Experts call on feds to re-evaluate the world’s most heavily used herbicide
▻http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2016/feb/glyphosate-roundup-monsanto-cancer-endocrine-disruptor-scie
U.S. and European health officials need to take a fresh look at assumptions about the safety and health impacts of glyphosate #herbicides, according to a group of health scientists worried about the chemicals’ explosive worldwide growth.
A scientific review released Tuesday warns that use of #glyphosate has skyrocketed, growing 15-fold in the 20 years since “#Roundup Ready” genetically engineered crops were introduced. Government health agencies, they said, have failed to adequately monitor how much of the herbicide is getting into food and people and what impacts it might be having on our health.
Glyphosate persistence raises questions
▻http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/02/glyphosate-gbh-weedkiller-herbicide-persistence-environment-health
The widely used weedkiller glyphosate persists in water and soil longer than previously recognised, and human exposures to glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are rising, experts from various universities as well as environmental health and consumer groups have concluded in a new scientific review.
Field studies cited in the report show the half-life of glyphosate in soil ranges between a few days to several months, or even a year, depending on soil composition. The authors say the research demonstrates that soil sorption and degradation of glyphosate vary significantly depending on the soil’s physical, chemical, and biological properties.
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In the US, the EPA concluded in June that the there was ‘no convincing evidence’ that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor. But states have begun to act on their own.
For example, California’s Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) announced back in Back in September that it would list glyphosate as a carcinogenic chemical under the state’s Proposition 65, which requires the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Monsanto has responded by suing Cal/EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and its acting director.
Regulatory estimates of tolerable daily intakes for glyphosate in the US and EU vary significantly. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) chronic reference dose (cRfD), which defines a dose that a person could ingest daily over an extended period without appreciable risk of an adverse effect, is 1.75mg of glyphosate per kilogram body weight per day (mg/kg/day). Meanwhile, the EU acceptable daily intake (ADI) for glyphosate is significantly lower at 0.3mg/kg/day, a level adopted in 2002.
