In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

“My servants, the Righteous,
shall inherit the Earth.”—Holy Qur’an 21:105

Master Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi, to Whom praise is due forever, warned us (the Sisters, in particular) about the effects of weighing other than ourselves in regards to living the life and weighing properly. Being overweight is devastating to the proper functioning of the life organism that we call the human body.

The weight of the Earth is constant. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that the Earth has a weight of six sextillion tons (a unit followed by 21 ciphers). What you see above the Earth came from within it, therefore, the weight of the Earth is constant.

The Holy Qur’an teaches us of a Time when the Earth will cast off its burden. What burden? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “unrighteous people.” The Earth was created for the righteous; the wicked are an unwanted burden. Allah (God) intends to remove this excess weight, according to the Bible and Holy Qur’an, “root and branch.”

The attitude of Allah (God) toward the wicked is the same attitude we should adopt toward the excess weight we are carrying on our bodies. If the Earth is casting off its burden (excess weight of the wicked), should not we cast off ours?

We have overburdened our skeletal muscles with unwanted FAT. Bone, muscle, tendon and ligament are designed to work together in a harmonious relationship to move the body. When we stand, our entire weight is carried by the power of our legs down to our feet. If taxed by excess weight, muscle wears down and eventually falters.

There is a precise, mathematical relationship between skeleton, height and weight. Like the bones, the skeletal muscles range in size and shape to suit the particular functions they perform. Their ability to perform with speed and power can be literally of life-or-death importance, enabling us to move in response to sudden danger.

When it is not overburdened, skeletal muscle can move into action within a few hundredths of a second and, when necessary, support 1,000 times its own weight.

The spine, our most central structural member, would collapse without muscles and ligaments. Health experts blame poor diet and excess weight as primary reasons why the number one daily physical complaint in America is backache.

The hundreds of millions of dollars spent on pain relievers specifically for this problem are misdirected. The human frame was designed to carry a precise amount of weight. When that amount is exceeded, there is a breakdown of the structure that painkillers will never repair.

When you begin to shed excess fat, you take on different thinking, as well as a different appearance. Allah (God) has given us a pattern for Life. All of the prophets gave us Guidance from Him for healthy living.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that the brain cells of the Original people are constructed to “think right.” To “think right” means to think in accordance with Truth and Actual Facts. Thinking contrary to Truth does damage to brain cells and impairs the vision.

If we are created to think right, we are also created to do right. Any act we participate in that is contrary to right thinking and acting creates an unwanted burden on the mind. The burden of sin covers the intellect, veils the vision and impairs the power of the mind to do the wonderful things Allah (God) created the mind to do.

It is said that we use only a small portion of our brain. Why? Could it be that sin impairs our ability to use the Power of the Mind?

Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death.” The burden of being overweight with sin causes spiritual and mental imbalance, then spiritual death, leading to imbalance of the systems of the physical body and ultimately, physical death.

I am appealing to all members of the Original Nation and to all people who desire the betterment of Self, to cast off the burden of being physically overweight, then let us begin to cast off the burden of sin (Transgression of Divine Law).

The mental burden people carry, particularly the American people, has exceeded the natural ability of the brain’s hormonal secretions to soothe and comfort us during stressful events in our daily lives.

There are 15 pounds of atmospheric pressure for every square inch of the human body; but we do not feel this pressure because, through the process of breathing, we are able to exert force from within us that is equal to the force outside of us.

Mentally, however, the burden of sin has rendered people incapable of exerting sufficient force from within to neutralize the stress and tension from without. This is why the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad are vital to mental and physical health and well-being.

Let us cast off the burden of excess weight and begin to cast off the burden of sin. “When the earth is shaken with her shaking, And the earth brings forth her burdens, And man says: What has befallen her?

On that day she will tell her news, As if thy Lord had revealed to her. On that day men will come forth in sundry bodies that they may be shown their works. So he who does an atom’s weight of good will see it. And he who does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.” -Holy Qur’an, Surah 99, “The Shaking”

To be “overweight” is to carry a burden that we were not made to carry. Your frame was not made to carry the swill (garbage) that you put in it and on it. Nor was our mind made to carry the burden that comes from sin. The Holy Qur’an says that the Earth will cast off its burden.

The burden that the Earth will cast off is not physical weight; it had at one time more than five billion inhabitants. It is now over four billion, so it is not overburdened with the number of people that are on it, but the kind of people that are on it.

“The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” The Earth was not made for the wicked, it is the home of the righteous. But the Earth is burdened by a civilization that does not belong here. This is why, in both the Bible and Holy Qur’an, you read of a destruction coming to the people of this world.

Dormant volcanoes are coming to life, burning people up with lava; earthquakes, tornadoes, cyclones and hurricanes are destroying people. Allah (God) says, “I am getting rid of a burden on my earth and I am going to kill human beings until there is hardly anything left, because this Earth was made for the righteous.” 

Now, you and I must rid ourselves of the burden that we carry. If you are awake and conscious, you cannot do things you know are wrong and not bear the burden and scar of your own actions. When you know what is right and willfully go against what is right, then your mind carries a burden. That is called “the burden of sin” and sin produces the death of the mind and spirit. 

The way to relieve yourself of the burden of sin is to recognize that confession is good for the soul. Do not go to the preacher to confess, go to Allah (God). You have no intercessor between you and your Creator. You do not need any minister, priest, father or pope.

Go to your Creator and talk to Him, because He already knows. Then you openly confess. No one has to be there, just you; if you are sincere and sorry over what you did, you will start crying as you pray because you are so sad for what you did.

When you finish your prayer, you will feel clean and when you come out from the private place where you confess your faults, the burden is lifted. Don’t ever go back to that behavior ever, ever again. When you make up your mind and not go back to that behavior, you are free of it.

So, you go home, Beloved, and get that long mirror as I told you to do in Part I of this series. When you are alone, take your clothes off and look at yourself. Make up your mind you are going to cast off the unwanted burden of excess fat.

Do not take any crash diet. That is madness. The excess fat did not arrive in a crash diet. Losing weight is a slow, painful process. Select the right foods to eat and discipline yourself. Say, “I am not going to eat between my meals. I am not going to do it.”

Beloved, there is nothing more powerful than a made-up mind. Don’t say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Don’t tell me about “tomorrow.” Don’t tell me about tomorrow, because you know nothing about tomorrow. All that you have is this moment in time. Make up your mind, now! No more swill, junk or filth in the House of Allah (God).

May God bless you with success in your endeavors to do His Will for the benefit of yourself, your family and your Nation.

The post The War Against Obesity (Fat), Part Five Weighing Properly Physically & Mentally appeared first on Final Call News.

by U.S. Right to Know
Published on The Defender by Pamela Ferdinand

For decades, regulators viewed chlorpyrifos—a pesticide widely used in the U.S. and around the world—primarily as a neurotoxin that disrupts signaling in the brain and nervous system.

But as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reconsiders whether to continue to allow its use on foods like apples and soybeans, a new review indicates other insidious harms.

Published in April in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the review synthesizes findings from nearly 300 studies worldwide published up to this year. These include laboratory experiments, animal studies, epidemiological research, regulatory documents and risk assessments.

Growing evidence suggests chlorpyrifos may damage the brain, hormones, liver, gut microbiome, muscles, reproductive organs and bones. Studies also link the pesticide to DNA damage and lasting changes in gene activity that may increase the risk of chronic disease.

Together, the findings portray chlorpyrifos as what the reviewers call a “multi-system toxicant” that poses a more significant threat to public health than previously understood.

It suggests the pesticide acts on the body in ways far beyond disrupted nerve signaling or obvious poisoning. Pregnancy and early childhood are especially sensitive periods for chemical exposure.

“What has genuinely evolved over time is our understanding that chlorpyrifos causes harm in ways that go beyond its effects on the nervous system including damage to DNA, changes in how genes are switched on or off, interference with hormones, and disruption of the healthy bacteria that live in the gut,”

Said Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D., a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and past president of the International Society of Exposure Science.

The authors warn that current regulatory systems may not fully capture the complexity of chlorpyrifos’ dangers to the body. Many occur at levels too low to be detected by current safety testing, which looks for the disruption of an enzyme involved in nerve cell communication.

The review links chlorpyrifos exposure to:

• Biological changes associated with inflammation, chronic disease and cancer.

Brain and nervous system damage, including lower IQ and developmental harms in children, neurodegenerative disease, and disrupted cell growth, survival and communication.

DNA damage and altered gene regulation that hinders normal cell repair and changes how genes are switched on and off during development (epigenetics).

Hormone disruption involving thyroid, estrogen and testosterone pathways.

Liver injury, gut bacteria disruption and metabolic dysfunction are linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Reproductive, muscular and skeletal harm, including reduced sperm quality and bone loss.

