My Cancer: where did it come from? How about yours?

Updated Oct. 7, 2020

When I raised this question with my personal physician (indirectly, with a leading question: "Have you heard about the lawsuits Monsanto has lost from plaintiffs claiming their Roundup gave them what I've got?) he pointed out that people were getting Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma decades before Roundup (with its chief component, Glyphosate), was invented.

I have had two experienced oncologists give me the same diagnosis, N-HL, Stage 4B, and both told me "We can cure you." (with chemotherapy, without radiation.) A good and hopeful sign. They've been curing patients with what I've got for years, and my PET scan came back negative for any solid masses except in my liver (which they had already determined with a needle biopsy, pieces sent to 3 labs including the Mayo Clinic). I feel I am in good hands, but the question remains: if Roundup/Glyphosate caused MY cancer, and the juries made a fair judgment that Roundup caused the cancer of the plaintiffs in 12 cases (so far), at least one of whom has no chance of recovery, is it reasonable to suspect that my personal exposure over the years caused MY NHL?

Hell, yes. Key documentation from the trials from Monsanto's own files (obtained through legal discovery) convinced the juries that Monsanto knew the dangers decades ago, and chose to put profits above human life using any means possible to "prove" that "Roundup was safe and does not cause cancer in humans," despite conducting no data collection or analysis on humans.

Monsanto's documents showed not only that the 80 studies by "independent labs" Monsanto cites as proof of Roundup's safety were all sponsored by Monsanto, and that the conclusions of the reports were all ghostwritten by Monsanto employees, not by the labs.

A chief claim of Monsanto is that the EPA and FDA have approved (and recently renewed their approval) of continuing Roundup use, agreeing with Monsanto that Roundup poses no danger of cancer to humans. These are officials appointed in the Trump administration, some of whom actually worked for Monsanto before they accepted their posts, or were former lobbyists for the chemical industry.

Roundup is the best-selling herbicide ever, in use now for 50 years, and tests detect its presence everywhere they look—in our waterways, groundwater, tap water, food, soil and air. EPA standards of safe levels are just under these current environmental levels. See? Safe. However, the EU has set their maximum safe levels seven to ten times lower than the EPA's. Germany and Sri Lanka (among other countries) have determined that there is no safe level and have banned it entirely, since even trace amounts have effects on the endocrine systems and fetal development of test animals, and hormone levels as well. Does anyone remember Thalidomide, which was declared safe for pregnant women until babies were born without arms and legs? See https://www.momsacrossamerica.com which has found labs that will test for glyphosate (after initially finding no doctors who would prescribe, or labs which would do, such tests). They had the labs test for Roundup in mother's milk. ALL tests were positive. (In fairness, my sister pointed out that anything a mother ingests will show up in her milk.)

My personal exposure to Roundup was occasional use on my own property 10 and 20 years ago, so traces of that exposure is likely undetectable. however, many cancers take that long to develop. A $99 urine test is available, but it only detects exposure for the previous 6 days. I report my own test results below. Why did I bother being tested? I'm interested to see what my current, ongoing exposure is from my local environment. The last six days are likely representative of any 6-day period in the last 5 years, and might also be a good measure also of the exposure of my neighbors, especially the ones who are buying Roundup and spreading it on their lawns (along with weed 'n feed bags of seed/fertilizer/herbicides, many containing another chemical, 2/4-D, half of the "Agent Orange" we used to deny cover and food to "the enemy" in Vietnam (with whom we now trade) which notoriously caused birth defects.

If you get my diagnosis, and wish to join a mass-tort suit against Monsanto (no cost to you unless they win), visit https://www.weedkillercrisis.com and click on the Chat pop-up or look for a link. This site also contains a wealth of related information. UPDATE: many other websites will now put you on a list of potential plaintiffs in a mass-tort suit; get on one list, and you needn't get on any other. They (and you) will all share in the glory (and profit) from any legal victory, and getting on more than one list is counterproductive.

Do you wish, as I do, to avoid any exposure to Roundup (and like chemicals) in your personal environment? Foods labeled "GMO Free" may still contain roundup residue, because they may have undergone accelerated drying before harvest (crops that get ground up before processing into bread, cereal, animal feed, etc. by the time-saving method of being killed by Roundup at harvest time to accelerate the natural drying process. Time is money, you know. Instead, buy only ORGANIC products, which must be grown (and sold) without herbicides or pesticides. The food you eat and the water you drink every day are the chief sources of your current environmental exposure to Roundup and its metabolites, mostly "AMPA."

If you must buy bottled water, avoid the many, many brands controlled by Nestle, the Swiss multinational company whose CEO insists that people do not, and should not, have access to free water, while Nestle pays municipalities little or nothing to pump and bottle American groundwater (even in drought areas) so they can profit at our great expense. My personal choice for drinking water, above all others I've researched, is tap water filtered at home by technology from Clearly Filtered (clearlyfiltered.com). They have a batch system which filters out dozens of contaminants in 13 categories, including glyphosate and AMPA. It's about $75 for the batch pitcher and one filter, which needs periodic replacement. You can subscribe to automatic replacements for about $50 each. If this sounds expensive, think what it may cost you if you succumb (like me) to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. It's good to know you're not putting your life at risk by what you're eating and drinking. (By the way, distilled water is a poor choice; glyphosate and AMPA can vaporize and re-condense into the water, and distillation removes minerals which are essential to good health.)

Regarding my test results: the first one (at the beginning of my treatments) put my Glyphosate/AMPA levels in the top 3/4 of all their tests, remarkable for someone with no direct exposure to Roundup for over 20 years. The second test, 6 months later, put me well below their average results, and below the typical level for European test subjects (where Roundup is widely banned). My chemo treatments had no influence on these results; the only thing that changed between the two tests was strict adherence to eating only certified-organic food and drinking only Clearly Filtered water (including in coffee). I will continue this regimen indefinitely (good for me, and cheaper than cancer).

UPDATE: my chemotherapy (six sessions, one every three weeks) was concluded on June 17. My second PET scan, a month later, showed nothing but the slowly-healing liver damage, as expected. Further occasional testing is scheduled. In five years, it's expected that I can be officially pronounced "cured."

What conclusions might be drawn from my experience? Because my exposure was typical of most Americans, we all may be on the cusp of a new and as-yet-unrecognized health crisis of unprecedented proportions. Or, perhaps I'm completely mistaken, and Monsanto (now owned by Bayer, who got so big partly by providing chemical weapons to Hitler) is telling the truth, and nothing but the truth, when they swear that "Roundup is safe, and does not cause cancer." And the FDA which agrees with them, has not become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bayer...and perhaps the Easter Bunny will put a winning lottery ticket under your pillow.