Study Reveals GMO Corn To Be Highly Toxic

A leaked study examining genetically-modified corn reveals that the lab-made alternative to organic crops contains a startling level of toxic chemicals.

An anti-GMO website has posted the results of an education-based consulting company’s comparison of corn types, and the results reveal that genetically modified foods may be more hazardous than once thought. 

The study, the 2012 Corn Comparison Report by Profit Pro, was published recently on the website for Moms Across America March to Label GMOs, a group that says they wish to “raise awareness and support Moms with solutions to eat GMO Free as we demand GMO labeling locally and nationally simultaneously.” They are plotting nationwide protests scheduled for later this year. 

The report, writes the website’s Zen Honeycutt, was provided by a representative for De Dell Seed Company, an Ontario-based farm that’s touted as being Canadian only non-GMO corn seed company. 

“The claims that ‘There is no difference between GMO corn and NON Gmo corn’ are false,” says Honeycutt, who adds she was “floored” after reading the study. 

According to the analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively. 

Honecutt says that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (FDA) mandates that the level of glyphosate in American drinking water not exceed 0.7 ppm and adds that organ damage in some animals has been linked to glyphosate exposure exceeding 0.1 ppm. 

“Glyphosate is a strong organic phosphate chelator that immobilizes positively charged minerals such as manganese, cobalt, iron, zinc [and] copper,” Dr. Don Huber attested during a separate GMO study recently released, adding that those elements “are essential for normal physiological functions in soils, plants and animals.” 

“Glyphosate draws out the vital nutrients of living things and GMO corn is covered with it,” adds Honeycutt, who notes that the nutritional benefits rampant in natural corn are almost entirely removed from lab-made seeds: in the samples used during the study, non-GMO corn is alleged to have 437-times the amount of calcium in genetically modified versions, and 56- and 7-times the level of magnesium and manganese, respectively. 

These studies come on the heels of a recent decision on Capitol Hill to approve an annual agriculture appropriations bill, even though a provision within the act contained a rider that frees GMO corporations such as the multi-billion-dollar Monsanto Company from liability. The so-called “Monsanto Protection Act,” written by a lawmaker that has lobbied for the agra-giant, says biotech companies won’t need federal approval to test and plant GMO-crops, even if health risks are unknown. 

“The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards,” reads a letter to the House of Representatives that was delivered to Congress last month with the signatures of dozens of food businesses and retailers, as well as interest groups and agencies representing family farmers. “Further, it would compel USDA to allow continued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in the course of its assessment the Department finds that it poses previously unrecognized risks.”

Source: http://rt.com/usa/toxic-study-gmo-corn-900/ 

Toxic Mediterranean "death carrot" could help treat cancer

A toxic chemical found in a Mediterranean plant is being developed into a potential new drug by an international team of researchers.

The plant Thapsia garganica – sometimes called the ‘death carrot’ – contains thapsigargin, an extremely toxic chemical.
It kills cells, including cancer cells, by blocking a protein called SERCA, which helps cells control their internal calcium levels. This makes thapsigargin toxic to both dividing and resting cells – unlike current cancer drugs, which target only cells that are rapidly dividing.

In theory this means that drugs based on thapsigargin could target slower-growing cancers as well as cancer ‘stem cells’ – the treatment-resistant cells that some researchers think fuel the disease.

In new research, published today in Science Translational Medicine, a team of US and Danish researchers have shown that an experimental drug based on thapsigargin is able to treat tumours in mice, and appears to be relatively non-toxic.

To create the experimental drug, the team  modified thapsigargin by linking it to a short protein-based molecule called a peptide, rendering it non-toxic.

The peptide is designed to only be removed by a second protein, known as PSMA, which is found in high concentrations on the surface of many different types of cancer.

This means that when the peptide-linked thiapsigargin – known as G202 - comes into contact with cancer cells that bear PSMA, the peptide is removed, and the thiapsigargin kills any cells in the immediate environment.

Henry Scowcroft, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said the idea of a 'pro-drug', which uses an inert chemical which becomes activated once it gets near to a tumour, is not a new one, as other attempts have been made to create them in the past.
But he noted that trials of these drugs have often been unsuccessful because "either the drug doesn’t get sufficiently activated in the tumour, or, more usually, it is unstable and gets released into the bloodstream, causing unacceptable toxicity".

Recent advances in chemistry have started to address this problem, he added.
Commenting on the latest results, Mr Scowcroft added: "There are still many hurdles to be overcome. For example, we need to know how this experimental drug behaves in the bloodstream of people with cancer, rather than in laboratory models."

While it could eventually become a useful tool for doctors to combine with other treatments, he emphasised that the treatment still has to be proven to be safe and effective in large trials.

G202 is currently being tested on 28 US patients who have advanced cancer, to find out more about how toxic it is. Larger trials are planned if this proves successful.

Original Article: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/news/archive/cancernews/2012-06-27-Toxic-Mediterranean-death-carrot-could-help-treat-cancer