Industry pushback despite reported harms

The review comes as the EPA reassesses whether the pesticide’s remaining uses meet the statutory standard of “no unreasonable adverse effects.” The action follows years of official stalling, prior bans, policy reversals and legal challenges.

Meanwhile, agrichemical companies are lobbying federal and state lawmakers to shield pesticide manufacturers, including Bayer and its subsidiary Monsanto, from some lawsuits involving Roundup weedkiller. The suits allege their products cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma, among other cancers.

In February 2020, Corteva Agriscience—then the world’s largest producer of chlorpyrifos—announced it would stop production, citing declining demand.

But existing stocks continued to be used. The chemical remains approved for several major crops in the U.S., including apples, strawberries, soybeans, citrus, wheat and peaches.

Health concerns trigger restrictions and bans 

Chlorpyrifos—the active ingredient in Dursban and Lorsban—belongs to a class of chemicals known as organophosphates. Introduced in the U.S. in 1965, chlorpyrifos became one of the world’s most heavily used insecticides by the 1990s.

Farmers use chlorpyrifos to control ticks on cattle and pests on crops. It is used on golf courses, in greenhouses, on wood products such as telephone poles and in residential areas.

U.S. regulators banned chlorpyrifos for household use in 2001. The ban came after mounting evidence, including a prominent study by Columbia University, linked exposure to developmental brain harms in children.

Evidence that chlorpyrifos damages children’s brains later prompted bans or restrictions in more than 40 countries, including the European Union.

The European Food Safety Authority concluded there was no safe exposure level, but it is still widely used elsewhere in the world. Several U.S. states, including California, New York, Hawaii, Oregon and Maryland, currently maintain restrictions or bans.

Yet chlorpyrifos persists in food (including fruits, cereals and vegetables), the environment and human tissue. The compound dissolves easily in fats and crosses cell membranes, allowing it to accumulate in tissues over time.

It can also travel long distances—in some cases more than 600 miles—from where it was applied. Researchers have detected residues in food, drinking water, soil, rain, snow and wildlife. Samples range from the Mississippi River to remote Antarctica.

Children, pregnant women, farm workers face the highest risks

Health effects of chlorpyrifos depend on dose, duration and route of exposure, the reviewers say. Genetic differences may also influence vulnerability.

For most people, exposure occurs through contaminated food, water, and air. Farmworkers often face the highest exposure levels. But researchers say chronic low-level exposure during pregnancy and childhood may also carry risks.

Infants and children remain especially vulnerable because their detoxification systems are still developing. They also consume more food relative to body weight and frequently put their hands in their mouths.

Chlorpyrifos risks extend beyond nerve damage

For years, scientists and regulators focused on one primary mechanism of harm. Chlorpyrifos becomes more toxic after the body converts it into a compound called chlorpyrifos-oxon. This blocks acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine in the nervous system.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter essential for communication between nerve cells. It also helps regulate attention, learning, memory, movement, breathing and heart rate.

Without acetylcholinesterase, nerves fire uncontrollably. In insects, the effect causes paralysis and death. In humans, severe poisoning can cause seizures, respiratory failure or death.

That effect on the single enzyme still matters. But the review argues it no longer explains the full scope of chlorpyrifos toxicity.

Chlorpyrifos affects the nervous system not only by blocking AChE activity, its well-known toxic mechanism, but also by disrupting fat balance in cells and interfering with other cell signaling pathways. These additional effects may worsen its harmful impacts on the brain and nervous system.

Chlorpyrifos is linked to cell damage throughout the body

Instead, researchers describe evidence that the pesticide may trigger widespread biological stress across organs and tissues.

Studies point to several possible mechanisms, including inflammation and oxidative stress, when highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules build up, damage cells and weaken the body’s defenses. Other ways include hormone disruption and altered gene regulation.

Chlorpyrifos may be especially harmful to mitochondria, the structures inside cells that produce most of the body’s energy. Damaged mitochondria can leak harmful, highly reactive molecules that can damage DNA, proteins, and cell structures.

The review also highlights how chlorpyrifos may cause genes to switch on and off. Scientists increasingly believe these changes may help explain how environmental exposures contribute to chronic disease years after exposure occurs.

The authors wrote:

“While traditionally characterized by its potent acetylcholinesterase-inhibitory properties, accumulating evidence now shows that chlorpyrifos and its bioactive metabolite, chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPO), exert far broader toxic effects, including the induction of oxidative stress, enhancement of neuroinflammatory processes, and the triggering of persistent epigenetic alterations.”

Babies and children are more susceptible to chlorpyrifos harms

The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that chlorpyrifos exposure poses risks to fetuses, infants, children, and pregnant women. Chlorpyrifos crosses the placenta and injures the developing nervous system before birth.

“Chlorpyrifos poses a significant neurotoxic risk to humans, with developing fetuses and children being particularly vulnerable,” they wrote. “Neurotoxic effects of the pesticide have been observed even at low doses.”

The body’s defenses against chlorpyrifos also depend heavily on an enzyme called paraoxonase-1 that helps break it down. But paraoxonase-1 activity varies widely among individuals due to genetics and age.

Infants and young children naturally have lower levels. This may also increase their susceptibility to toxicity, the authors say.

Prenatal exposure linked to lasting

brain damage and lower IQ

Human studies link prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure to:

• Attention deficits
• Delayed motor development
• Lower birth weight
• Reduced IQ
• Structural brain abnormalities

For instance, an August 2025 study of New York City children found that prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos was linked to widespread brain abnormalities and weaker motor skills years later. The researchers concluded prenatal exposure may cause lasting brain disruptions. The effects appeared to worsen with higher exposure.

Meanwhile, animal studies show that chlorpyrifos disrupts nerve cell growth and alters brain signaling tied to learning and memory. It also damages connections between neurons during critical developmental periods, studies suggest.

Perhaps most striking, chlorpyrifos appears in these studies to suppress brain-derived neurotrophic factor. BPA, flame retardants, and other toxic chemicals also disrupt brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which Dr. Bruce Lanphear describes as “fertilizer for the brain.”

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor helps neurons survive and form synapses. It also helps them strengthen learning pathways and recover from injury.

“What emerges is a troubling picture: the developing brain is being shaped by a toxic soup of chemicals acting on the same parts of the brain,” said Lanphear, a preventive medicine physician and professor at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University who studies how toxic chemicals impact human health.

“Yet when the EPA evaluates chlorpyrifos, it largely considers the pesticide on its own—not alongside other chemicals that disrupt the same brain pathways.”

Studies investigate links between chlorpyrifos and cancer

The ways chlorpyrifos affects the body may contribute to the growth and rate of liver, breast and ovarian tumors, studies indicate.

One large 2015 study of more than 30,000 women—spouses of pesticide applicators—linked chlorpyrifos exposure to elevated breast cancer risk. While human evidence remains limited and inconsistent, the reviewers say, the combination of effects warrants closer investigation.

Additionally, 3D laboratory models suggest that chlorpyrifos may cause breast cancer cells to invade nearby tissues more actively. Epidemiological studies also report associations with hormone-related cancers, particularly more aggressive forms of hormone receptor-negative breast cancer.

Animal studies done in living organisms also indicate that long-term, low-dose exposure to chlorpyrifos increases the risk of breast cancer, the reviewers say. The pesticide can make tumors appear sooner and increase their number, likely due to hormone disruption.

Parkinson’s, memory loss and other neurological impacts

The review cites evidence linking chlorpyrifos exposure to movement problems, memory impairment, anxiety-like behaviors and damage to brain regions involved in emotion and cognition. One recent study reports that chlorpyrifos exposure may be associated with more than double the risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers say chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPO)—produced when the body breaks down chlorpyrifos —may be especially dangerous. According to federal researchers, chlorpyrifos-oxon is about 1,000 times more toxic than chlorpyrifos itself.

Laboratory research indicates CPO may disrupt pathways tied to learning, memory, inflammation and nerve cell survival. Studies also suggest that chlorpyrifos-oxon damages a structural protein called tubulin, potentially disrupting brain development. Tubulin helps nerve cells grow and form connections.

“Overall, the ability of CPO to interfere with normal developmental processes in the nervous system far exceeds that of its parent compound,” the authors wrote.

Hormone disruption linked to fertility and metabolic problems

The review finds substantial evidence that chlorpyrifos may interfere with multiple hormone systems (endocrine disruption) throughout the body. These include thyroid, estrogen and testosterone pathways.

Research links exposure to abnormal reproductive cycles and tissue development, lower sperm counts, and reduced sperm quality. Some studies suggest it causes reduced prostate weight and disrupted hormone signaling in placental cells.

Chlorpyrifos may also contribute to obesity, insulin resistance and blood sugar problems, the review shows.

Gut bacteria changes may fuel inflammation and disease

The review also tracks harms involving the gut microbiome—the ecosystem of microbes that supports digestion, metabolism and immune function. Experimental studies indicate reductions in beneficial bacteria alongside increases in potentially harmful microbes after chlorpyrifos exposure.

