Not much was found in groundwater because it binds tightly to soil. Glyphosate also was found in about 70 percent of rainfall samples. Traces were found in 90 percent of soybean samples. So what is the likelihood of exposure? The people most likely to be exposed are working on or living near farms where glyphosate is used, says University of California, Irvine professor Bruce Blumberg.
The U. One study suggests that glyphosate may affect pathogens such as Salmonella in ways that can contribute to antibiotic resistance. Other recent research suggests it can interfere with hormones.
Yet the really big unanswered question is the potential health effect of low levels over extended periods of time. The EPA is reviewing its approved uses of glyphosate and expects to release a preliminary assessment of the human health risk later this year. This is expected to include new restrictions. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, alarmed by suspected links to human kidney disease , has banned it. Brazil is considering a similar move.
Mexico and the Netherlands have imposed new restrictions, and Canada has just begun a process to consider new rules. All rights reserved. Roundup is the brand-name of a herbicide produced by Monsanto.
Its active ingredient glyphosate was patented in the s. Roundup is widely used by both people in their backyards and farmers in their fields. Roundup Ready plants are resistant to Roundup, so farmers that plant these seeds must use Roundup to keep other weeds from growing in their fields.
The first Roundup Ready crops were developed in , with the introduction of genetically modified soybeans that are resistant to Roundup. This patent has led to major concerns about possible harm being caused by glyphosate including the killing of beneficial gut bacteria which causes immune system damage. This was not the first independent study showing the possible damage being caused to health by glyphosate-based herbicide but it was the most high profile long-term study. Since genetically modified crops were introduced in glyphosate use had increased 9-fold in the U.
The dose of glyphosate from the Roundup administered was thousands of times below what is permitted by regulators worldwide. This study is unique in that it is the first to show a causative link between consumption of Roundup at a real-world environmental dose and a serious disease condition.
However, they failed to find a medical application for the new chemical, leading them to sell Glyphosate to Stauffer chemicals , who will patent it as a chelator in for use in the mining industry. Franz's discovery of the chemical was independent of what was happening in Europe. Monsanto will be awarded a patent for glyphosate and will start selling it under the brand name Roundup beginning in Roundup was initially very well received by agricultural operators and ecologists alike, who noted that it was significantly less toxic than the DDT which it replaced as a wide spectrum herbicide.
This success couldn't have come at a better time for Monsanto, who was still recovering from the Agent Orange debacle that will eventually see the company award millions of dollars in reparations to US Vietnam veterans.
John E. The chemical was called a "one in a year discovery that is as important for reliable food production as penicillin is for battling disease," by Australian weed expert Stephen B.
A pioneer of biotechnology, Monsanto will develop Roundup-resistant crops beginning in These were seeds genetically modified to resist the herbicide, allowing farmers to spray their crops at any time of the year without damaging the plants.
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