A new study from Texas A&M University and published in the Journal of Toxicology suggests that oral nicotine may actually prevent the brain from aging, and thus developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
A recent investigation by the environmental organization Greenpeace uncovered unpublished field trials by pesticide manufacturers which show that their products cause serious harm to honeybees at high levels. Senior scientists are now calling for the companies to stop hiding the results of their tests. [1]
The agritech world got a lot bigger this week when German chemical giant Bayer inked an agreement to acquire Monsanto for $66 billion in cash. The 2 companies had been bickering for months, and this was the 3rd refurbished offer. In the end, Bayer agreed to pay $128 per share, up from the company’s previous offer of $127.50. [1]
The agreement makes it the largest all-cash deal on record.
Markus Manns of Union Investment, one of Bayer’s top 12 investors, said:
Glyphosate, a controversial ingredient found in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, is showing up in streams, rivers, and other aquatic systems around the world due to runoff. Unfortunately, this may be damaging a type of green macroalgae that is common in streams, a new Brazilian study published in the journal Phycologia shows. [1]
McDonald’s has been in the news a lot this month, thanks to big changes the fast-food company is making to several of its menu offerings.
The company began making these changes more than a year ago, when it replaced margarine with real butter in its Egg McMuffins, and added kale and spinach to the iceberg lettuce in its salads. (Those kale salads wound up being higher in calories than McDonald’s famous Big Macs, though.) [1]
Soybean fields in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee are plagued by “superweeds” that have become resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in biotech company’s Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide. Farmers are now dousing the plants with illegal chemicals to try and kill the rogue weeds.
Public pools ready to open across the U.S. Memorial Day weekend signifies the unofficial start of summer, and kids and adults alike can’t wait to lounge in the sun and take a dip to cool off.
Researchers at Consumer Reports have a warning for us, though: nearly half of sunscreen products in the U.S. fail to live up to the SPF claim on their bottles.
Four Nebraska farmers are now suing the agricultural giant Monsanto because they believe the herbicide Roundup has caused them to develop cancer. The farmers feel that Monsanto did not give them accurate information about the safety of Roundup and that their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is directly linked to daily exposure to the chemicals in the herbicide.
On Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly approved new chemical safety rules intended to overhaul a law created 40 years ago governing toxic chemicals. The measure will for the first time subject some 64,000 chemicals to regulation.
The bill, which was passed 403 to 12, is expected to be passed by the Senate as soon as this week, and signed into law by President Obama.
