In response to a comment by Kent Wagoner, I checked
around on the web and I also contacted Janie Shelton, lead author on Shelton et
al. 2014. Here’s what I learned:
“Organophosphate” can be defined in more than one
way. On some definitions glyphosate can
be included among organophosphates, but not by the toxicological definition
because it has a different mode of action from other organophosphates—while it
is an organophosphorous compound, it’s not an organophosphate ester but a
phosphanoglycine, and therefore does not inhibit cholinesterase. That means it does not have the same kind of
neurotoxic effect as organophosphate insecticides do.
But the really important thing I found out was
this. Because it works on a mechanism
different from that of most insecticides, it
was not included in the study! This
doesn’t mean glyphosate is off the hook, far from it—as I suggested in my
answer to Kent’s comment, there’s more than one way in which autism might be
induced, and Dr. Shelton herself wrote me that “due to the widespread use of
glyphosate I encourage research on the impacts of early life exposure”. Rather than any neurotoxic effect, it seems
likely that glyphosate might adversely impact gastrointestinal fauna, and for a
likely connection between that and autism see Adams, J.B., Johansen, L.J.,
Powell, L.D., Quig, D. and Rubin, R.A. (2011) Gastrointestinal Flora and
Gastrointestinal Status in Children with Autism―Comparisons to Typical Children
and Correlation with Autism Severity. BMC Gastroenterology, 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-230X-11-22. Keep watching this blog, I’ll get back to
this.
On an unrelated matter, my banning from GLP
continues to rebound against the banners.
More and more readers who want answers to some of the issues I’ve raised
are coming to this site. Thanks,
GLP. I appreciate your service. And in response to one GLP reader who
wondered whether my blocking might be “a technical issue”, maybe you should
consider explaining the real reason to your readers.
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