– Red alert for humanity: Chemical damage can be inherited by offspring through unlimited generations (Natural News, May 24, 2012):
Groundbreaking new science reveals that the harmful effects of exposure to synthetic chemicals are passed from generation to generation via “epigenetics,” causing measurable damage to future generations even if those offspring are never exposed to the original chemical. The phenomenon of “Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance” (ETI) has now been demonstrated in live animals, and if the implications of this research are fully understood, it would force human civilization to radically rethink its widespread use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture, medicine, food, construction materials, personal care products and elsewhere.
The research, led by Dr. David Crews (and including colleagues Michael Skinner, Ross Gillette and others), is entitled, “Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses” and is published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract).
The study, which was funded by a sub-group of the National Institutes of Health (http://NIEHS.NIH.gov), found that exposure to a common fungicide caused neurological and behavioral changes that were passed on to future generations of offspring, even when those offspring had no exposure to the original fungicide. Furthermore, the mechanism of “transgenerational inheritance” was epigenetic, meaning it was “above the genes.” It was not coded into the DNA of sperm and egg, in other words. Instead, the expression of the DNA was altered and inherited through some mechanism other than DNA.
As the abstract of the study sums it up:
“We find that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint stress.” (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract)
Watch the video interview with Dr. David Crews
Because of the red alert importance of this breaking science news, we have completed an interview with Dr. David Crews today, and you can watch it at:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=81C330EC0311060BEB98A7C005C57B3AWhy chemicals threaten the future of the human species
This groundbreaking research offers a sobering revelation about the age of industrial chemicals through which we are all now living. This “age of chemicals” ramped up roughly around World War II (late 1930’s).
The conventional view of chemicals — the view advocated by the chemical industry, the cancer industry, the FDA, the EPA, etc. — is that the damaging effects of chemical exposure are NOT passed on to future generations (unless, of course, exposure happens during pregnancy). Chemicals are relatively safe, the regulators say, because the next generation is always born healthy and genetically intact.
But what this research by Dr. David Crews reveals is that chemical exposure accumulates and is inherited by offspring which then pass on the damaging effects of that exposure to their own offspring. This transgenerational “epigenetic” effect appears to go on indefinitely, forever altering the expression of the genetic code.
“I don’t see a diminution. It’s the nature of this kind of imprint. It will not disappear,” he told NaturalNews. “We are becoming a different species,” Dr. Crews told me on a separate phone call, meaning that modern humans, having been exposed to a heavy burden of synthetic chemicals for roughly 3-4 generations, now express their genetic code in a way that strongly diverges from the expression of someone living in, say, the 1920’s.
We are, in essence, ChemHumans, forever imprinted with the toxic burden of all the tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals we have foolishly unleashed onto our world, our environment and our food supply.
Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance may help explain the rise in autism, obesity and infertility
Dr. Crews explained to me that the inherited, cumulative effects of chemical exposure may be a key element behind the causes of today’s most worrisome disease epidemics: Autism, obesity, infertility and perhaps even cancer.
Autism has exploded in the last century, rising sharply from an estimated 1 in 25,000 children (http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Epidemic%20of%20autism.asp) to an astonishing 1 in 88 children, according to the CDC. (http://www.cdc.gov/Features/CountingAutism/)
If this trend continues, we may be looking at a near future where every other child is autistic, and at that point questions about the long-term viability of the entire human race start to become unavoidable. Dr. Crews explains that although we cannot rid our world of toxic chemical pollution, we must at least be honest and accurate about the near-term and long-term damage caused by those chemicals so that we can take immediate steps to limit exposure.
“We have permanently contaminated our world, and we are never going to be able to clean up our world. We have to recognize this fact. We have poisoned the environment. There is no turning back, but that doesn’t mean we have to continue poisoning the environment,” he says.
Dr. Crews believes that part of the answer rests in the realm of “green chemistry” where toxic synthetic chemicals used in agriculture are replaced with far less harmful chemicals that don’t trigger transgenerational (inherited) damage in humans or animals.
Watch my full interview with Dr. Crews at:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=81C330EC0311060BEB98A7C005C57B3AUrgent call to avoid all chemicals NOW
Anyone who fully grasps the implications of this research must immediately take urgent steps to radically and permanently reduce their exposure to synthetic chemicals.
“This recent ruling by the FDA not to ban BPA in the United States is, in my opinion, a disaster,” says Dr Crews. “It is a fundamental mistake by a regulatory agency.”
