Researchers at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) identified the presence of a new herbicide in the urine of at least 500 children with renal damage in two communities of the municipality of Poncitlán, Jalisco.
Although the presence of glyphosate has been reduced, glufosinate has now detected, a substance five times more toxic, according to scientific, free access in physical and online shops.
“The frequency (of the first chemist) has decreased in the urine of the minors we have studied. But now gluphosinate, which is cousin of glyphosate, and with a three -time cost,” said Felipe de Jesús Lozano Kasten, responsible for the public health project that since 2016 has documented and fought the incidence of renal damage in minors in this region adjacent to the Lago de Chapala.
Both herbicides are used to eliminate unwanted weeds, except in transgenic crops designed to resist them. However, after the presence of glyphosate in children affected in Poncitlán was revealed, the use of gluposinate would have intensified as an alternative, according to the study. Investigations from Argentine universities have classified it as five times more toxic than glyphosate and prohibited in Europe since 2013.
Despite the evidence of its toxicity and ongoing legislative debates, glyphosate continues to be used in Mexico.
The team led by Lozano Kasten, in which 16 researchers at the UdeG participated, also found pesticides such as Molinato, Dimethotate, 2.4D, Metoxuron and Piclloram in the urine of 231 minors, which represents 24 percent of the child population in the hot water community, in Poncitlán. Similar results were obtained in Chalpicote, another town also under observation.
The problem is not limited to this region. In 2021, the UdeG team documented similar cases in the towns of Ahuacapán and El Mentidero, in the municipality of Autlán, where 200 students close to agricultural fields were analyzed. There, glyphosate was also the predominant chemist, accompanied by other substances such as Emamectina and Malction.
These findings motivated the recommendation 141/2021 of the State Human Rights Commission of Jalisco, then chaired by Alfonso Hernández Barrón. The document warned that the toxins detected not only affected the inhabitants of Autlán, but also the wildlife of several areas of the Sierra de Manantlán, a biosphere nature reserve near the state of Colima.
In March 2023, during his participation in the Seminar Great national problems: glyphosate and transgenics, a danger to health and biodiversityLozano Kastten presented another study. It analyzed 280 newborns, of which 88 percent belong to resident families of Guadalajara. Despite not living in rural areas, infants also presented traces of various herbicides in their body.
In the specific case of hot water, the study identified glyphosate in the urine of 96 children, aged between 6 and 15 years. Meanwhile, in the town of El Taray, in Tamazula, to the south of the state, 74 percent of the minors examined presented remains of glyphosate, and 93 percent also had 2.4-D and Picloram. Other chemicals detected include molinage (64 %), acetoclor (53 %) and L-Cyhalothrin (40 %).
The research results also demonstrated that a diet based on organic foods, free of glyphosate prior exposure, can significantly reduce renal damage indicators. In particular, a decrease in albuminuria levels was observed, a key marker to detect this type of effects.
The group of children in Poncitlán who adopted this diet showed an almost total recovery. “The control group in Poncitlán to which this alternative was given to avoid the indirect consumption of glyphosate, recovered almost 100 percent,” said Lozano Kastten, who described the results as “successful and encouraging” against the high incidence of renal damage in the region.
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