Glyphosate ‘profoundly harmful chemical’

Glyphosate, the active chemical in Roundup, is now considered by independent scientists to be a profoundly harmful chemical.

That’s the belief of Jodie Bruning of RITE Demand, a group campaigning for the “Requirement for Independent Toxicity Evaluations” of chemicals used in agriculture.

Jodie, who has an agri-business degree from Monash University Australia, has extensively researched independent international reports on glyphosate and here gives her views on the chemical in response to an article in last month’s Coast & Country News ‘Glyphosate still ‘safest weed chemical’.

The science our EPA considers is old and biased. EPA base their current understanding on the 2004 World Health Organisation Toxicological assessment, and an ERMA report from 2009 that only used science supplied by Dow Agroscience. The EPA, like all regulators, are massively underfunded – it costs a lot of money to conduct a proper review of any chemical.

The problem with both sources is that the science used to provide the critical safe exposure levels are supplied directly by the chemical industry, or manufacturer. Regulators then claim that glyphosate ‘is of low toxicity’. This means no testing in our food, groundwater or drinking water for exposure levels.

Old science
Worryingly, scientists have established that glyphosate – and the full formulation we use – is harmful at the levels we are exposed to now. Every person out spraying is relying on the safety of really old industry-produced science for the AOEL – Accepted Operator Exposure Level.

Contractors and councils need to weigh up the risks – published scientific literature deems glyphosate is a probable carcinogen. If an employee becomes sick, they have the science behind them to confirm they were using a harmful chemical.

Today’s science tells us glyphosate damages fertility, reduces drought tolerance and is neurotoxic. It damages our hormones, the endocrine system, at parts per billion. Regulators only look at parts per million.

Science tells us the full formulation – for example, Roundup – is much more toxic. Every applicator knows this. Women respond differently to men. The EPA also hasn’t considered long-term, sub-chronic effects – the damage low level exposures cause over a lifetime. Today’s 60-year-olds didn’t have glyphosate sprayed around them when they were kids, nor did they consume it in their bread (wheat), beer (barley), oil seeds (canola) and sugar (glyphosate is a common sugar cane ripener). Cereal and oilseed crops in New Zealand are sprayed before harvest.

Supermarket foods
Internationally, about 90 per cent of corn and soy crops are treated before harvest, as they are ‘Roundup Ready’. These are the tiny corn and soy-derived ingredients in your supermarket foods. Our kids are exposed to glyphosate every single day. The old WHO data assumes glyphosate is fully excreted. It can’t be.

In New Zealand, glyphosate is sprayed in drains that trickle into our water table. Internationally, cases of glyphosate resistance have occurred following repetitive roadside spraying, the Foundation for Arable Research will confirm. We welcome news that Tauranga City Council rarely sprays glyphosate in urban parks.

We require a wide ranging and thoughtful discussion about how to manage invasive weed populations long-term. Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide – anything that kills as effectively will likely be harmful.

We urgently need to discuss the impact of glyphosate in our waterways and drinking water, question strict service delivery standards that bind contractors to intensive spray regimes. Perhaps trials should be started to establish how a mowing regime could replace roadside spraying.

The solution will never be perfect. It will likely be more expensive. But health should be our bottom line. I welcome open and frank discussion on this topic. Email: jodie@rite-demands.org or www.rite-demands.org


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