New Investigation Finds Chinese Medicinal Herbs Tainted with Illegal Pesticides

[kad budu gorjeli gradovi]

 

Chinese herbs are big business. Marketed and sold as ‘natural’ remedies for a vast spectrum of ailments, this new investigation may make you think twice before using them. Used to prevent and treat everything from minor infections to cancer, worldwide sales of natural herb remedies total in the tens of billions.

With the so-called, “Green Revolution” implemented after World War II we can see the use of pesticides and other chemical farming inputs skyrocket in the last 5 decades. The effects of dumping billions of tons of chemicals worldwide are being realized by all of humankind. Chinese herbal medicines are not immune to the growing use of pesticides. A new investigation carried out by Greenpeace East Asia illustrates the severity of the situation. These once beneficial remedies may be doing more harm now than good.

The report summarizes the findings of tests of 65 different herbal products taken from 9 different chain stores in 9 different countries across China. The investigation took place between August 2012 and April 2013. Their findings were discouraging, to say the least.

Greenpeace found:

• The 65 samples tested contained 51 different kinds of pesticide residues.
• 48 out of 65 samples tested positive for pesticide residues.
• Six residues were from pesticides that have been banned in China (phorate, carbofuran, fipronil, methamidophos, aldicarb and ethoprophos). These were found in 26 samples. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified some of these pesticides as extremely or highly hazardous.
• On the San Qi Flower, thiophanate-methyl residue was 500 times over the European maximum residue limit (MRL). On the honeysuckle, the same residue was 100 times over the limit.
ʉۢ 32 of the 65 samples tested contained traces of 3 or more different pesticides. The Sanqi flower contained up to 39 different kinds of pesticides, chrysanthemum up to 35, wolfberry up to 25.
Chemically tainted food is beginning to become the norm instead of the exception. However with the growth of industrialized mono-cultures, so goes the growth of the sustainable food resistance. Farmers markets and backyard gardens are on the comeback as this will be the most effective way to combat the damage done by the Checmical Agri-giants; they are nothing without your money.


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