02/10/2019 Myth busting: Are synthetic pesticides, used with some GMOs, more dangerous than natural ones?

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Myth busting: Are synthetic pesticides, used

699 with some GMOs, more dangerous than
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natural ones?
d Layla Katiraee | July 15, 2016

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Plants and animals have evolved mechanisms to ght against their predators.
biotechnology Someto
delivered
of them are mechanical, like thorns or spines on a pu er sh, but some
your are chemical
inbox.
in nature. As a result, our food is full of natural pesticides and toxins.
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It’s important not to let the term “pesticide” confuse you. We’re used to thinking of
pesticides as the stu we spray on plants or around our house to get rid of bugs. But
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the term “pesticide” is much broader than that: it’s any substance that gets rid of or
repels a pest. The term encompasses many di erent -cides: herbicides (to get rid of
plants), fungicide (to get rid of fungi), insecticides (to getSign
rid of
Upinsects), etc. A
natural pesticide can be toxic to the pest that its evolved to target, so I use the term Privacidade - Termos

“toxin” in this piece as well

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toxin in this piece as well.

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One of the more common natural pesticides that we ingest is solanine. This
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compound is present in di erent parts of the potato plant, which is a member of the
nightshade family of plants. This paper from Lancet published in 1979 states that
potatoes have small amounts of solanine in the peel and none in the esh, but when
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the potato starts to green or sprout (i.e. the ‘eyes’ start growing), then the amount
increases signi cantly. Solanine levels also increase in potatoes when they’re
diseased, such as with the blight, and is probably part of the plant’s defense system.

The Lancet paper documents several cases of solanine poisoning from eating
potatoes, but they were not typical cases (for example, individuals may have been
malnourished). Current guidelines from the NIH state that eating solanine in very
699 small amounts can be toxic and recommends throwing out spoiled potatoes or those
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that are green below the skin.
d
But solanine is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to natural pesticides. Here
a are a few others:

k Ca eine: This paper suggests that ca eine inhibits insects from eating the

y plant. It “appears to suppress certain enzymes in insect nervous systems“.

Attempts have been made at making a ca eine-based agricultural pesticide
v with mixed results.
Nicotine: Also present in the nightshade family of plants, nicotine is one of the
s very rst agricultural pesticides developed, particularly because it is “toxic to
most herbivores”. It was phased out of farming in the US as of 2014.
# Capsaicin: It’s what makes peppers hot. Does it really surprise you that it’s a
natural pesticide? What animal in its right mind would want to punish itself by

eating terribly spicy foods? Well, Homo sapiens do. The rst pesticide

containing capsaicin was registered with the EPA in 1962. As you know, it’s an
irritant to most mammals, but it can also repel or kill insects.
2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (abbreviated as DIMBOA):
a pesticide found in corn, wheat, rye other grasses. It is released in these
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plants when a tissue is damaged and it’s toxic to a wide range of insects and
bacteria.
The chemicals to which we attribute many of the avors News on human
in herbs &
and spices:
Tetradecanoic acid in nutmeg has been tested asagricultural genetics and
a potential larvicide
against the yellow fever mosquito. biotechnology delivered to
Pulegone in peppermint and catnip has been found to be your inbox.
a potent
insecticide.
Carvacrol in oregano and thyme has antibacterial Your Email Address
properties by making the
cell membrane of bacteria permeable, including E. coli.
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Eugenol in cloves, nutmeg, basil and others is used a bait in many
pesticides, data suggests that it can also cause liver damage.

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The list is very long. In 1990, Bruce Ames published a paper entitled “Dietary
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pesticides (99.99 percent all natural)”. In it, he and his coauthors outline that we eat
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02/10/2019 Myth busting: Are synthetic pesticides, used with some GMOs, more dangerous than natural ones? | Genetic Literacy Project
an estimated 1.5 grams of natural pesticides a day, “which is about 10,000 times more”
than the amount of synthetic
We'dpesticide residues
like to show youwe consume. This
notifications amount
for the latest would be
signi cantly higher in vegetarians and vegans. As an example, the authors provide a
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list of 49 di erent pesticides found in cabbage alone. The concentrations of these
pesticides are in parts per thousand or parts per million, whereas the amount of
synthetic pesticides we nd on our food are NOin the parts per billion
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Related article:  Talking Biotech: Toxicologist on awed approach of

IARC's glyphosate evaluation

Despite the vast amount of toxins in our diet, only a handful of these have ever been
tested (note that the paper was written in 1990, but the point still stands). Of all the
699
SHARES chemicals tested for chronic cancer tests in animals, only 5 percent have been

d natural pesticides and half of these were carcinogenic.

a Think about that for a moment. While there’s an uproar about parts per billion
amounts of synthetic pesticide residues on our food, there are more concentrated
k compounds in fruits and veggies actually known to cause cancer. In addition, some
of the more commonly used pesticides in agriculture have mechanisms of action that
y are speci c to the pests their targeting, making them far safer than many natural

v pesticides, which is on reason why they’ve gained popularity in the past half century.

s For example, glyphosate, which is often paired with herbicide resistant GMO crops,
shuts down a biochemical pathway in plants that simply doesn’t exist in mammals.
# In contrast many of the natural toxins found in plants can be harmful to mammals.
Yet we’re far more concerned about glyphosate residues than we are about natural
formaldehyde in pears. Check out the graphic at the end of this article that highlights
this point: we fear anything that’s synthetic because we assume that it’s “bad for
us”, but there’s plenty of stu that’s “natural” that can be harmful at a certain dose.

I’ve read a lot of arguments from anti-GMO groups about how transgenic crops that
have the Bt-toxin will kill us all, because it’s a registered pesticide with the EPA. “Do
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you want to eat something that’s a pesticide?” is what I’ve read time and time again.
But as I’ve noted above there are plenty of “natural chemicals” that are registered
pesticides, but no one seems to be freaking out about basil and News on human
mustard seeds. &
agricultural genetics and
biotechnology
The nal point that I want to highlight is that the cross-breeding delivered to
and “natural”
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hybridizations we’ve been doing for centuries has undoubtedly impacted the levels
of some of these natural pesticides by unknown amounts because no one examines
them. Going back to solanine, in the ’60s a new strain of Your Email
potato Address
known as the
“Lenape” potato was developed through “natural” methods, but was found to be
toxic due to increased levels of solanine: it had ~2-4x theYour Name
amount of solanine found
in other potato varieties and it had to be pulled o the shelves. But no one seems to
be making noise about “unintended consequences” of traditional crossbreeding.
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This should be a nuanced discussion. Just because an agricultural pesticide has a

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benign toxic pro le does not mean that we shouldn’t try to minimize its use when
possible. Just because a transgene forshow
We'd like to a natural pesticide added
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for the a crop has no
impact on mammals does not mean
news that we should not study its impact on the
and updates.
environment. Yet we shouldn’t consider our food to be “unsafe” or shun traditional
farming practices because of the use of synthetic pesticides.
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Remember: it’s all in the dose.

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Layla Katiraee, contributor to the Genetic Literacy Project, holds a PhD in

molecular genetics from the University of Toronto and is a senior scientist in
product development at a genetic biotech company in California. All opinions and
views expressed are her own. Her twitter handle is: @BioChicaGMO

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The GLP featured this article to re ect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.
d The viewpoint is the author’s own. The GLP’s goal is to stimulate constructive
discourse on challenging science issues.
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