Wine and Herbicides

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Here we go again.  

 The folks over at Moms Across America have been posting lots of information about herbicides showing up in places they don't belong.  The most recent is their alleged detection in wine.  The claim levels around 1ppb, which is realistically detectable, but they make many mistakes in the assay.

 1. No negative controls. 
2. No method shown for extraction/detection
3. No technical replication (one sample is all that is read)
4. And many more!


In comparison to actual carcinogens, not too shabby!
I don't doubt these numbers could be true in reality, but I don't think these are worth considering.  They are not peer reviewed.  The come from a website where MAM has fabricated data in the past, like in the Stunning Corn Comparison. 

 Plus, their organic farm shows equivalent detection, which means they are either using glyphosate or that the detection is providing some noise at the baseline, like from cross-reactvity.  Again, no negative control is shown. 

 Plus 1ppb of a safe compound that at worst is thought of as a "probable carcinogen" based on a data point or two among thousands, is nothing to worry about. 

 Wine contains 130,000,000 parts per billion (13%) a proven carcinogen-- ethanol!  

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