Post by kimmsr🕊 on May 13, 2018 16:01:35 GMT -5
ESSAY OF THE WEEK
Totally Toxic
Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller may be even worse for human health than we thought.
As reported this week in the Guardian, new tests show that when Roundup’s key active ingredient, glyphosate, is combined with other chemicals to create the final product, the herbicide is more toxic to human cells than glyphosate alone.
U.S. Right to Know’s Carey Gillam reported on the first-ever testing, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), of glyphosate-based formulations. Previous testing focused exclusively on glyphosate in isolation.
NTP’s acting chief of the National Toxicology Program Laboratory, Mike DeVito, told the Guardian the agency’s work is ongoing but its early findings are clear on one key point. “We see the formulations are much more toxic. The formulations were killing the cells. The glyphosate really didn’t do it."
That’s bad for farmers who spray Roundup, for people who eat Roundup-contaminated food, and for the millions of us who are exposed to Roundup because it runs off into our waterways or is sprayed on parks, playgrounds, and neighborhood lawns. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) latest figures, $9 billion worth of glyphosate-based herbicides were sold in the U.S. in 2012.
Monsanto continues to claim that its product is safe, including the formulation it sells direct to consumers for their lawns and gardens. Beyond Pesticides (BP) and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) sued Monsanto for misleading consumers about the safety of its flagship herbicide. Monsanto tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, but a federal judge recently ruled in favor of BP and OCA.