These changes may be tied to leaky gut syndrome, when bacterial toxins enter the bloodstream and trigger inflammation throughout the body. This type of gut-liver axis disruption may contribute to systemic inflammation and metabolic disease, the reviewers say.

Studies link chlorpyrifos  to liver, bone and muscle damage

The liver itself emerges as a major target of chlorpyrifos, experimental studies show. Researchers describe potential ties between chlorpyrifos and:

• Chronic liver inflammation.
• Disrupted cholesterol, with higher levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol.
• Liver cell injury, including a form of cell death linked to iron buildup in liver cells (ferroptosis).

The review also links chlorpyrifos to musculoskeletal damage, including weaker bone formation, reduced bone density, and increased bone breakdown. Some bone changes occurred alongside neurological problems, suggesting broader developmental damage.

Studies show structural and functional changes involving both “slow-twitch” endurance muscles and “fast-twitch” muscles used for rapid movement. Some suggest chlorpyrifos may damage the diaphragm.

Chlorpyrifos DNA damage and altered gene activity raise alarm

The review highlights growing evidence that chlorpyrifos may damage DNA. Researchers describe chromosome damage and broken DNA strands.

Studies also point to disruption of microRNAs, molecules that help regulate processes such as brain development, inflammation and cell growth. And they suggest chlorpyrifos alters gene regulation in ways linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, metabolic disease, inflammation and cancer.

“Collectively, the studies discussed above indicate that chlorpyrifos is a multifaceted genotoxic agent whose harmful effects extend far beyond acetylcholinesterase inhibition to include direct DNA strand breaks, chromosomal instability, and epigenetic reprogramming in various cell types, tissues, and species, detectable even at environmentally and clinically relevant concentrations,” they wrote.

Studies investigate links between chlorpyrifos and cancer

The ways chlorpyrifos affects the body may contribute to liver, breast and ovarian tumors, studies indicate. These include changes in DNA damage and repair, cell growth control and gene expression.

Experimental studies in liver and breast cells found abnormal cell growth and altered tumor progression. Some epidemiological studies report associations with hormone-related cancers, particularly more aggressive forms of hormone receptor-negative breast cancer.

One large 2015 study of more than 30,000 women—spouses of pesticide applicators— linked chlorpyrifos exposure to elevated breast cancer risk. While human evidence remains limited and inconsistent, the reviewers say, the combination of effects warrants closer investigation.

Current safety standards fail to protect public health

Underlying the review is a larger challenge to how regulators evaluate the safety of chlorpyrifos and other pesticides. Current approaches, the authors say, do not adequately account for their effects, especially during fetal development and early childhood.

“The regulatory system was designed to prevent obvious poisoning, but many pesticide-related diseases do not appear immediately. Exposures too low to cause symptoms today may impair fetal brain development or contribute to Parkinson’s disease decades later,” Lanphear added.

“The science has moved ahead of the regulatory framework. That is the gap this review highlights.”

Epidemiological studies suggest that prenatal and early-life exposure, even at relatively low environmental levels, may be linked to impaired neurodevelopment and cognitive function.

That means both the way exposure occurs and the amount of exposure should be considered important factors that influence toxic effects when evaluating health risks, they say.

They also revisit longstanding criticism of industry-funded chlorpyrifos studies that have been used to shape federal exposure limits for decades. They cite the so-called “Coulston study,” a 1972 safety evaluation funded by Dow Chemical.

Later researchers questioned parts of the study, arguing that it was not peer-reviewed. They also found that some baseline data was excluded from the original analysis, understating the pesticide’s toxicity.

The review calls for an independent reassessment of industry-sponsored toxicology studies used in past safety evaluations. It also calls for stronger protections for children and pregnant women, expanded biomonitoring programs and safer pesticide alternatives, the authors say.

They argue that academic research should play a larger role in regulatory decisions to provide a fuller picture of the chlorpyrifos harms. Independent research indicates a potentially higher threat to human health, particularly for children, due to exposure to this pesticide, they say.

“The societal costs associated with these risks are substantial, highlighting the urgent need for stricter regulations on chlorpyrifos use,” the authors wrote.

Originally published by U.S. Right to Know. This article was originally published by The Defender Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BYNCND 4.0. Pamela Ferdinand is an award-winning journalist and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology Knight Science Journalism fellow who covers the commercial determinants of public health.

The post 300 studies link this neurotoxic pesticide to multi-organ damage, chronic disease appeared first on Final Call News.

 [Editor’s note: The following article was first published in The Final Call newspaper, Vol. 10, No. 18, September 9, 1991, as the fourth installation of a special five-part series on health penned by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. This is the final excerpt from that article.]

(According to the American Journal of Public Health, December 1990, less than 10% of Americans are getting the minimum amounts of fruits and vegetables in their daily diets while National Institute of Health physicians reported that fruits and vegetables have “a significant protective effect against some forms of cancer.”

Prevention magazine, which reported this statistic, said that despite the knowledge of this fact, it is difficult to get fresh produce into the diet and “takes a conscious effort to meet those healthy-eating goals.”)

The priorities of the food industry should not be profit first and health last, but health first. No rich man would be unwilling to give away his wealth in return for his health.

It is sad that we spend our lives amassing wealth, only to die of heart attack, stroke, cancer, or some sexually transmitted disease that renders us unable to enjoy what we spend our entire lives amassing.

Television and radio are powerful tools that should be used as teaching instruments. I am disgusted at the misuse and abuse of the airwaves to poison the hearts and minds of children and adults with words and pictures of filth.

Debauchery and indecency, when the same medium, properly used, could motivate and stimulate the American people to accept the challenge of living a moral, healthy, productive life.

By developing the Will of the people to change and improve their lifestyle, we could bring about preventive health care that would turn our kitchens into health care facilities for our families.

America will not be a great nation in the 21st century unless she changes her priorities. Whether she chooses to do so or not, we, as Black people, MUST change our priorities now. We MUST NOT let the Merchants of Death control the necessities of life for us.

We MUST Take control of our destiny. Let us begin by taking control of what we put in our mouths as food and drink. We MUST rid ourselves of the lazy spirit which puts exercise off of our agenda for a happy and productive life.

I repeat, get HOW TO EAT TO LIVE, BOOKS One and Two by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. These books are so reasonable in price, particularly in comparison to what we pay for medicines that we have to ingest because we have eaten the wrong kinds of food.

The Great Mahdi, Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praise is due forever, came among us to give us abundant life. One of the first things He did was ask us to go to our medicine cabinets and throw away every prescription drug we were using.

In the early days of Islam (submission to the Will of Allah (God)), you would find no prescription drugs in the home of any Muslim follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, not even aspirin. Our wives and mothers were the official doctors and nurses of our families.

In our kitchens, we produced the health and well-being of our families. We MUST go back to what we were taught and what we know has worked for us and pledge to never depart from that again.

Remember, as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us, we dig our graves with our teeth—eating too much, eating too often and eating the wrong kinds of food.

The body is the House, Temple, Synagogue, Cathedral, Church, Mosque of The Living God. The Greatest Gift of all, the most Magnificent Structure in the Universe, is the Human Body. Allah (God) teaches us in the Qur’an that He fashioned for us the best of forms.

It is also written in the Qur’an that there is a special place of honor for those who maintain the House of Worship (a Mind and Body in which Allah (God) can dwell).

“Certainly We created man in the best make.”

Holy Qur’an, Surah 95, verse 4

Be it the Will of Allah (God), in the next edition of The Final Call, I will address the subject of weighing properly, mentally and physically.

The post THE WAR AGAINST OBESITY (FAT), Part 4 appeared first on Final Call News.

by Sustainable Pulse– Published on The Defender

This article was originally published by The Defender—Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website on June 4, 2026.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a sweeping investigation to tackle the major issue of glyphosate residue in food that his office stated June 3 “puts America’s health and children at risk.”

This announcement comes after Paxton’s office issued Civil Investigative Demands to major pesticide and food manufacturers, including Bayer and PepsiCo.

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Roundup weedkiller. It is a widely used herbicide that is applied to genetically engineered crops. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer determined that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen.

Since then, extensive human and animal research has shown that glyphosate contributes to endocrine disruption, infertility, kidney disease and autoimmune diseases, in addition to its cancer-causing properties.

More than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed in the U.S. each year. Research has found that over 70% of American adults have detectable traces of glyphosate in their bodies compared to a mere 12% in 1993.

Scientists attribute much of this dramatic increase to the widespread use of glyphosate as a desiccant. Desiccation is the practice of applying herbicides such as Roundup to crops shortly before harvest so that they dry down uniformly.

This practice contributes to over 90% of the glyphosate found in food, particularly in food products containing oats, wheat, sunflowers and pulses.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prohibits the use of glyphosate as a desiccant on oats in the U.S., off-label use does occur, and major food companies also source their ingredients from foreign countries where the practice is widely practiced.

