Forest Fires are More Toxic Than You Think — Here’s Why
Pediatrician and advocate Dr. Michelle Perro (author of What’s Making Our Children Sick and Making Our Children Well) discusses widespread chemical exposures—especially pesticides and herbicides—and their links to chronic illness in children and adults, while emphasizing practical solutions.
This Youtube video conversation opens with forest spraying. Perro notes that the U.S. Forest Service and others have long applied glyphosate-based herbicides (and other pesticides) across forests, including in Oregon and the Bitterroot Mountains, largely for claimed fire mitigation and to favor conifers preferred by the timber industry.
Only California and Arizona monitor this closely. California’s use reportedly surged from about 18,000 to 266,000 pounds of glyphosate-based products in 2023 (per a Mother Jones report). These chemicals persist in soil for years (some studies suggest up to 22 years for glyphosate).
When forests burn, residual pesticides create toxic byproducts that people, wildlife, and ecosystems inhale; they also contaminate waterways.
Dr Perro argues cheaper chemical methods have displaced alternatives such as goats, cattle, electricity, or hot water, and that herbicide cocktails can produce synergistic toxicity that is poorly studied. Glyphosate’s desiccant action may also dry soils and increase combustibility.
She identifies 1996—the commercial introduction of Roundup Ready GMO crops—as a major inflection point. This enabled heavy glyphosate use because the crops tolerated it. As weeds developed resistance, additional herbicides (dicamba, 2,4-D, etc.) were added.
Glyphosate is also widely applied as a pre-harvest desiccant on non-GMO crops such as wheat, oats, and legumes, leaving residues on foods children eat heavily.
Dr Perro describes glyphosate as an antibiotic and mineral chelator that disrupts soil and human gut microbiomes (notably bifidobacteria, which support production of precursors to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine) and binds minerals such as lithium needed for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and healthy brain function.
She links these mechanisms to rising ADHD, focus problems, mental-health issues, and broader chronic disease, arguing the epidemic is driven by chronic low-level poisoning via food, air, water, electromagnetic frequencies, and other modern exposures rather than purely cultural factors.
Exposure is widespread—glyphosate residues appear in school lunches, restaurant food, and especially ultraprocessed items—but poorer communities face higher burdens through “food swamps” of cheap, chemical-laden options.
Eating out (a large share of U.S. food spending) rarely involves organic ingredients. Dr Perro stresses that returning to home cooking with whole foods is both protective and realistic. She advocates families cooking together, fermenting (sauerkraut, yogurt), growing herbs even in small spaces, buying in bulk, and supporting organic agriculture so that organic becomes the mainstream default rather than a costly niche.
Historical parallels (tobacco, lead, asbestos) and the “economic tipping point” (even a modest shift in consumer buying can force industry change) give her optimism.
Grassroots education, community food practices, and bipartisan pressure for cleaner food, air, and water are presented as achievable paths forward. She notes that both major political parties have protected glyphosate use (e.g., executive orders framing it as necessary for national security or fire management) and urges citizens to demand better policy while taking immediate personal and family action.
Dr Perro repeatedly frames food as medicine and points to multiple healing modalities beyond pharmaceuticals and directs listeners to gmoscience.org and her books for practical guidance. She also features in the latest edition of Masters of Health.
The overall message is that chemical saturation of food systems, forests, and the environment is a serious, measurable driver of declining health—especially in younger generations—but individuals and communities retain substantial power to reduce exposure and rebuild resilience through everyday choices.
Sources:
www.youtube.com
Tom
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Throw in the internal poisonings from vaccines, drugs and supplements and we have a monstrous wall of illness, disease and death staring us in the face due to these chemical toxins…and not a one of them needed for a healthy and extended life. Our pretend health agencies, sprouted by government, have failed us time and time again. They are all owned and operated by the giant industrial poison machines.
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