsaw and just started growing again from the stump.

Hot salt water does the same, ands- why kill the shrub? It is not like you are a foe of the Knights who Say Ni!

@EddyTeddyFreddy

a mixture of white vinegar, salt, and Dawn dish soap to create a non-selective, natural herbicide.

Hmmm. “I did not know that”.

@Filbert

This is especially the case because people assume it’s safe and ‘natural’ so you don’t need to be careful at all, just spray it around, it’s fine.

Sure, but people do the same with RoundUp. And if it was targeted, it would be okay.

[Jackmannii]

@EddyTeddyFreddy

Doncha just love how positive he was that his 15 studies, that he would instigate and fund, and anticipated the correct results from, would all find the smoking guns?

And that they’d allow him to disregard many more studies that showed contrary evidence.

That’s the thought process that drives a lawyer, but not a science-based public health official.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

As a person who proofreads pretrial deposition transcripts for a living, I am excruciatingly familiar with duelling experts, prevalence thereof.

[solost]

@wolfpup

Oh, my sweet summer child, you’re thinking of weeds, plants, and grass. This is not how to think of my Giant Mutant Shrub. The appropriate way to think of it is like something out of the movie Alien.

Was it possibly a Tree of Heaven? Also known as a ‘ghetto palm’ since it grows through cracks in pavement and is often ubiquitous in rundown, abandoned areas. When we bought our current house, we had a Tree of Heaven that the former owner had let grow into an actual large tree next to the house. They not only are almost impossible to kill when they get to a certain size, they send out roots in the ground and propagate little clone plants in every direction. And they grow fast– you can almost see them growing.

We had to get a tree service to cut down the main ToH, grind the stump, and for years afterward I was pulling dozens of little ToH bastards out of the lawn every Spring until the main underground root system finally started running out of steam. I still have to stay vigilant for new ToH popups in the yard after 20 years here.

More like Tree from Hell, if you ask me.

Journey with Nature: Tree of Heaven

[wolfpup]

@solost

Was it possibly a Tree of Heaven?

Very interesting, thank you. It’s been a few years since its demise and I no longer remember exactly what its leaves looked like, but some of the description sounds right – it was certainly a stubborn thing that indeed grew very fast. I had a guy cut it down with a chainsaw and haul it away, and a few years later had to call him back and do it all over again. When it once again started sprouting little shoots from the stump, and other herbicides failed to stop it, that was when I successfully attacked it with Roundup.

I had been meaning to get the stump removed or ground down but with the demise of this cursed thing, other plants and shrubs have been able to thrive and the stump is now pretty much hidden under decent greenery.

[solost]

A couple other identifiers of a Tree of Heaven are if you break off a green leafy branch it will ooze a white sap and give off a distinctive unpleasant odor-- sort of like rancid cashews.

[Chronos]

And, nowadays, Tree of Heaven is apparently associated with the Spotted Lanternfly infestation.