Oats are widely found in cereals, breakfast bars and cookies, which make children particularly vulnerable to glyphosate’s harms. In fact, studies show that certain food products marketed to children are some of the most glyphosate-contaminated food products in the U.S.

Other products are marketed as “healthy” when manufacturers know their products are contaminated with dangerously high levels of glyphosate. Research further indicates that children between the ages of 1 and 2 years old have the highest dietary exposure to glyphosate of any population.

“If any corporation is using regulatory loopholes to poison our kids with glyphosate, we will find out and we will secure justice,” said Paxton.

“My office is also investigating whether major food companies are complying with Texas law and whether consumers, especially parents, have been misled about the health claims of common food products marketed to their families. No corporation is above the law, and no illegal action will go unpunished,” he concluded.

Originally published by Sustainable Pulse. This article was originally published by The Defender Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BYNCND 4.0.

Food cart in a grocery store aisle. Photo: MGN Online/Pexels

The post Texas AG cracks down on food giants using loopholes to ‘poison our kids with glyphosate’ appeared first on Final Call News.

Hambrick, et al. v. United States of America was filed by family attorneys Benjamin Crump, alongside co-counsels William H. Murphy Jr., Jason P. Foster, Carol D. Powell Lexing, Malcolm P. Ruff, Nabeha Shaer, and Brooke Cluse. 

They allege that nearly six decades ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) secretly enrolled the Black infants as test subjects in an experimental RSV vaccine trial conducted between 1965 and 1966—without the knowledge or consent of their families.

Both babies died in January 1967.

The lawsuit was filed on May 22 in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Southern Division. The federal government typically has 60 days to respond after service of the lawsuit, at which time they may answer or ask a judge to dismiss the case.

The Final Call has reached out to the Department of Justice for a response to the lawsuit and has not yet received a reply.

RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) is a common respiratory virus that infects the nose, throat, and lungs, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes, through direct contact with an infected person, or by contact with a contaminated surface.

Further, while RSV usually does not pose serious health risks to healthy children and adults, older adults and children are at increased risk of severe adverse health consequences related to RSV. Symptoms include runny nose, cough, congestion, sneezing, fever, wheezing and/or loss of appetite, and in very young infants may be limited to irritability, lethargy and difficulty breathing.

“Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor Marcellus King were two Black babies who were used as guinea pigs, as lab rats, in a very targeted effort by the United States Government. 

This follows a long history of the medical society of the United States government experimenting on Black bodies—what we believe was an epidemic of medical racism,” stated Atty. Crump, during a press conference on May 28 in Washington, D.C.

During his sweeping condemnation, he situated the case within a lineage of documented atrocities, including the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in Alabama, in which Black men were withheld treatment for syphilis.

Also the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks by Johns Hopkins scientists. Ms. Lacks was a Black woman whose cervical cancer cells were taken without consent over 70 years ago during her treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

This disturbing history also includes Black soldiers used in World War II who were given faulty gas masks and subjected to chemical exposure, and the forced sterilization of Black women in the South during routine medical procedures—known as the “Mississippi Appendectomy.”

“But today, we’re talking about these Black babies—Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor King—these innocent babies, these infants,” said Atty. Crump. “It was worst of all, because they were using babies who couldn’t talk, who couldn’t walk, who could not in any way give any type of consent.”

Specifically, the complaint alleged:

•   The United States government, through the NIH, selected the most vulnerable children it could find—Black infants from low-income families—to test a dangerous, highly concentrated experimental vaccine known as “Lot 100.”

•   Tissue samples harvested from their autopsies were preserved without the families’ knowledge.

•   Decades later, NIH researchers retrieved those samples to study what went wrong – knowledge that directly informed the development of RSV vaccines approved by the FDA in 2023, now generating billions in revenue.

•   The families of Ross Otto and Victor have never been compensated or acknowledged for the role the infants’ deaths played in that medical breakthrough.

“What I do remember vividly was the change in my mother,” said Sharlette Hambrick, Ross Otto’s sister. She was five years old when her baby brother died. Her mother was once funny and outgoing until the tragedy. She then became super religious and “barely let us out of her sight,” she said, reported New York Times columnist Charles Blow.

Mr. Blow reported that Victor’s older brother, Darius King, also five when his brother died, spent decades believing it was because of pneumonia. He quietly blamed his stepfather, who had taken the baby outside in the cold to show him off to friends. 

That impression stuck until journalist Michael Schulson of Undark magazine contacted him in 2023 and informed him that Victor’s death was most likely caused by the experimental RSV vaccine.

The report by Undark was highlighted by Mr. Blow in 2023.

He reported that the non-profit digital magazine affiliated with M.I.T., “found that in the 1960s, some of the first and youngest subjects to receive experimental shots, in a clinical trial of early attempts to develop R.S.V. vaccines, were Black and poor children, some in foster care.

And though questions remain about what parents knew, archival documents housed at the N.I.H. suggest that parents did not give informed consent—or in some cases, any consent at all—for their children to receive the largely untested shot.”

Mr. King also expressed the sorrowful resignation of a people—Black people—who have so often been mistreated, and he reflected on the country’s checkered history, including when it comes to medical ethics, explained Mr. Blow. “That was the way America was,” said Mr. King, adding that the children who were given the experimental vaccine “were probably thought of as disposable.”

Dr. Christina X Parks, a cellular and molecular biologist, described the core scientific failure of the 1960s RSV vaccine trial:

“When they processed the virus, they tried to kill it—they changed the conformation of it, they denatured it. And the body didn’t actually recognize the adulterated or denatured form of the virus and didn’t produce the right antibodies,” she told The Final Call.

The result, she said, was a catastrophic miseducation of the immune system.

“It actually disabled their own innate immune response. It skewed their immune system, it mis-trained their immune system,” Dr. Parks explained. “The antibodies kind of bound, but in fact they sort of mis-trained the immune system to ignore the virus—to actually help the virus infect the person.”

According to Dr. Parks, the RSV trial data devastatingly manifested this, explaining that vaccine recipients were getting more ill and dying with the vaccine than without it. “And so, they (scientists) did the right thing in this case and pulled the vaccine—but they should never have been experimenting,” she said.

“It’s time for accountability,” Dr. Parks told The Final Call. “The fact that they’ve been experimenting on Black populations and Black children—low income—and they experimented on special needs children. They basically always experimented on the children and people that they thought didn’t have anybody to protect them,” she said.

During the May 28 news conference, Atty. Lexing said, “The families knew for a long time that something wasn’t right with what happened to their baby brother … to their sons. 

They didn’t know that the babies had been used as infants. They did not know that the babies’ tissues had been preserved and that now the medical community is building a billion-dollar industry off the backs of these babies.”

Accountability transcends any single institution, including the federal government, said Atty. Murphy. “These families deserve honesty. They deserve the truth to be told. They deserve justice, instead of being just us.”

Houston-based attorney Pamela Muhammad said the case cuts to the heart of a long and documented history of racial exploitation in American medicine.

“History is so filled with this type of racial exploitation and experimentation and really just torture. I mean, our history is filled with this,” she told The Final Call. 

Central to the complaint is the total absence of informed consent, which must be completely free from financial or physical coercion, she said. But disproportionately, Black people are given experimental substances that they haven’t agreed to. “We have a whole history of this,” she said.

She drew a direct line from the NIH lawsuit to the founding abuses of American gynecology, in which Black women’s bodies were used without anesthesia for surgical experimentation, as well to the Tuskegee syphilis study and the Henrietta Lacks case.

On the legal claims themselves, she explained, “Battery is the legal term for somebody causing bodily harm to you. We’re talking about the destruction of human lives, with intent to do it.” 

While the lawsuit is a civil matter, the underlying conduct raises serious criminal questions, Atty. Muhammad explained. But it’s both significant and chilling that the defendant itself is the U.S. Government, she added.

“To actually see a suit being waged against your own country, your own ‘government’ because of their abuse of private citizens’ lives, that’s just huge. It is just horrible,” stated Atty. Muhammad.

The post Families of infants sue federal government, alleging medical abuse appeared first on Final Call News.

[Editor’s note: The following article was first published in The Final Call newspaper, Vol. 10, No. 18, September 9, 1999, as the fourth installation of a special five-part series on health penned by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. This is the first excerpt from that article.]

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

A good diet and daily exercise must be accompanied with the right thoughts in order to work for the long life of the individual. Thinking properly is the most difficult part of the health equation to achieve, so we are asking the Black Nation to attack that which appears most difficult, which is to develop the Will to be completely wholesome in mind, body and spirit.

Why do I say that development of the Will “appears” to be the most difficult thing to do in achieving complete health? We live in a world where scientists have developed all manner of artificial methods to eliminate the effects of wrong habits:

Pills to stop smoking; pills to curtail the appetite; surgery to staple the stomach, forcing a reduction in the intake of food; plastic surgery to mask the effects of living in rebellion against Divine Law.

