Toxic nation: how the US government allows its citizens to be poisoned
- Staci-lee Sherwood
- 47 minutes ago
- 12 min read
By Staci-lee Sherwood
In the wake of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recent decision to add two more toxic chemicals to the food supply let’s examine what is already sprayed on US food. It’s estimated the US food supply uses about 10,000 chemicals but who knows if that is a low ball number. If you want to play it safe when food shopping, ask yourself if this is something people would have eaten in 1900. If the answer is no then it’s processed with chemicals and fillers and toxic to your health. Never mind that much of our food is poisoned and sold out in the open, what is considered legal doesn’t mean it’s moral or safe.
In the 1770s British subjects fought a revolution to be free from what they deemed tyranny. The driving force of change was a lack of representation or a voice in how things would be run. A new country was formed with the hope it would be a democracy, of sorts. A free country in theory is one that benefits all its citizens, not a prized few. What we have now is a country mainly run for the benefit of corporate profiteers.
Flash forward to WW2 and the use of synthetic chemicals. The infamous DDT was the first synthetic insecticide created in the 1940s and used by the military on soldiers against malaria. So much money was made with the use of modern chemicals that after the war the federal government was talked into using a ‘diluted’ version on crops to prevent insect damage. They agreed, unfortunately, and now we have dozens of pesticides sprayed on a single crop. There’s just too much money to be made by the companies that manufacture, distribute and sell them, and the politicians whose careers are funded by them. For DDT, its ban in the US came after Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring came out in 1962 with dire warnings of the dangers of pesticides. Though banned for use in the US it’s still manufactured and used in other countries.
Do we still have a democracy or is the corporatocracy finally out in the open? Tyranny aims to remove free will from its citizens for the benefit of one or a few. It starts slowly by controlling the press, silencing critics, defunding education and ruling in fear. In a country ruled for the benefit of corporations the will of the people evaporates as laws are passed to protect and shield corporations from their lies, fraud and harm they cause. Doesn’t seem like a government run by and for the people does it? Now we have the onslaught of PFAS, a class of chemicals called ‘forever chemicals’ because they remain in the atmosphere (water, air, soil) and any living being forever. The insanity of creating and using such deadly chemicals proves no government approving this is for anyone but those that profit by it.
An educated consumer and voter is a goal everyone should aim for because protecting your health comes down to you, and you alone.
What’s really in or on your food? What you don’t know could kill you and your family. Picture 1 is real food or so it looks like it. If you could see the chemicals and danger on your food Picture 2 would be more accurate.
Learn to read labels and research
What are PFAS chemicals?
In laymen terms they are a class of synthetic chemicals that remain in water/air/soil/living beings forever. They don’t breakdown and cause a long list of health issues from allergies to cancers. There is no reason to create these let alone use them but here we are. PFAS can be found in everything from Teflon cookware to baby formula, cosmetics, beer, produce, wine, clothing and much more. It’s even found in tech such as the wristbands of smartwatch made with fluoroelastomer (fluorinated synthetic rubber). Smartwatches from Nike, Apple, Fitbit and Google could be the very cause of health problems you hope they monitor. PFAS are everywhere and since they exist forever they travel the world via wind and storms.
Click for a deeper explanation of PFAS chemicals and dangers, note it’s no longer updated as the EPA is basically a defunct agency
Click here to read how it’s used on food
Click here to read the NIH report ‘Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment’
Other toxins banned in dozens of countries but allowed in the US
Most people do not bother to research what chemicals are found in their drinking water, sprayed on their food, used in household products like cookware and furniture or cosmetics. There are several dangerously toxic chemicals banned by other countries but still widely used in the US today. The EPA was a great idea thought up by President Carter in the hopes of protecting citizens from toxic exposure. Since its inception it has failed to live up to the lofty ideals when the green movement started to move forward in the 1970s.
For the most part those picked by presidents to run the agency have mostly been former lobbyists for the very industries taxpayers need protection from. In politics this is by design since heads of agencies are picked by presidents as a thank you for a huge financial campaign support and for their loyalty to them, not the public. Some administrations have been more blatantly corrupt than others but they have all failed the public.
Paraquit - herbicide linked to Parkinson's disease and highly toxic, with a small amount being fatal if ingested. Banned in over 70 countries, including the EU and China. Used on corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, fruit and nut orchards, and vineyards. Listed under dozens of names designed to confuse the public, commonly sold under the trade name Gramoxone but also Diquat dibromide. These are some of the brand names selling it; Gramoxone, Helmquat, Parazone.
