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Hi James & All, Feb 16, 2008
Avian and Mammalian toxicity profiles are no doubt different but I
will paste some comments about glyphosate (the active ingredient in
Roundup and Vision) toxicity that I sent to The Register last September.
Remember, Roundup is an herbicide i.e. a formulation that is toxic to
some plants. Birds and plants would in general not be affected by modern
herbicides (as opposed to some crude early ones such as arsenates,
sulfuric acid, varsol & perchlorates).
I have no idea what may be used on Sunflower in Manitoba but if it
is Roundup then I would expect no adverse effect at all on birds or
humans. They don't give this stuff away and rates would be just
sufficient for contact injury, as a crude guess probably less than one
kg/active ingredient per ha.
Perhaps entirely unrelated but I noticed last summer that the
Russian Giant (?) sunflower seed that I bought to plant in the garden
were almost all entirely empty shells.
It is my understanding that materials and produce intended for human
consumption have more demanding specs for handling, storage, packaging
and transport. E.g. food grade calcium chloride may come from the same
factory line as highway grade but would be handled and protected from
possible contamination with greater care. And for example seeds intended
for planting, and coated post-harvest or post-storage with an
insecticide or fungicide, would in most cases be decidedly unfit for
birds or humans.
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville
START OF PASTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
In this connection it is relevant to compare the acute toxicity of
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Vision, with commonly encountered
chemicals. The abbreviation LD50 is the dose in g/kg body weight that
leads to death of 50% of test animals.
All figures are LD50 orally in rats where not noted otherwise.
Aspirin 1.75 g/kg,
Sulfanilamide (dogs) 2.0 g/kg,
Common salt (NaCl) 3.75 g/kg,
Glyphosate 4.32 g/kg,
Ethyl alcohol 13.7 g/kg.
The LD50 figure for glyphosate is from Glyphosate, Pesticide Fact Sheet
<http://infoventures.com/e-hlth/pestcide/glyphos.html> .
Other LD50 figures are from the Merck Index, 9th edition.
Note that common salt, commonly present by choice in foods and
widely used on highway in winter, is more toxic than glyphosate, aspirin
is nearly three times as toxic and ethyl alcohol is about 1/3 as toxic.
END OF PASTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
James Hirtle wrote:
> Hi all:
>
> I recieved this recently and was wondering if anyone has any knowledge
> on this issue. If indeed there is any truth to the following, I
> myself would find it somewhat disturbing. I would like to send an
> answer to the individual, but I have no first hand knowledge in
> regards to the topic.
>
> James R. Hirtle
> Dublin Shore
>
> I am writing about sunflower seeds which I feed birds at my property on
> Hidden Lake in the Labelle/Chelsea area.
>
> In October my wife and I took a trip across Canada by train. On the
> outskirts of Winnipeg we saw large fields packed with sunflower plants
> that
> were brown and withered looking. I felt this to be somewhat odd
> considering
> that the weather was still quite summer like and that I had seen
> sunflower
> plants in Maniban gardens that still seemed robustly upright and
> appealing
> to the sun.
>
> Whe I arrived at my older son's place in Kelowna BC I happened to ask him
> whether he knew about the sunflower crops around Winnipeg. He had spent
> some time in Winnipeg and his girlfriend comes from a town out side of
> that
> city. My son said that he was told that the sunflower plants are sprayed
> with Round Up to facilitate the harvesting of the plants and the
> gathering
> of their seeds.
>
> In January of this year I purchased an 18 kg bag of sunflower seeds at
> Costco in Halifax. On the bag was printed the name of the company,
> Keystone
> Grain Limited (they have a website) that distribute the seed and I
> noticed
> it was in Winnipeg. I looked on the bag for more infornmation and was
> surprised to see no mention that the seed wasn't for human
> consumption. So
> I wrote them an e-mail to find out if the seed was fit for humans. I have
> had no reply.
>
> I was wondering whether you, because of your area of expertise, would
> have
> any knowledge if in fact this is a method used to harvest the seed and
> whether use of such seed - possibly corrupted or contaminated with a
> herbicide - would be detrimental to birds.
>
> I read and hear of the decimation and reduction in the counts of some
> types
> of birds. Could this be a factor to consider or at least make notice of?
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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