In a society such as this, where pill pushers advertise that we can “eat all you want and still lose weight,” development of the Will of the individual to overcome all impediments to good eating habits “appears” to be the most difficult approach, but in the long run, it is actually the easiest and most simple path to follow.

To develop the Will of the American people (Black people in particular) to live good, wholesome lives, is to make it easier to change behavioral patterns that have led or are leading to the general destruction of the health and well-being of the overall population.

The approach of government and scientists—spending inordinate sums of money on health problems—has not worked. We, the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are proving, with very little money, that we have the ability to change the destructive behavioral patterns of our people, not only as individuals but as a society.

The stigma of hate, bigotry, intolerance, anti-Semitism and violence that the United States government, its agencies and others have deliberately attached to the Nation of Islam is causing the cure for America’s social ills to be obscured while the effects of these ills multiply in diametric proportion to America’s own efforts to suppress the Truth.

If President Bush and the United States government would see (as Pharaoh in the time of Joseph saw) the value of a Divinely guided group of people in her midst, then steps could be taken to take the Revealed Message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and solve 100 percent of America’s social, spiritual and health problems.

I am trying with the Help of Allah (God) and the few persons working with me, to produce a healthy community of strong, able-bodied men, women and children who are willing to shoulder the responsibility of self-reliance, self-determination and self-independence.

The American food industry has gone a long way in destroying the health and well-being of the American people by its misuse of the knowledge of chemistry. The addition of coloring to change the appearance of food; preservatives to lengthen shelf life;

Injection of hormones into livestock to produce speedy growth and a fatter animal—the sum of these profit-seeking actions brings in its wake an unprecedented growth of cancer and heart disease, both of which have increased more than 250 percent since the beginning of the century and are now the leading causes of death in this country.

The American Cancer Society reports that more than 35 percent of all cancers directly result from “bad diet,” defining a “bad diet” as one that is high in fat and low in fiber.

The American Heart Association also points to “bad diet” as the “greatest single factor in heart disease” and blames poor eating habits for at least 50 percent of all cases of heart ailments that plague an estimated 60 million Americans.

There are safer and better ways to grow food and raise livestock. These methods may be slower and less profitable, but “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul (the health and well-being of a Nation)?”

The post THE WAR AGAINST OBESITY (FAT), Part 4 appeared first on Final Call News.

by Stacy Malkan U.S. Right to Know Published on The Defender

This article was originally published by The Defender—Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website on May 26, 2026.

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world. They are often used as seed coatings on crops such as corn and soybeans, as well as on turf, ornamental plants and pets as flea and tick treatments.

A growing body of scientific evidence raises concerns about the human health risks of neonicotinoid exposure. Studies in animals and humans link neonicotinoid exposure to neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. Some studies also report ties to breast and liver cancer and Type 1 diabetes.

Human exposure to neonicotinoids is widespread and begins before birth. Neonics are commonly detected in food, drinking water and household dust. A study of American women found neonicotinoids or their metabolites in more than 95% of pregnant women tested.

A 2025 review of evidence reports that neonicotinoids or their metabolites are routinely found in urine, breast milk, placental tissues and infant cord blood.

Children may have higher exposures, and they are especially vulnerable to toxic exposures during early critical periods of brain development.

In addition, extensive research shows that neonicotinoids can harm bees and other beneficial insects, particularly through chronic and sublethal effects.

In the European Union, several neonicotinoids have been banned or severely restricted due to confirmed risks to bees. Their use remains common in the U.S. and elsewhere.

What are neonicotinoids?

Neonicotinoids are part of a family of synthetic chemicals structurally similar to the addictive tobacco alkaloid nicotine. Frequently used neonicotinoids include acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Imidacloprid, the first neonicotinoid to be commercialized, entered markets in the early 1990s.

Neonicotinoids are systemic insecticides. After plants absorb them, the chemicals can travel throughout plant tissues, including leaves, roots, stems, pollen and nectar.

Some neonicotinoids are highly persistent; they can move through waterways, accumulate with repeated use and remain in soil for months or years.

The chemicals kill insects by binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), overstimulating the insect nervous system and eventually causing paralysis and death. These receptors also exist in humans and other mammals.

Although neonicotinoids were designed to bind more strongly to insect nerve receptors, recent studies show that some neonicotinoids and their metabolites also bind to mammalian nAChRs.

Bayer, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of neonicotinoid insecticides, says that neonicotinoids were designed to selectively target insect nervous system receptors and that risks to mammals are minimal when the products are used as directed.

“Neonicotinoids, like all pesticides, are highly regulated, and all Bayer products undergo extensive testing to ensure they don’t have unacceptable adverse effects on non-target insects and the environment,” states the company’s annual risk mitigation report.

What are the health risks of neonicotinoids?

A substantial and growing body of research raises concerns that neonicotinoids harm multiple biological systems in humans and animals.

The National Toxicology Program’s 2020 review identified 191 publicly available studies relevant to human health, including evidence on neurological, developmental, reproductive, immune and respiratory outcomes. Neurological effects were the most commonly reported problem.

Recent reviews linking human health impacts to neonicotinoid exposures:

A review article on neonicotinoids’ effect on human health found “increasing evidence” that “neonicotinoids may induce toxicity in the gastrointestinal, hepatic, respiratory, and nervous systems through various mechanisms.”

Neonicotinoids have “raised significant concern regarding their potential impact on human health,” and the “widespread use and environmental persistence of neonicotinoids present serious concerns regarding their potential effects on human health.”

Neonicotinoids and human health: Environmental fate, toxicity mechanisms, and future directions. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology, December 2025.

A systematic review of human health studies found that “Four general population studies reported associations between chronic neonic exposure and adverse developmental or neurological outcomes.

Including tetralogy of Fallot … anencephaly … autism spectrum disorder … and a symptom cluster including memory loss and finger tremor … . All four case-control studies reported an association between chronic (i.e., nonacute) neonic exposure and an adverse human health effect.”

Effects of Neonicotinoid Pesticide Exposure on Human Health: A Systematic Review. Environmental Health Perspectives, February 2017.

Another review article found that “Available toxicological data from animal studies indicate possible genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, impaired immune function, and reduced growth and reproductive success at low concentrations.

While limited data from ecological or cross-sectional epidemiological studies have identified acute and chronic health effects ranging from acute respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological symptoms to oxidative genetic damage and birth defects.”

A critical review on the potential impacts of neonicotinoid insecticide use: current knowledge of environmental fate, toxicity, and implications for human health. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 2020.

Neurotoxicity, developmental, learning and behavioral problems 

Growing scientific evidence suggests neonicotinoids can interfere with brain development and nervous system function, with research reporting associations with learning and memory deficits, altered behavior, neuroinflammation and developmental delays.

Recent studies and reviews include:

Researchers measured umbilical cord plasma concentrations for neonicotinoids (NEOs) and assessed neurocognitive development in Chinese preschool children. “Prenatal exposure to several NEOs was associated with lower neurocognitive scores.”

Specifically, the study found associations between exposures to dinotefuran and clothianidin and lower Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient, thiacloprid and poorer communication performance, imidacloprid and thiacloprid and reduced gross motor function, and thiamethoxam and reduced fine motor development.

Prenatal Exposure to Neonicotinoid Insecticides and Neurological and Cognitive Development in Preschool Children: Evidence from a Birth Cohort in Guangxi, China. Toxics, May 2026. 

In a cross-sectional study, researchers found that “exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides may be associated with neurobehavioral problems in preschool-aged children.

Among the compounds examined, IMI [imidacloprid], NTHM [N-desmethyl-thiamethoxam], and NACE [N-desmethyl-acetamiprid] emerged as the primary contributors and showed significant positive associations with neurobehavioral problems.”

Association Between Neonicotinoids and Neurobehavioral Development in Preschool Children from South China: A Biomonitoring-Based Study. Toxics, October 2025.

A review of biochemical and behavioral effects of neonicotinoids on the mammalian nervous system found that “exposure to neonicotinoids at an early age alters the correct neuronal development, with decreases in neurogenesis and alterations in migration, and induces neuroinflammation.

In adulthood, neonicotinoids induce neurobehavioral toxicity, these effects being associated with their modulating action on nAChRs, with consequent neurochemical alterations.”

The effects found “can lead to the activation of a series of intracellular signaling pathways that generate oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and, finally, neuronal death.”

Neurotoxic Effects of Neonicotinoids on Mammals: What Is There beyond the Activation of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors?—A Systematic Review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, July 2021.

Researchers conducted the first comprehensive independent assessment of unpublished rodent developmental neurotoxicity studies on five neonicotinoid pesticides that were submitted to the EPA by neonicotinoid manufacturers.