The most common sources of chemical exposure today include (this is my own list, not David Crews’):
• Foods – pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, food packaging
• Insect repellants such as DEET
• Personal care products (lotions, hand sanitizers, cosmetics)
• Plasticizers such as Bisphenol-A (BPA)
• Dioxins
• Hydrocarbons (gasoline, jet fuel)
• Medicines and pharmaceuticals
• Chemicals used in home construction materials (glues, dyes, formaldehyde, etc.)
• Chemical adjuvants in vaccinesHealth Ranger analysis: The genopocalypse approaches
The realization that exposure to such chemicals can cause damage three, five or even ten generations down the line should be a red alert wake-up call for everyone interested in keeping their genes represented in the human gene pool. Chemical exposure causes not just changes in neurology and behavior, but even changes in fertility. As chemical exposure accumulates generation after generation, fertility rates plummet.
I have coined the coming collapse of the human gene pool the “genopocalypse.” This term has not yet caught on across the ‘net, as many people still don’t realize what has already begun to unfold. We have already compromised our future as a species right now, even if BPA were banned tomorrow. The heavy chemical burden already unleashed on our world (and our population) will be felt for countless generations to come. And it may very well threaten the survival of not just our civilization, but our entire species.
That’s my assessment of the situation, not Dr. Crews. I’m looking at the far darker long-term implications of his research because I remain concerned about the fact that humanity is killing itself through chemicals, nuclear power, GMOs and other serious threats to our survival.
I’ve even posted an S.O.S. to the world about this very topic:
http://sos.naturalnews.comS.O.S. means “Stop Out-of-Control Science,” and it means that before we kill ourselves (and our planet) with runaway science conducted for the benefit of corporate interests, we must return to the precautionary principle and conduct science with a sense of caution rather than a drive for profit.
Do not misinterpret this as meaning in any way that I am against science. Real science is, indeed, crucial to the advancement of knowledge in our universe. The quest for scientific understanding is a journey out of the darkness of superstition and into the light of awareness. And yet too much of today’s so-called “science” has been conducted with no regard for the safety of the human race, the planet’s ecosystems or the integrity of reproductive systems in both plants and animals. Genetically Modified Organisms, for example, are a form of runaway genetic pollution that have entirely unknown consequences for the future of food crops on our planet.
GMOs, by any rational standard, are a dangerous experiment that should only be conducted in tightly controlled (indoor, clean-room) environments, not planted in open fields where their seeds are blown away by the wind. By the same token, the mass chemical inundation of our world today is another disturbing science experiment through which we are currently living. What will be the long-term impact of all these chemicals used in foods, medicines, personal care products and industrial processes? Nobody knows, and that’s exactly what should scare us the most.
It is a crap shoot. A roll of the dice. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: the future of human life on our planet may be either won or lost depending on the outcome. But instead of playing it safe, the chemical industry (and the FDA, EPA, etc.) have all jumped in bed with the American Chemistry Council, an organization whose sole purpose is to convince regulators, politicians and consumers that there’s no such thing as a bad chemical! They’re all good for you, and in fact the more you’re exposed to, the better your life! (Better living through chemistry, remember?)
The research of Dr. Crews and colleagues gives us a stern warning that stands in great contrast to the persistent denials of the chemistry industry. Chemical exposure damages your offspring, and it then goes on to damage their offspring, generation after generation, through an unknown number of generations.
The pesticide-sprayed strawberries you eat today, in other words, may damage your great great great grandchildren. And that’s if your offspring are even fertile in the first place, because at some point infertility may lead to a population collapse from which humans may be hard-pressed to recover.
Have we already destroyed ourselves?
The questions we would be wise to consider today include: How will life on Earth 500 years from now be impacted by our decisions today? Cities today continue to dump fluoride into public water supplies. Modern dentistry continues to absurdly insist on putting mercury fillings into the mouths of children. GMO seed companies are openly conspiring with the USDA to unleash yet more genetic pollution across our planet, even working to de-regulate “Agent Orange Corn” — a variety of GM corn that would be immune to 2,4-D, a chemical that’s 50 percent of the recipe for the plant-killing chemical weapon known as Agent Orange.
Make no mistake: We are poisoning ourselves at a level never before witnessed in human history. It is all being done for profit, to appease powerful corporations that have undue influence in government. Regulators, meanwhile, have sold out the People and betrayed us all in order to keep their corporate masters filthy rich. While corporate shareholders revel in their quarterly profits, they are precisely the same people whose children are being poisoned by the very companies fattening their bank accounts!
We are stuck in a cycle of self destruction from which the human race may not escape. And that’s if we don’t kill ourselves with nuclear accidents first (Fukushima, anyone?)
Sources for this article include:
http://www.biosci.utexas.edu/ib/profiles.aspx?id=1506
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract
http://www.utexas.edu/research/crewslab/