Monday, February 23, 2015

Update on Autism + GLP ban



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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