In these studies, groups of female rats were administered three different doses of a neonicotinoid during pregnancy and lactation, and their offspring were subjected to various neurological tests and brain measurements.

The review concludes that “perinatal exposure to neonicotinoids and their metabolites induces adverse, nicotine-like neurotoxic effects in rodent bioassays and that the exposure limits set by EPA for human exposure are either not protective or not supported by available neurotoxicity data.”

Neonicotinoid pesticides: evidence of developmental neurotoxicity from regulatory rodent studies, Frontiers in Toxicology, October 2024.

Reproductive health impacts

A review of the reproductive toxicity of neonicotinoids found that “exposures to various neonicotinoids … have been shown to adversely affect reproductive outcomes in both male and female mammals. Further, exposures to mixtures of neonicotinoids have been associated with negative male and female reproductive outcomes in epidemiological studies.”

The impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on reproductive health. Toxicological Sciences, February 2025. 

Preterm birth, birth defects and smaller birth size

A study of neonicotinoid levels in first urine from newborns, both full-term and preterm, found “a significant increase in the odds of preterm outcomes in the unadjusted model” when comparing newborns with higher imidaclothiz concentrations. “These results suggest that exposure to elevated concentrations of imidaclothiz may be associated with preterm birth.”

Neonicotinoid insecticides and metabolites levels in neonatal first urine from southern China: Exploring links to preterm birth. Journal of Hazardous Materials, May 2024.

In a prospective birth cohort study in China, researchers found that “higher maternal NNIs [neonicotinoid insecticides] concentrations were associated with disrupted levels of fetal endocrine hormones.”

The researchers reported that prenatal neonicotinoid exposure was “negatively associated with neonatal birth size, particularly both individual and mixture of NNIs exposure and reduced head circumference.”

Prenatal exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, fetal endocrine hormones and birth size: Findings from SMBCS. Environment International, November 2024.

A population-based case-control study in California found that an increased risk of the congenital heart defect tetralogy of Fallot was associated with exposure to imidacloprid.

Residential agricultural pesticide exposures and risk of selected congenital heart defects among offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Environmental Research, November 2014.

A population-based case-control study in California found that an increased risk of anencephaly was associated with gestational exposure to imidacloprid.

Residential Agricultural Pesticide Exposures and Risk of Neural Tube Defects and Orofacial Clefts Among Offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California. American Journal of Epidemiology, February 2014.

Endocrine disruption

A study of the relationship between urinary neonicotinoids and serum testosterone in a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population showed “that urinary detection and levels of neonicotinoids are associated with significant reductions of serum total testosterone and/or free androgen index in both males and females.”

Exposure to neonicotinoids and serum testosterone in men, women, and children. Environmental Toxicology, February 2022.

This study exposed the breast cancer cell line Hs578t cells to neonicotinoids for 24 hours, finding “in vitro that neonicotinoids may stimulate a change in CYP19 promoter usage similar to that observed in patients with hormone-dependent breast cancer.”

Effects of Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Promoter-Specific Aromatase (CYP19) Expression in Hs578t Breast Cancer Cells and the Role of the VEGF Pathway. Environmental Health Perspectives, April 2018. See also Promotional Consideration: A Potential Mechanistic Link between Neonicotinoid Insecticides and Hormone-Dependent Breast Cancer.

“‘This provides in vitro evidence that neonicotinoids can be endocrine disruptors and that aromatase may be one of their targets,’ says first author Élyse Caron-Beaudoin.” Environmental Health Perspectives, November 2018.

A co-culture model of fetoplacental steroidogenesis “found thiacloprid, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid to induce aromatase activity … . The neonicotinoids increased estrone and estradiol production, while strongly inhibiting estriol production … . This study contributes to growing evidence of the endocrine-disrupting potential of neonicotinoid insecticides.”

The use of a unique co-culture model of fetoplacental steroidogenesis as a screening tool for endocrine disruptors: The effects of neonicotinoids on aromatase activity and hormone production. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, October 2017.

Male reproductive toxicity

A review of studies on the reproductive toxicity of neonicotinoids in male rodents “identified 21 toxicologic studies evaluating the impacts of neonic insecticide exposure from January 2010 to August 2025.

Where all studies reported concerning health effects on male reproductive parameters … the collective evidence demonstrates that neonicotinoids consistently impair testicular function, disrupt spermatogenesis, and compromise sperm parameters such as count, motility, viability, and morphology.”

Reproductive risk of Neonicotinoids: A review of male rodent studies. Environmental Research, December 2025.

A study to assess the effects of low-dose imidacloprid on the sperm quality of male rats found that “low-dose IMI [imidacloprid] exposure caused sperm abnormalities through affecting on the spermiogenesis in testis.

Inhibition of CYP3A4 [cytochrome P450 3A4] activity by IMI largely contributed to its sperm toxicity. Thus, IMI exposure at doses close to real-world settings resulted in sperm toxicity on rats, which might be a potential risk factor for human reproductive diseases.”

Spermiogenesis toxicity of imidacloprid in rats, possible role of CYP3A4. Chemosphere, November 2021.

A study to assess the reproductive toxicity of acetamiprid in male rats found that “sperm concentration and plasma testosterone levels decreased in dose dependent manner.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) levels increased at low and medium dose groups and acetamiprid caused lipid peroxidation and glutathione (GSH) depletion in the testes.

Histologic examinations revealed that acetamiprid induced apoptosis in medium and high dose groups and proliferation index dramatically decreased in high dose group. In conclusion, acetamiprid caused toxicity on male reproductive system in the high dose. The mechanism of the toxic effect may be associated with oxidative stress, hormonal disruptions and apoptosis.”

Reproductive effects of subchronic exposure to acetamiprid in male rats. Scientific Reports, June 2020.

An oral toxicity study found that exposing developing male rats to imidacloprid “affects the reproductive organ of male rats by decreasing the mass of accessory sex organs, testosterone level, sperm concentration, by increasing the rate of abnormal sperm morphology, by changing the lipid composition of testicular tissue, by fragmenting seminal DNA and by increasing apoptosis of spermatogenic cells.”

Insecticide imidacloprid induces morphological and DNA damage through oxidative toxicity on the reproductive organs of developing male rats. Cell Biochemistry & Function, April 2012.

A study in male rats of the toxicity of imidacloprid and the benefits of curcumin found that “oxidative stress appears to be the mechanism of testicular damage mediated by IM [imidacloprid] which leads to reproductive toxicity. CMN [Circumin] was found to be effective in counteracting oxidative stress and testicular damage induced by IM.”

Evaluation of ameliorative effect of curcumin on imidacloprid-induced male reproductive toxicity in wistar rats. Environmental Toxicology, March 2015.

Female reproductive toxicity

In a study of the impacts of imidacloprid on mice ovaries, the data “suggest that IMI [imidacloprid] is toxic to the female reproductive system in mice,” and “indicate that IMI reaches the ovaries and affects some female reproductive outcomes such as ovarian follicle numbers, LH levels, and ovarian expression of enzymes.”

The researchers concluded, “Given the presence of IMI and IMI metabolites in various human samples, namely breast milk and ovarian follicular fluid, the outcomes of ovarian exposure to IMI and IMI metabolites have public health implications for humans around the world.

The adverse reproductive outcomes characterized in this study add to growing evidence that neonicotinoids may be a contributing factor to the rising incidence of female reproductive disorders over the past 50 years.”

The effects of imidacloprid exposure on the mouse ovary in vivo. Reproductive Toxicology, October 2025. 

Breast cancer

In a study to uncover a potential mechanism for neonicotinoids promoting breast cancer progression, researchers found that “our in vitro, in vivo and in silico studies demonstrated that NIs [neonicotinoid insecticides] could promote breast cancer progression at human related exposure levels.

Which was owing to the activation and up-regulation of GPER [G protein-coupled estrogen receptor]. We found a novel estrogenic disruption molecular mechanism of NIs and revealed NIs’ potential female adverse effects via GPER pathway.”

Neonicotinoid insecticides promote breast cancer progression via G protein-coupled estrogen receptor: In vivo, in vitro and in silico studies. Environment International, December 2022.

Liver cancer

In a study of the concentrations of neonicotinoids and their metabolites both in the general population and in liver cancer patients, “significant positive correlations between NEO [neonicotinoid] exposure and liver cancer were found…which revealed that NEOs concentrations were associated with increased odds of liver cancer prevalence.”

Exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides and their characteristic metabolites: Association with human liver cancer. Environmental Research, May 2022.

Type 1 diabetes

A cross-sectional study found that “High antibiotics and neonicotinoids exposures were found in T1D [type 1 diabetes] children, and they were associated with changes in gut microbiota featured with lower abundance of butyrate-producing genera, which might increase the risk of T1D.”

Association between new onset type 1 diabetes and real-world antibiotics and neonicotinoids’ exposure-related gut microbiota perturbation. World Journal of Pediatrics, July 2022.

