Acrylamide In Cooked Foods
The Glyphosate Connection
Is Monsanto Poisoning Consumers with Pesticide Residues
PROF. JOE CUMMINS / ISIS Report 1aug02
Recent health alert over toxic acrylamide in cooked foods is linked to
glyphosate, Prof. Joe Cummins reveals.

Acrylamide is a building block for the polymer, polyacrylamide, a material
well-known in molecular biology laboratories as a gel matrix for resolving
DNA fragments in sequence analysis and identifying proteins, both under
electric fields. In the world at large, polyacrylamide is used in water
purification to flocculate suspended organic matter. Recently the world
health organization (WHO) had a closed meeting to review the finding that
cooked vegetables had significant levels of acrylamide [1]. The finding
received worldwide attention because acrylamide is a potent nerve toxin in
humans and also affects male reproduction, and causes birth defects and
cancer in animals. The WHO press releases implied that the acrylamide
finding was a surprise and that the pollutant probably arose from cooking
the vegetables.

Strangely, the WHO releases did not mention the fact that polyacrylamide is
a well known additive to commercial herbicide mixtures (25% to 30%
solutions) to reduce spray drift and to act as a surfactant [2]. The
glyphosate (i.e. Roundup) herbicides of Monsanto Corporation are of
particular concern because the herbicide interacts with the polymer [2-4].
Experiments showed that heat and light contribute to the release of
acrylamide from polyacrylamide, and glyphosate was found to influence the
solubility of polyacrylamide, so care was advised in mixing the two.

The evidence seems compelling, therefore, that acrylamide is being released
from polyacrylamide in the environment, one of the main sources of which is
in glyphosate herbicide formulations. Cooking vegetables that had been
exposed to the glyphosate herbicide used with herbicide-tolerant crops, or
used during soil preparation for normal crops would result in the releasing
more acrylamide. Worse yet, additives such as polyacrylamide are designated
'trade secrets' in North America and information on the contents of
herbicide preparations are not available to the public.

I am surprised at WHO's feigned ignorance of the polyacrylamide -herbicide
connection. WHO should make more effort to consult experts independent of
the giant herbicide corporations for a change, so the public could be told
the whole truth.

References

Weiss G. Acrylamide in food: Uncharted territory. Science 2002, 297,27.

Smith E, Prues S and Ochme F. Environmental degradation of
polyacrylamides: Effect of artificial environmental conditions.
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 1996, 35,121-35.

Smith E, Prues S and Ochme F. Environmental degradation of
polyacrylamides: II Effects of outdoor exposure. Ecotoxicology and
Environmental Safety 1997, 37,76-91.

Fischer K, Kotalik J and Kettrup A. Determination of acrylamide monomer
in polyacrylamide degradation studies by high performance liquid
chromatography. Journal of Chromatographic Science 1999, 37,486-94