Refined Canola oil

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Natural News recently made the claim that common cooking oils such as Canola oil and Soybean oil are used as key active ingredients in pesticide products.

Natural News singles out a product made with *6% Canola called year round pesticide oil The product label warns: “Hazards to humans and domestic animals. CAUTION: Avoid contact with skin or clothing.”

If you make contact with the product you are directed to take off all your contaminated clothing, take a ****0 minute shower to rinse the product off your skin, and then “Call a poison control center or doctor for treatment advice”.

Surly whatever constitutes the 4 percent in Year Round Pesticide oil is what’s toxic. While the Natural News article is clearly over the top, Canola Oil is indeed listed as a pesticide with EPA

Canola oil is an edible vegetable oil that can be used to control insects on a wide variety of crops. Canola oil appears to have no adverse effects on humans or the environment.

I. Description of the Active Ingredient
Canola oil is an edible refined vegetable oil obtained from the seeds of four species of rape plants, Brassica napus, Brassica juncea, Brassica rapa and B. campestris of the family Cruciferae (mustard family). Canola oil is considered safe for human consumption. Scientists believe that canola oil repels insects by altering the outer layer of the leaf surface or by acting as an insect irritant.

II. Use Sites, Target Pests, and Application Methods
Use Sites: Canola oil can be used on a wide range of plants, including: citrus, corn, fruit trees, nut trees, sugar beets, soybeans, tomatoes, vegetables figs, melon, olives, small fruits, alfalfa, bedding plants, ornamentals, and houseplants.

Target Pests: Many types of insects.

Application Methods: The products are applied either with spray or irrigation systems.

III. Assessing Risks to Human Health
No harmful health effects to humans are expected from the use of canola oil to repel insects. Information available from published studies indicates that canola oil’s nutritional and toxicological profiles are similar to those of other vegetable oils that are used as food.

IV. Assessing Risks to the Environment
Adverse effects to the environment or to organisms other than insects are not anticipated because of the low toxicity of canola oil and its rapid decomposition in the environment. In addition, canola pesticide products are not allowed to be applied directly to bodies of water; therefore, exposure of aquatic organisms should be extremely limited.

V. Regulatory Information
Canola oil was initially registered as an active ingredient on April *8, ***8. As of November, ***9, three pesticide products were registered that contained this active ingredient.Just because Canola oil is used as an active ingredient in pesticide products, and registered with the EPA as a pesticide, does not mean it is toxic to humans.

But as Dr. Mercola points out, Canola oil is partially hydrogenated or refined before it is used commercially and consequently is a source of  trans fatty acid sometimes at very high levels.

What is of a primary concern, however, is that Canola oil is genetically modified. Virgin olive oil or coconut oil are good alternatives.

GM Canola and the Dangers of Genetically Modified Crops

Canola oil is made from rapeseed. In Canola (from Canadian oil, low acid), selective breeding was used to develop a variety of rapeseed low in Erucic acid, and glucosinolates. This and other recent varieties are all genetically engineered.

GM Canola is a key ingredient in many foods. Today *0% of the canola planted is genetically modified. And the evidence continues to mount calling into question the safety of GM crops.

Last year, researchers with the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering concluded that three Monsanto GMOs corn crops were not fit to be consumed because the kidneys and liver in rats displayed toxicity level when exposed to all three GM corn varieties. In other words, GM corn is toxic to mammals.

Additionally, Dr. Don Huber, a retired emeritus professor of plant pathology at Purdue University, has warned Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack that there’s a link between genetically modified crops and sudden death syndrome in crops and infertility in livestock.

Huber claims there’s a pathogen in high concentrations in Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, feed products, pig stomach contents, and pig and cattle placentas, and warns the organism is prolific in plants infected with two pervasive diseases that are driving down yields and farmer income-sudden death syndrome in soy, and corn.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of this organism in a wide variety of livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility…[and]…may explain the escalating frequency of infertility and spontaneous abortions over the past few years in US cattle, dairy, swine, and horse operations.”

Canola and GM Cross Pollination

Last year, the BBC reported that a University of Arkansas team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola and discovered that transgenes were present in *0% of the wild canola plants they found.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Pittsburgh.

“We…made **4 stops in a total distance of over 3,**0 miles (5,**0km). We found canola in *6% of the locations; and *0% of them contained at least one transgene. We found herbicide resistant canola in roadsides, waste places, ball parks, grocery stores, gas stations and cemeteries,” they related in their Ecological Society presentation.

“But we were also finding plants in the middle of nowhere — and there’s a lot of nowhere in North Dakota.” Similar findings have been made in Canada.

Two of the plants analyzed by the University of Arkansas team contained both transgenes, indicating that they had cross-pollinated.

Cross-pollination led to the monsanto canada Inc. v. Schmeiser case where Monsanto sued Percy Schmeiser for patent infringement after his field was contaminated with Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready glyphosate-tolerant canola.

The supreme court ruled against Percy, claiming Percy was in violation of Monsanto’s patent because Monsanto’s GM canola was growing on his land.