Page 31 - Summer2020final

tion as a plausible explanation.” It is apparent toxic combination. The study involved a mechanic who tried to clean a
14
from Table 3, which shows a subset of the data clogged applicator for glyphosate-based herbicide using a bucket of diesel
published in the Swanson paper, that most of fuel as a solvent. He quickly developed a bad cough and started coughing
the diseases and conditions that put a patient at up blood. Rushed to the hospital, he was diagnosed with pneumonitis, an
high risk of a serious outcome in Covid-19 have inflammatory disease of the lungs caused by exposure to toxic substances.
trends over time in the U.S. that match nearly I suspect that the organic molecules in diesel fuel enhance the uptake of
perfectly with the rise in glyphosate usage on glyphosate by the lung cells by acting as a surfactant.
core crops. It may be significant that many of the U.S. Covid-19 hot spots are
9
Together with several collaborators, I have major ports such as Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Boston and New
argued in multiple papers that glyphosate’s York City. An article published in 2017 investigating ship pollution in the
unique, insidious and cumulative mechanism United Kingdom revealed that air pollution from ships is generally more
of toxicity has to do with a proposed ability toxic than that from land vehicles, because they use the lowest grade of
to mistakenly substitute for the coding amino diesel fuel. It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of the pollution in
acid glycine during protein synthesis. 10-13 This UK port towns can come from ships.
15
is plausible because glyphosate is a glycine
molecule—except that there is an additional BIODIESEL FUEL PRODUCTION
attachment (a methyl-phosphonyl group) to The technology to produce fuels derived from biomass has come
the nitrogen atom of glycine, which changes of age in the past decade or so, motivated by the imperative to reduce
the size and chemical and physical properties the consumption of petroleum and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide
of the molecule but does not prevent it from released into the atmosphere. Much recent research has gone into devel-
incorporating itself into a peptide chain. It can oping manufacturing processes that can increase yield and reduce cost
be predicted that certain proteins will be af- in extracting useful fuels from plants, including food crops and forest
fected in a devastating way if glyphosate should debris. 16,17
substitute for particular glycine residues known Different countries have taken different approaches to the problem.
to be very important for their proper function. I The U.S. has been a leader in the manufacture of ethanol for fuel use,
have found that many of the diseases with rising derived mainly from corn. At gas stations across the country, one now
prevalence can be explained through glyphosate routinely finds gasoline that has 10 percent ethanol as an additive. Brazil
substitution in specific proteins known to be has also played a leadering role in ethanol production, deriving its ethanol
defective in association with those diseases. mainly from sugar cane.
A remarkable case study shows dramati- While Europe has been slower to add ethanol to gasoline, with rarely
cally that glyphosate and diesel fuel are a very more than 5 percent added ethanol, biodiesel is a very different story

TABLE 1. Case fatality rates for different sub- TABLE 2. Characteristics of confirmed Covid-19 pa-
populations in a study involving 44,672 confirmed tients in New York City, comparing those who were
cases of Covid-19 in China hospitalized with those who recovered at home

CATEGORY CASE FATALITY RATE NOT
Overall 2.3% CONDITION OVERALL HOSPITALIZED HOSPITALIZED
Critical cases 49.0% Diabetes 14.0% 31.8% 5.4%
Elderly (over 80 years old) 14.8% Obesity 26.8% 39.8% 14.5%
Cardiovascular disease 7.3% CVD 30.1% 44.6% 16.4%
Diabetes 7.3%
Hypertension 6.0%
Cancer 5.6%

Source: Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and important lessons Source: Petrilli CM, Jones SA, Yang J et al. Factors associated with
from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: Sum- hospitalization and critical illness among 4,103 patients with Covid-19
mary of a report of 72,314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease disease in New York City. medRxiv preprint. doi: https://doi.org/10.11
Control and Prevention. JAMA 2020;323(13):1239-42. 01/2020.04.08.20057794.

SUMMER 2020 Wise Traditions 29