Monsanto-Bayer Pesticides Linked to Antibiotic Resistance: New study

Chemical-Free-Life.org, ,

Well, it seems our old friends at Monsanto (now Bayer Chemical) have been causing a lot more problems than the potential for cancer.  A new scientific study reveals that Monsano-Bayer pesticides glyphosate (RoundUp weed killer) and its kissing cousin Kamba (dicamba) are linked to antibiotic resistance in humans. Translation: You or your kids catch a nasty bug and none of the meds your healthcare team give you work–at all.

 

New study links common herbicides and antibiotic resistance

phys.org

A new study finds that bacteria develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when exposed to the world’s most widely used herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) and Kamba (dicamba) and antibiotics compared to without the herbicide.

 

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This study adds to a growing body of evidence that herbicides used on a mass industrial scale, but not intended to be antibiotics, can have profound effects on bacteria, with potentially negative implications for medicine’s ability to treat infectious diseases caused by bacteria, says University of Canterbury scientist Professor Jack Heinemann, one of the study’s authors.

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An important finding of the new study was that even in cases where the herbicides increase the toxicity of antibiotics they also significantly increased the rate of antibiotic resistance, which the study’s authors say could be contributing to the greater use of antibiotics in both agriculture and medicine.

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Previously these researchers found that exposure to the products Roundup, Kamba and 2,4-D or the active ingredients alone most often increased resistance, but sometimes increased susceptibility of potential human pathogens such as Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli depending on the antibiotic.

Journal reference: Brigitta Kurenbach et al. Agrichemicals and antibiotics in combination increase antibiotic resistance evolution, PeerJ (2018).
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