Where do we stand, and what shall we do? In this follow-up to my interview with Martin Wagner in the previous episode, I discuss some recent reviews on microplastic pollution and environmental risks. I also provide some personal assessment on possible steps forward. First and foremost, at least that’s how I’d argue, need to systematically…
In this episode I critique a recent video on glyphosate that was produced for the Austrian television. I find the clip heavily biased and explain why. Afterwards I talk a bit about some details in a new report that summarizes the toxicological profile of glyphosate.
I recently came across an article published by Dan Gardner, an environmental consultant for Tactix in Ottawa, with the provocative title “There are harmful chemicals all around us. And this is fine“. Gardner’s basic line of reasoning is that “the dose makes the poison“, doses equal a “grain of sand in a football field” and,…
A study on glyphosate residues in Californian wines caught my eye because Kevin Folta from the University of Florida (@kevinfolta on twitter) tweeted about it. He provided my with a link to the study that seems to have published by “Moms across America” in 2016. They also provide some details of the study in an…
We have just published a rebuttal to a recent debate article on “the cocktail effect” that Martin Larsson (toxicologist from Bayer Crop Sciences in Denmark) published in Svenska Dagblad a couple of days back. In case you are also struggling with SvD’s anti-adblocking mechanism and/or with them pressurizing you to make you pay for viewing…
In the wake of the recent glyphosate discussion, it became clear that there are some misconceptions on what “Maximum Residue Levels” (MRLs) for pesticides actually are, and whether or not they have any toxicological basis (see comments to this post). So, here’s a brief overview. Europe In Europe, the setting of MRLs is regulated by…
Michael Clark and David Tilman recently compared organic and conventional agriculture (Clark & Tilman, 2017). The analysis was taken up and republished by “Our World in Data” in a post titled “Is organic really better for the environment than conventional agriculture?” However, both, the paper and the blog-post, miss a major point, perhaps the major…
The discussion on Glyphosate & RoundUp (or other Glyphosate containing pesticide products) on Twitter continues. A quite interesting one, actually. I would like to take the opportunity to reply to a few comments made. I’m aware that it is a bit unfair to use the space provided by a blog to answer comments and critique…
I have recently complained about the use of LD50 values (the amount of a compound that kills half the exposed organisms after a short exposure) to compare and rank the toxicity of glyphosate. Maybe it’s pure coincidence, or maybe I just wanted to avoid some of the manuscripts waiting for me. But I came across…
For some reason, I recently managed to get into a discussion on glyphosate (the active ingredient of Roundup and other herbicidal products) on twitter. 140 characters might be sufficient for exchanging quick comments (and, obviously, for discussing US politics). But they are certainly not sufficient for exchanging any real arguments. So, here’s the story and…