It’s manufactured by Switzerland-based Syngenta, and distributed by FMC Corporation, both have been sued. Syngenta manufactures paraquat in China and the UK. Farmers in China, the U.K. and Switzerland aren’t permitted to use it due to the chemical’s potential risks but they export it anyway. Amazingly its use has increased in the US, spraying 7 million pounds over 15 million acres of land. Here’s a list of countries that have banned or severely restricted its use
Dicambia - herbicide used on corn, grain, sod and linked to liver and bile duct cancer. Banned in Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Sri Lanka, Arkansas and Missouri have temporarily halted its use but EPA hopes to bring its use back.
Click here to read more
Potassium Bromated - used in bread and baked goods and linked to cancer. The NIH considers it toxic to humans. Banned in the EU, Canada, Brazil, UK, China. California and Utah bans it in school meals.
Titanium Dioxide - used in baked goods, bread, sunscreen even toothpaste damages DNA. Here’s a list of countries that have banned its use
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) - used in dairy. The US does not require companies to label its use, although it was banned in the EU in 1990. Its use in dairy cows increases the concentrations of IGF-1, a protein naturally found in milk. Higher blood levels of IGF-1 have been linked to increased risk for breast cancer.
Atrazine - herbicide most commonly found in US drinking water. The EU banned it in 2004 but EPA re-evaluated and approved its use in 2009. While it breaks down quickly in soil, it hangs around in water. Almost 90% percent of drinking water in the U.S. has atrazine in it, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture data by the Pesticide Action Network. It’s an endocrine disrupter linked to cancer and birth defects among other things.
Glyphosate – herbicide ‘Roundup’, weed killer linked to cancer and many other health issues. Soon to be banned in the Netherlands, Brazil is considering a ban. Ontario, Canada, banned it for home use on lawns. Sri Lanka banned it. Scientists suspect it causes kidney disease among agricultural workers.
German based Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for over $60 billion. After paying millions out in lawsuits from its toxic Roundup they have lobbied 11 state attorney generals, all republican, to push for bans on any state laws seeking to ban its use due to the harm it causes. These are the first states to help protect Bayer AG: Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wyoming. This is just the beginning, when it comes to pesticides both parties are terrible but republicans are almost always the first to act to protect corporate interests. If you check the voting records of state and federal lawmakers that is truth but few people ever research that. Click to read more about it
Bayer Ag has several top institutional holders like BlackRock Inc, The Vanguard Group Inc and Dodge & Cox. Many mutual funds also include Bayer such as Dodge & Cox Funds, Vanguard STAR Funds, Government Pension fund Global, Harris Associates Investment Trust and iShares Trust just to name a few. If you hold any of these you are effectively feeding the beast, a company profiting by making you sick.
Click here is a breakdown of their investors
Other toxins banned by other countries, still used in the US
Click here to read about pesticide lawsuits https://www.motleyrice.com/toxicexposure/pesticide-lawsuits
Widespread death for wildlife
Anything designed to kill insects immediately will eventually kill other species over time. Farm workers exposed to these toxins get sick over time, like coal miners, it’s a slow development. Wildlife is exposed many ways, when the chemicals are aerial sprayed over crops, they are sprayed too. This includes any nesting birds, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, opossums, lizards, snakes or foxes that live and forage in the field. In Florida there are several Bald Eagles that nest in agriculture fields and golf courses that are exposed to these chemicals on a daily bases. They inhale it, but their food supply is also sprayed with it. Over the past few years I’ve been monitoring eagle nests many have lost eaglets, and their own lives, to contaminated food. Animals that eat carrion such as vultures, eagles and caracaras end up poisoned when they consume the animals who died by poison. This also happens when rodenticide is used.
Compound 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) is highly toxic and used to kill rodents, foxes, coyotes and wolves and other wildlife. Ranchers and farmers often put this chemical in a dead ‘bait’ animal to lure foxes and coyotes who then die in agony after consuming it. When other animals consume the dead animals, like bald eagles and vultures, they too die. It’s called the toxin that keeps on giving. Any dog or cat that comes upon the carrion is also exposed. It’s deadly to all warm--blooded mammals including humans. If the government allows people to be exposed it won’t care what it does to animals.
The government is not for the people (never really was)
When it comes to safe food, clean water and air it shouldn’t be a red state vs blue state or any party issue, but it is. Back n the 1980s and 1990s we still had some bipartisan agreements but no more. Everything is polarized by design to keep the publics concerns at bay while industries go hog wild deregulating laws they don’t like. Regulations are there to protect YOU the consumer yet the media and government have all been co-opted by industry whose sole purpose is to hide the dangers of their products while they make outlandish profits.
Under the Trump administration, the pesticide office is controlled by two former lobbyists for the American Chemistry Council, Nancy Beck and Lynn Dekleva. Go through every former administration and you find some corruption and compromise. Corruption in politics is nothing new but what is new is the breathe of openness about it. Today we have an openly hostile federal government, whose heads of agencies seem loathe to run them effectively. At the state level we have many state governments who seethe at the thought of consumer protection if it means their industry friends have to disclose damaging data or be open to a lawsuit. If you follow the money of who and what people in Washington DC are invested in and used to work for their votes and policies become clear.
