Sri Lanka has banned the use of Roundup, the second most widely used U.S. weed killer. Brazil is thinking about doing the same, and Mexico, the Netherlands, and Canada are considering to impose new rules and restrictions according to National Geographic. Why? The chemical glyphosate used in Roundup may be linked to many adverse health effects, including kidney disease, cancers, and hormone disruption in pregnant women by killing embryonic, placental, and umbilical cord cells. Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup, declines current studies either because they do not reflect realistic usage of their product, or because their "decades" worth of "comprehensive safety assessments" have not shown these links because glyphosate acts on an enzyme only present in plants, not mammals. Many studies are saying otherwise. We've been wrong in the past (DDT), so what makes us believe we couldn't be wrong now? There may be no immediate short-term effects, but what about long-term?
Studies that prove health agencies need to reconsider the safety of Roundup include: Gilles-Eric Seralini's team at the University of Caen in France, an Argentine scientist and local activists, a Swedish scientific team, a Croatian team, ecologists at the University of Pittsburgh, the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer (based on work by the scientists at the National Cancer Institute), and 250+ environmental, health and labor organizations who have petitioned for the EPA to change the pesticide's ingredient requirements. These studies found many, or links to, adverse health effects due to exposure to Roundup, including: birth defects and miscarriages, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson's disease, kidney disease, and other cancers.
Monsanto's solution to plants acquiring an immunity to glyphosate is to spray more and stronger pesticides to eliminate the problem, according to John Deike of Eco Watch. I don't know about you, but 50.2% already seems like quite a high concentration to me. If studies are indeed using abnormally high amounts of the chemical on cells right now, everlasting increases of concentration to keep combating the immunity problem now will someday meet the same amounts labs were using, therefore producing the same deadly results they were seeing. We're already starting to see glyphosate outside of gardens and crops (in 75% of rainfall samples near Mississippi's agricultural delta region).
Crystal Gammon of Environmental Health News explains to us that glyphosate alone may not be harmful, but when mixed with other ingredients in the product, it can multiply the toxic effects, even at diluted concentrations. One of these other ingredients, POEA, alone "was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself." Right now, Monsanto does not have to publicly disclose information about what comprises "OTHER INGREDIENTS." That needs to change.
