Round up and the effects on human life

Round up is a weed killer that is seen to have some negative health effects on the human body from one ingredient. According to Environmental Health News glyphosate, which is Roundups active ingredient, is the most widely used herbicide in the United States. Research suspects that Roundup might cause pregnancy problems by interfering with hormone production, possibly leading to abnormal fetal development, low birth weights or miscarriages. It is scary that this can happen because the chemicals can get on to the food we eat and it can get directly inside our bodies. Monsanto, Roundup's manufacturer, contends that the methods used in the study do not reflect realistic conditions and that their production, which has been sold for decades, is safe when used as directed. I think that this is something that is said so the company will not be pursued as badly by the media.  The EPA classifies glyphosate as a Group E chemical, which means that there is strong evidence that it does not cause cancer in humans. However in a French study researchers tested four different Roundup formulations all with glyphosate at concentrations below the recommend lawn and agricultural dose and tested them on animal cells and they damaged all the cells. In the article from National Pesticide Information Center and they claim that exposure to these glyphosate can give you cancer and reproductive problems. They also state that children are at higher risk than adults because they are more susceptible to these chemicals. These chemicals can bind tightly to soil and they can stay there for 6 months depending on the climate and the type of soil it is in.  It can also effect the plants and animals that can be in the water or environment that it gets into. I believe that this product should be looked at more closely and corporations should be more responsible for what they do to the environment.

What are the potential health effects from exposure to nuclear power plant leaks into the environment for humans, animals, plants.

Two of the most notorious nuclear power plant leaks are Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Fukishima (Japan).
Both of them having harm to every kind of life including humans, animals and plants alike. According to livescience.com radio active material decays and does harm to the human body in two ways by either directly killing the cells or causing mutations in the cells DNA. If those mutations are not repaired then they can turn cancerous. Radioactive iodine was found in the environment and it can be absorbed by the thyroid gland creating thyroid cancer. However this radioactive iodine does not stay in the environment very long because of its short half life. Iodine stays in the environment for about two months after the incident. Children can get sick from eating the Iodine radiated food because they have smaller thyroid glans so it would be a larger concentrate on them. Radiation sickness is how much radiation is absorbed in the body and the symptoms of it are the bleeding and shedding of the gastrointestinal tract. This is a picture of a two headed mutated turtle from Fukishima.

A different post from livescience.com tells us that almost 30 years after the chernobyl incident the animal population has an interesting change. Moose, roe deer, red deer and wild boar are still living the area and even more amazing is that the wolf population has increased seven times the population in the nearby reserves. This study did not look at the reproductive success of the animal species though. There have been animals that have been affected by the radiation like the local butterfly population by turning the grass blue butterflies pale in color. The plant life has been normal but the plants now have radiation in them from the soil being contaminated with radiation. There are also dogs who still live in the dead zone.