Highly sensitive bioanalytical analysis demonstrates AGT-50™ is free of over 500 pesticides
MK Williams, Ph.D. March 2022
Fulvic Agricultural Products Free of Man-Made Chemicals
Public awareness for better health and diet has led to the increased demand for chemical-free organically grown agricultural products. Organically grown foods, when compared to foods grown in the presence of chemicals, are far richer in vitamins, minerals, and trace elements that help nurture and maintain a healthy body and help combat environmental stressors that we are exposed to during every-day life.
The use of chemicals and pesticides in agriculture leads to a chemical buildup of toxins in our food supply.
The source material in AgTonik’s agricultural products is rich in natural minerals, organic acids, trace elements, and fulvic acid providing a rich substrate for enhanced plant growth, disease resistance, vigor, and yield. This natural material is harvested from our mine located in the United States in a rural setting far from any industry or farming operation. The likelihood of any man-made pesticides or chemicals infiltrating this pristine site are exceedingly small.
With the recent advancement of bioanalytical tools, testing methods for such compounds have become increasingly comprehensive and sensitive. AgTonik™ is proud to announce our most extensive test results to date, which establish that our fulvic-based agricultural products are free of over 500 pesticides, some of which are known carcinogens.
The release of man-made chemicals into the environment has both known and yet-unknown serious negative consequences on our health [1-3]. For instance, world production and subsequent environmental release of the agricultural chemical glyphosate alone is astounding. Approximately 8.6 billion kg of glyphosate have been applied globally since 1974 [4]; 1.6 billion kg of which has been applied in the US alone, with two-thirds of this amount having been applied in just the past 10 years.
Glyphosate has been reported to increase the risk of cancer, endocrine-disruption, celiac disease, autism, effect on erythrocytes, leaky-gut syndrome, etc. [5-10] The reclassification of glyphosate in 2015 as ‘probably carcinogenic’ under Group 2A by the International Agency for Research on Cancer has been broadly circulated by anti-chemical and environmental advocacy groups campaigning for the restricted use or ban of glyphosate. Glyphosate readily accumulates in our food sources leading to the steady accumulation of these man-made-chemicals in our bodies.
At AgTonik we take purity of our agricultural products seriously to assure – by third-party FDA accredited independent laboratories – that they are 100% organic and free from chemicals, herbicides, and pesticides.
Bioanalytical Technique Detects particles smaller than a grain of salt!
As part of our ongoing commitment towards organic origins and maintaining pesticide and chemical free products we commissioned a state-of-the art laboratory that specializes in food and agricultural chemistry (www.eurofinsus.com/food) to screen our agricultural products for the presence of over 500 known chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides including glyphosate*.
The bioanalytical technique LC/MS-MSa screened for the presence of more than 500 known pesticides, including the herbicide glyphosate, in our agricultural products. The assay has the capability to detect individual chemical pesticides at or above 10 nanograms per kilogram of our AGT-50™ product line, which is an extraordinarily small number. To give you a better idea how small this number is, the weight of a grain of salt is approximately 58,500 nanograms.
This highly sensitive bioanalytical technique did not detect any source, not even trace amounts, of pesticides or glyphosate including its chemical breakdown product AMPA (also known as a detrimental hormone-disruptor known to cause cancer) in our AGT-50™ agricultural fulvic products.
This study underscores our commitment to our customers. Please visit www.AgTonik.com for further scientific support of our products including our commitment to “organic origins” providing naturally chemical-free product offerings.
*Testing was done under Mineral Logic, LLC, parent company of AgTonik.
References
Dich, J., et al., Pesticides and cancer. Cancer Causes Control, 1997. 8(3): p. 420-43 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9498903.
Mostafalou, S. and M. Abdollahi, Pesticides: an update of human exposure and toxicity. Arch Toxicol, 2017. 91(2): p. 549-599 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27722929.
Nasterlack, M., Pesticides and childhood cancer: an update. Int J Hyg Environ Health, 2007. 210(5): p. 645-57 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17434797.
Benbrook, C.M., Trends in glyphosate herbicide use in the United States and globally. Environ Sci Eur, 2016. 28(1): p. 3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27752438.
BCPP. Glyphosate-based Herbicides. 2022 [cited 2022 March 7, 2022]; Available from: https://www.bcpp.org/resource/glyphosate-based-herbicides/.
Franke, A.A., et al., Pilot study on the urinary excretion of the glyphosate metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid and breast cancer risk: The Multiethnic Cohort study. Environ Pollut, 2021. 277: p. 116848 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33714786.
Gillezeau, C., et al., The evidence of human exposure to glyphosate: a review. Environ Health, 2019. 18(1): p. 2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30612564.
Parvez, S., et al., Glyphosate exposure in pregnancy and shortened gestational length: a prospective Indiana birth cohort study. Environ Health, 2018. 17(1): p. 23 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29519238.
Thongprakaisang, S., et al., Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors. Food Chem Toxicol, 2013. 59: p. 129-36 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23756170.
Zanardi, M.V., et al., Glyphosate-based herbicide induces hyperplastic ducts in the mammary gland of aging Wistar rats. Mol Cell Endocrinol, 2020. 501: p. 110658 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31756423.