Trump pick Lee Zeldin –
Cozy with oil, gas, coal, fracking industries
Was chair of America First Policy Institute co-founded by Tim Dunn, founder of fracking company CrownQuest.
He was also backed by Ronald Lauder of Estee Lauder makeup (linked to child labor and securities fraud) who suggested the insane idea of the US taking Greenland. Some Estee Lauder cosmetics have low toxicity while others are listed as high hazard according to the Environmental Working Group testing.
His EPA wants to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding which would effectively repeal Clean Air Act and other rules. I spoke against this during their hearing but most agree they will repeal it.
Biden pick Michael S. Regan -
Eight years working at Environmental Defense Fund.
In 2020, as North Carolina Dept of Environmental Quality Secretary, secured an agreement with Duke Energy for the largest coal ash contamination cleanup in US history, 80 million tons of coal ash.
At EPA he focused on new clean air rules for tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources…the Trump administration has since abandoned this.
Regan also set limits on carbon pollution for existing and new coal and gas plants, the Trump administration proposes to repeal this too.
In 2024 issued the first national, legally enforceable drinking water standards for six types of PFAS "forever chemicals", which requires public water systems to meet new limits by 2029 …the Trump administration has extended it to 2031
Trump pick Scott Pruitt -
Resigned after a year while under at least 14 federal investigations.
Was openly pro industry and hostile to the EPA
Sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma’s attorney general
EPA declined to ban a pesticide linked to neurological damage in children
Froze requirements to reduce water pollution from coal-fired power plants
Opened the door to loosening limits on toxic coal waste.
Obama pick Lisa P. Jackson -
Approved the use of Atrazine against EPA’s own scientific warnings
While at New Jersey DEP she was accused of gag orders, back door deals with polluters and mismanagement.
Currently a lobbyist for Apple tech (their smartwatch band tested positive for PFAS
Bush pick Christine Todd Whitman -
Despite public promises to clean up superfund sites and water, according to ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten, the EPA under Whitman's tenure engaged in secret negotiations with industry, while supposedly addressing drinking water issues related to a gas drilling technique known as fracking.
In 2004, the EPA undertook a study on fracking and despite its own scientific judgment that there was a risk to groundwater supplies, went ahead and concluded no risk to groundwater
FOIA requests for documents found conversations between Halliburton staff and EPA researchers, asking for an agreement from Halliburton in exchange for more lax enforcement. Vice President Dick Cheney was former CEO Halliburton and worked in the Nikon Administration.
Owns interests in oil wells in Texas and Colorado
Accused of misleading New Yorkers about the post 9/11 air pollution. I spoke at an EPA hearing in NYC in 2001 and saw how EPA was going to do little about disclosing the truth. February 2006, a federal judge found Whitman guilty of making "'misleading statements of safety' about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack." The judge further found that Whitman "may have put the public in danger," according to the New York Times (Julia Preston, "Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says," February 3, 2006).
Clinton pick Carol Browner -
Administrator for two terms
Reauthorized the Safe Drinking Water Act
Reauthorized Food Quality Protection Act.
Issued the first regulations specifically for oil refining industry, most stringent air pollution standards in U.S. history
I suggest you do your own research but you get the picture. If the top is openly pro business all their picks for agencies will be too. While any agency head will undoubtedly fail to some measure they are charged with the public’s welfare. What else would you call it when they side with the very industries they are suppose to regulate? The facts bear this out even if the corporate owned media deny this. Follow the money it never lies, but reporters do.
What is relatively safe to consume and use
Billions of pounds of poisons have already been sprayed on food, plants, weeds and used in a variety of consumer products. Finding truly organic non toxic anything is a challenge. At this point the best course of action is to never vote for anyone who supports their use and research every product you buy. Some things are easier to avoid while others may not have a safe alternative.
Never buy/use the following:
Soy it's over 90% GMO
Wheat one of the most contaminated
Anything labeled ‘nonstick’, only cook with real stainless steel that is marked as such and glass.
Never store food in plastic (plastic is a byproduct of oil)
Stop using canned foods that contain BPA on their cans
Only buy legitimate organic (USDA label means nothing) look for another certified group. Click here for OCIA International list https://directory.ifoam.bio/certifiers
Only buy NON GMO when possible
Don’t buy processed food it’s all fillers, dyes, sugar and chemicals
Avoid products from big AG companies
Buy produce from local farmers. The smaller the farmer the less chemicals if you can’t find organic.
Read ALL labels – including where it was grown. Few labels list the important info needed so google the distributor/manufacturer. More than half of the US food comes from China and other countries so food of origin labels are rare often misleading.
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