Other health impacts

A review of 842 non-occupational human poisoning incidents associated with neonics from 2018-2022 finds four human fatality reports and several cases of major illnesses such as seizures.

“Common reported symptoms classified as moderate often included two or more of the following: headaches; dizziness; lethargy; eye or throat irritation; skin itching and rash; chemical burns and skin peeling; face swelling; muscle weakness or tremors; vomiting; diarrhea; pain and tightness in chest; open sores; and general pain.

These incidents stem mainly from residential uses, such as lawn and garden insect repellents, home pest treatments for bed bugs or roaches, and products used to treat pets for fleas and ticks.”

The researchers concluded that “Given the evidence of neurotoxicity, EPA should use its legal authority to cancel unsafe products and unnecessary uses–including from seed treatments, and residential pet and lawn care products–to prevent further human suffering.”

Human acute poisoning incidents associated with neonicotinoid pesticides in the U.S. Incident Data System (IDS) database from 2018–2022—frequency and severity show public health risks, regulatory failures. Environmental Health, November 2024.

In a study of the impacts of prenatal exposure of imidacloprid in mice, researchers found that “spatial memory and procedural memory were impacted by prenatal IMI [ [imidacloprid] in both males and females” and that “anxiety-like behavior was impacted by prenatal IMI exposure, but only in males.”

They concluded that “This study provides additional evidence that prenatal exposure to IMI at relatively low doses can impact anxiety-like behavior and cognition.”

Prenatal Exposure to Imidacloprid Affects Cognition and Anxiety-Related Behaviors in Male and Female CD-1 Mice. Toxics, October 2025.

Originally published by U.S. Right to Know. This article was originally published by The Defender Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BYNCND 4.0.

Stacy Malkan is co-founder and managing editor at U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit newsroom and public health research group.

The post Widely used pesticides linked to preterm birth, birth defects, male infertility—and more appeared first on Final Call News.

[Editor’s note: The following article was first published in The Final Call newspaper, Vol. 10, No. 17, from August 19, 1991, as the third installation of a special five-part series on health penned by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Below is the conclusion of the third installment.]

Walking: Complete exercise

When a boxer is in training, one of the first steps toward conditioning him is to raise his metabolism so that he can reduce the fat content in his body. This is done in athletes by running and other forms of exercise.

However, Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi and Teacher of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said that the best and most complete exercise is walking.

Some of you may say, “I am only eating one meal a day, but I am still gaining weight. Why?” Because, as we get older, if we are doing less physical work, our metabolism changes and we become sedentary, meaning we are less active.

Consequently, we begin to gain weight. However, the moment we begin to exercise, we raise our metabolism, allowing our bodies to start burning the fat.

However, many of our young people do not engage in physical exercise, so you are young in years but old in your body. You cannot run too far, you cannot walk too fast, you cannot lift too much weight.

Scientists are learning that even the very elderly would not lose the power of their muscles if they just took a 2-pound weight and did a few curls with it. Your muscles will continue to work for you if you will continue to work for them.

My dear brothers and sisters, when you get up in the morning, do some exercise. You say, “Well, I have to go to work. I have things to do. I don’t have any time.” You must take time for yourself or you will take time from yourself.

I am usually up every morning between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. I say my prayers, read my Holy Qur’an and Bible, and study my Lessons. Shortly after 5 a.m., I am ready to do my exercises. I have stopped taking all telephone calls during the hours that I have set aside for myself.

See fat as an opposer

Two months ago, I had a little stomach (much too big for me!—smile). But it is not there anymore and by the Help of Allah, it is never, ever going to be there again. I am challenging all of you who are overweight to get that fat off of you.

Anytime you see an ounce of fat that shouldn’t be there, I want you to see that excess fat as an opposer, an adversary, a devil, an enemy of God’s Gift of Life to us.

I would desire that each one of us take a reading of our bodies and if you have unwanted fat on your sides, arms, back, then you have work to do. Let us go to work on the problem intelligently. Do not attempt to do it all in one day! Do a little at a time, enough to work up a little sweat, raise the metabolism and begin to burn the fat away.

You may say, “I am fat because I have a thyroid problem.” A thyroid problem is a reasonable excuse for being overweight, but even that we can overcome. Work from this day forward to get the fat off of you and I guarantee you that you will feel better about yourself.

You will have a healthier outlook, you will relieve yourself of much of the stress and hypertension that you are carrying and, of course, you will look a lot better.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that our beautiful appearance, especially in our women, is enhanced or detracted from by what we eat and how we live.

Tomorrow, when it is time to make your regular visit to a fast food place, I want you to resist and say, “Not today!” Get an apple, orange, some grapes, or any fruit. Fruit is the best food to eat. Eat fresh fruit and the proper vegetables.

Red Meat = Death

Stay away from red meat. It is death for us. When you get red meat down into the stomach, the stomach produces powerful acids to digest it. If you want to see what meat is doing to your stomach.

Take one hand and rub it against the other hand for approximately five minutes—you will rub your skin off, because skin against skin produces friction which in turn produces heat that will burn the skin away.

This is what heavy, coarse meat will do when you put it into your stomach. Flesh against flesh and you wear away your stomach. Your body is the House of God. Keep it healthy, strong and firm.

Jesus came as a Healer. There is the Power to Heal in his words and his way of life and he gave every Disciple the same power that Allah (God) gave him. That is wonderful; and that is not yesterday, it is today. You can overcome any disease or illness that you have.

I am not telling you to stay away from doctors; see a doctor if it is necessary, but do not put your complete trust in a doctor. Put your complete trust in Allah (God) and no matter what the doctor says about how long you have to live.

Never accept it as truth and then adopt an attitude that “it’s over,” because the scriptures teach that where there is life, there is hope. If you adopt the right attitude towards health and disease, then we can overcome every ill and become whole. There is no sickness that Allah (God) cannot heal.

Jesus met a woman and she said, “If I could just touch the hem of his garment, I would be made whole.” She did not reach his garment, but Jesus looked at the woman and said, “Woman, thy faith has made thee whole.”

I repeat, this beautiful body is the Living House of the Living God. Go and make up your mind and never put an ounce of garbage in this House of the Living God ever again.

Away with the cigarettes, alcohol, grease, grime and filthy food. When you look at the fat on yourself, you are looking at Satan robbing you of Life. Get rid of it intelligently.

I recommend that every one of you get the books by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, How To Eat To Live, Books 1 and 2, follow the guidance you find in them, and make sure you begin to get some exercise. Remember, the best exercise is walking.

In our neighborhoods, with so much crime and violence, I would advise the walkers to meet with your neighbors and walk in pairs and in groups. One day, with the help of Allah (God), the Fruit of Islam (men of the Nation of Islam) will be sufficiently strong to guarantee the return of peace and security to our neighborhoods.

Thank you for reading these words. May you learn, by the Grace of Allah (God), how to live.

The post THE WAR AGAINST OBESITY (FAT), Part 3 Continued appeared first on Final Call News.

by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. The Defender

This article was originally published by The Defender—Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website on May 14, 2026.

Herbicide mixtures widely used on industrial farms may damage the gut, disrupt healthy bacteria and trigger inflammation at exposure levels regulators currently consider safe, according to a new peer-reviewed study.

The research, published in April in Archives of Toxicology, examined glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller—alongside two other common herbicides, dicamba and 2,4-D. Rats exposed to the chemical combinations developed intestinal inflammation, tissue damage, oxidative stress and signs of “leaky gut.”

The findings raise concerns about how the safety of agrochemicals is typically evaluated—because regulators generally assess chemicals one at a time rather than in the combinations people and wildlife are actually exposed to in the environment.

“This study comprises the most comprehensive investigation of the impact of glyphosate on gut structure and function,” the authors wrote. The study is also the first to examine the combined effects of glyphosate with dicamba and 2,4-D at “regulatory relevant” doses deemed to be safe, the authors said.

“The findings show that the levels of these herbicides, when ingested as a mixture, have adverse effects and are not safe at all—and that regulatory assurances of safety are false,” according to GMWatch, which reported on the study.

The study, led by glyphosate expert Michael Antoniou, Ph.D., comes amid escalating concerns about chronic exposure to agricultural chemicals, particularly in communities near large-scale farming operations.

Glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Roundup, has long been controversial because it may cause cancer. But scientists are increasingly focusing on more subtle biological disruptions—especially impacts on the gut microbiome, inflammation and metabolic health.

Antoniou told GMWatch that the results of the study show that such effects must be included in regulatory safety studies.

It also shows that “chemical pollutants need to be evaluated for toxicity as mixtures and not only as individual agents, as is currently practiced by regulators in all nations.”

Herbicide mixtures triggered gut inflammation, tissue damage at ‘safe’ levels

In the new study, the researchers exposed rats to glyphosate alone and to glyphosate combined with dicamba and 2,4-D—two herbicides commonly paired with glyphosate for use on genetically engineered crops designed to withstand multiple weedkillers.

