NEW Hair test checks for pesticide exposure over long term

The Detox Project has a new hair test that can test for pesticide exposure over the long term.

Hair testing shows your exposure to pesticides over a period of 90-120 days, whereas urine only shows your exposure for approximately 14-21 days and blood testing shows your exposure for 2-3 days.

Hair is easy to collect, easy to ship, and easy to store. Their kit is $199. One kit tests for household pesticides, another kit tests for agricultural pesticides, and there are more kits. The lab work is done by Kudzu Science.


Source
Detox Page.

Certification for glyphosate free foods

The Detox Project now has certification for glyphosate-free food products sold to consumers, and also ingredients used in products.

Why is this important? 

1. One German study found glyphosate and metabolites in urine of all people tested. 
2. High levels of glyphosate found in major American food brands. 
3. Glyphosate is thought to disrupt gut bacteria, which are important for overall good health.
4. Most corn, soybeans, and wheat crops in the US are sprayed with glyphosate to kill it all at once for harvest a few days later. More food found with glyphosate in it.  
5. Glyphosate is absorbed into every cell of the plant, it cannot be washed off.

Food Democracy Now also has a study testing food for glyphosate.  Just go to the Glyphosate tag in this blog for more articles on the dangers of Roundup.

Detox Project food testing FAQ here.

Pesticide found in Iowa drinking water.

From the study:

Periodic tap water grab samples were collected at the University of Iowa over 7 weeks in 2016 (May − July) after maize/soy planting. Clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam were ubiquitously detected in finished water samples at concentrations ranging from 0.24 to 57.3 ng/L. Samples collected along the University of Iowa treatment train indicate no apparent removal of clothianidin or imidacloprid, with modest thiamethoxam removal (∼50%).

NOTE: This is water collected from peoples' taps, not from the water plant exit pipe like is usually done.

Source
Ecowatch.
Study from Environmental Science and Technology Letters.

GMOFreeUSA testing foods for glyphosate

GMOFreeUSA is testing foods in the US for GMO content along with glyphosate. This program is called Operation Label GMO. In the future they also want to test 2,4-D, dicamba, atrazine, and neonicotinoid insecticides. A combination of these toxic chemicals is likely responsible for lots of bee deaths around the US. The chemicals overwhelm their immune system, and they can get fungal or mite infections, and die. These infections then spread to the rest of the hive and can wipe out most of the hive. Commercial bee keepers, who help pollinate many of the US crops, are very concerned.

Sunchips and Gerber Lil Crunchies have already been found to contain pesticides by GMO Free USA. So have Cheerios, Doritos, Goldfish crackers, Oreos, and Ritz crackers (source).

Related articles
Pollinators being killed by pesticides
Wikipedia Colony Collapse Disorder. 
85% of tested foods contain pesticides.
How to test your food and water for pesticides.
60% of bread tested in the UK contains pesticides. 

NN publishes 239 tests of US municipal water systems

239 samples of municipal water were taken across the US. 6.7% have toxic levels of heavy metals. 2.5% exceed EPA limits. (I don't know why they think high copper levels is a problem but it is counted as a problem.)

It's too bad they didn't check for the top 10 pesticides in use.

Get the lab test spreadsheet here.

How to test your food and water for pesticides

Go to this site: http://www.abraxiskits.com/products/pesticides/

They have a kit for many different pesticides. You can test for the CRY proteins (the BT protein that is produced by the plant to kill insects), 2,4-D, DDT, glyphosate, and more. Some kits have test strips.

Links to how to test for pesticides.
http://www.abraxiskits.com/publications/#pesticides

The Detox Project will be testing for glyphosate

The program was so popular that they have had to stop testing until they get a bigger lab!

The Detox Project, partnered with some NGOs, have been looking for 3 years to find the best way to test for glyphosate in foods and urine. Here are some bullet points about why and how to test for glyphosphate:

1. Agencies should be testing for glyphosate in food.
2. ELISA testing is not reliable. Don't use it. 
3. Minimum limits of detection of should be 0.5 parts per billion (PPB) or lower for urine and water and under 20 PPB for food samples.
4. Validated or Verified LC/MS/MS (Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) testing methods are the most responsible methods.
5. Some LC/MS/MS methods used by the food industry are inaccurate.

Source
Detox Project. A description of good testing practices.
Detox Project on getting the testing

FDA to start testing food for Roundup

• The FDA only started doing this after it was rebuked by the US Government Accountability Office for failing to publicize the danger. The FDA has also been sued for fraud. GAO found multiple problems in the FDA’s pesticide residue testing program.
• Other groups have done their own testing and found glyphosate in breast milk, honey, cereal, wheat flour, infant formula, and more.
• Multiple sufferers of gluten intolerance and Celiac disease report they cannot eat wheat in the US, but can do so in Europe. So the problem may not be the gluten itself, but the chemicals or pesticides in the flour.
• The USDA will start testing corn and soybeans. (Which happen to be the worst GMOs on the market.)

Source

1. Gillam, Cary. Civileats.com. Feb 17, 2016.  Article.
2. USDA Pesticide Data Program. Considered the authority on pesticides in foods. Page here.