The doses they used mirrored levels regulators in Europe “deemed to be safe” for daily exposure. They studied exposure beginning prenatally. Animals exposed to the herbicide mixtures showed chronic inflammation in the intestine, vascular congestion, tissue abnormalities and structural changes in the small and large intestines—important regions of the digestive tract.

The animals also exhibited signs of increased intestinal permeability, which is often called “leaky gut,” a condition linked to inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.

Effects were more extreme in the large intestine, and female rats were particularly vulnerable.

Glyphosate alone produced concerning effects, but the herbicide mixtures caused even greater damage. The researchers also found alterations in the microbial communities in the gut, confirming that herbicides may interfere with the complex ecosystem of bacteria essential to digestion, immune regulation and metabolic functioning.

Regulatory agencies typically evaluate pesticides individually, despite the fact that real-world exposures generally involve chemical combinations, the authors said. Critics have long argued that this approach ignores the possibility of synergistic effects—where mixtures produce harms that aren’t seen with individual compounds.

The authors underscored the fact that the doses they tested were not excessively high.

They compared a control group to a group given glyphosate at the European Union’s (EU) “acceptable daily intake” level and one at the “no-observed-adverse-effect level”— a toxicology term that indicates the level at which a toxin is thought to be safe.

They compared those groups to a group exposed to glyphosate, 2,4-D and dicamba at their EU “acceptable daily intake” levels. The authors called for additional research to understand the mechanisms involved and the implications for long-term health.

‘Particularly worrying for citizens of the USA’

Antoniou said the group’s findings are “particularly worrying for citizens of the USA, where there has been a massive escalation in the use of 2,4-D and dicamba along with glyphosate in recent years due to vast field infestation of glyphosate-resistant weeds and the subsequent launch of glyphosate/2,4-D/dicamba-tolerant GMO crops.”

He said human biomonitoring studies in the U.S. show a dramatic increase in urinary levels of 2,4-D and dicamba since the introduction of those crops. “Thus our findings have serious public health implications,” Antoniou said.

Monsanto brought glyphosate to the market in 1974, but its use skyrocketed in the 1990s, when the company’s “Roundup Ready” crops, genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide, flooded global agricultural markets.

The chemical is linked to health problems that range from cancer to liver damage to neuroinflammation to disruption of gut microbes. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, has already paid more than $12 billion to resolve lawsuits filed against Monsanto before the acquisition. The company still faces more than 60,000 lawsuits nationally, largely over injuries from the use of Roundup in farming, landscaping and gardening.

People increasingly exposed to ‘chemical cocktails’

After years of widespread Roundup use, glyphosate-resistant weeds developed. In response, agro-chemical companies developed crops that could also tolerate other herbicides.

Monsanto was also the first to commercialize dicamba-resistant seeds in 2016, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, use of herbicide-resistant seeds that can withstand the application of glyphosate, dicamba and 2,4-D is common today.

In February of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it reapproved products containing the herbicide dicamba for use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans.

It reapproved the toxin despite federal court decisions in 2020 and again in 2024 striking down the agency’s previous approvals of the weedkiller as unlawful.

Since its first approval in 2016, dicamba drift—the unintentional movement of the chemical to areas near where it was sprayed—has damaged millions of acres of farmland and caused devastating damage to orchards, vegetable farms, home gardens, native plants, trees and wildlife refuges across the country.

As agro-chemical companies change their chemical formulations to include more toxins, people are increasingly exposed to “chemical cocktails” that haven’t been studied for their effects on human health, GMWatch wrote.

This article was originally published by The Defender Childrens Health Defense News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BYNCND 4.0.

The post Widely used ‘chemical cocktails’ tied to gut damage, inflammation appeared first on Final Call News.

[Editor’s note: The following article was first published in The Final Call newspaper, Vol. 10, No. 17, from August 19, 1991, as the third installation of a special five-part series on health penned by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Below is the first part of the third installment.]

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

We live on a planet that is alive and full of energy. If we are to live long, healthy lives, we must eat food that gives us energy to keep us moving against the FORCE OF GRAVITY. Gravity is a force that inclines all things on the Earth to the Earth.

Regardless of your age, be careful that you do something in terms of exercise to resist the force of gravity. You come up out of the Earth. The force of gravity is created by the motion of the Earth and is pulling on us.

In order to prevent it from pulling us into an early grave, we must have sufficient energy to resist it. We must eat the right food and we must do some exercise. (Important: Before beginning any exercise program, you should consult your physician.)

Get up and exercise

Depending upon how we eat and live, past the age of 30, we may find the skin beginning to fall down; we begin to sag in places where we were once firm. We used to be beautiful in these areas, but gravity is pulling on us. You may say, “I need a face-lift.”

No! You just need to put some weights in your hands and begin working with yourself. You do not need a face-lift, a tummy tuck, or any kind of cosmetic surgery. You need to get up out of the bed and off of the couch and exercise. Work with yourself!

I am writing this series because as a people we have become a Nation that is obese (fat). Many of my young brothers and sisters, as well as older brothers and sisters, cannot walk by a fast-food restaurant without stopping for some “grease.”

In my younger days, a slang word for eating was “greasing” because what we ate was more grease than proper substance. When asked “What did you eat today?” many of us reply, “A double cheeseburger, fried chicken, french fries.”

But it actually was “grease.” You love fried foods and you are killing yourselves eating this grease. It begins to line your veins and arteries so that your blood has no free passage to and from your heart.

Of Black women between the ages of 20 to 74, 44 percent are overweight, compared with only 23 percent of White females in the same category, according to Health United States 1990, published by the Department of Health and Human Services.

This condition has led to skyrocketing death rates in our community from heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, and cirrhosis of the liver.

Learn the art of cooking

You do not know how to eat to live, and you, dear sisters, are preparing death for your families because you are unwilling to learn the art and science of cooking.

You do not like to spend time shopping, so you buy the chemically prepared foods that someone has already prepared in their kitchen that you have never seen. When you and your family consume it, it remains in the colon, hardening into a stone-like lump.

You are eating this greasy food and refusing to exercise. Then, fat begins to accumulate, by degrees. One day you are thin. Then another day, someone says, “You’re putting on a little weight,” and you smile, but do nothing.

Then, after a while, you begin to bulge here and there. Your stomach starts at the upper abdomen, one roll, two rolls, three rolls and more. You have two, three, four chins; jowls begin to develop.

Finally, your body is choking with fat and garbage. Look in your full-length mirror at what you have done to yourselves. Imagine what the Divine Spirit is feeling within you trying to live in a house of garbage.

To my dear brothers and sisters who are reverends and spiritual leaders of our people:

For the past few years, I have been meeting in various cities of America with many of our pastors. Over the past two years, I have hosted dinners in the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for nearly 2,000 members of the clergy and professional class of our people.

We are, as a class (clergy and professionals), entirely too fat. Most of our ministers have big, extended stomachs and are dying entirely too young. Every pastor should be an example of Christ-like living.

What would you think of Jesus if you saw him in his holy robes, overweight, with a stomach that made him look eight months pregnant, fat jowls and a fat neck?

Jesus not a fat man

Jesus has never been portrayed on the Hollywood screen as a fat man. Why? Because those who read the Scriptures cannot envision Jesus as a fat person. He came to give life and to extend our lives beyond the threescore and ten written of in the Book of Psalms.

Dear Pastors and Leaders, I appeal to you: Go to work on this overweight condition and let us become healthy representatives of God. If we are fat and sloppy, then we are encouraging our followers and our people to be the same.

Will you join me in the War against Obesity (Fat)? Let us strive to eat the best of food, in the right amount, that we may have a healthy, Christ-like glow. We can do it if we try.

The home taught us that Allah (God) hates obesity. So we should love what Allah (God) loves, and hate what He hates. We should look at our excess fat and say, “I am going to get this garbage off of me. I am going to work on it TODAY.”

As a Minister of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, whenever I gained a few pounds, when he saw me he would take his thumb and signal me to go back the other way (meaning to lose the weight), but when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad departed from among us, I broke my discipline.

For 20 long years, I ate one meal a day. I fasted three days out of each month. I was so disciplined, I fasted sometimes 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 30, 40 days and I never weighed more than my weight as a senior in high school. I reached my 40s looking like I was in my 20s.

However, whenever we deviate from what Allah (God) has ordered, we have to pay a price for it. We cannot eat all day long and not pay a price for it. We cannot eat the wrong foods and not pay a price for it. We cannot neglect proper exercise and not pay a price for it. Every time we make a mistake with food, we are bringing death to ourselves at a quicker pace.

This fat around our mid-sections is literally death and that is how we start breaking—around the mid-section.

To be continued.

The post THE WAR AGAINST OBESITY (FAT), Part 3 appeared first on Final Call News.