Chemical in weedkiller is a ‘potential health risk’
A CHEMICAL heavily used in gardens and on food crops to kill weeds has been identified as a potential health threat at levels deemed ‘safe’. Glyphosate is the most commonly used weedkiller in the world but experts from Italy and the USA found it had alarming effects on lab rats.
Use of the chemical has surged in recent years with traces found in tap water and foods from porridge oats to corn flakes, biscuits and ice cream.
It is the main ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, which is made by the chemicals giant Monsanto.
In the pilot study, glyphosate was exposed to rats at levels considered safe by American’s environmental Protection Agency (ePA), adjusting for the difference in the size of the animals compared to humans.
Scientists found that it had disruptive effects on sexual development, genes and gut bacteria.
Controversy has raged around the chemical since a World health Organisation body, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, judged it to be a ‘probable human carcinogen’ in 2015. Nevertheless, regulators in both the US and the eU later deemed it acceptable for use.
The research team who worked on the latest study, which did not focus on cancer, said the findings do not give a definitive answer as to whether the chemical is safe but said further investigation would be needed to establish long-term risks to human health. Professor Melissa Perry said: ‘Although glyphosate has been around for decades, it has not been well studied and we know surprisingly little about its human health effects. This study was designed to use doses that compare to what humans are exposed to in their everyday environments.’
The research, to be published in the journal environmental health later this month, was led by the Ramazzini Institute in Italy. The University of Bologna, the Italian National Institute of health, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and George Washington University in the US were also involved in the study, which was crowd-funded.
Although the research methods have been peer reviewed by independent experts, the study results have been challenged by Monsanto. The US firm’s Scott Partridge said: ‘The Ramazzini Institute is an activist organisation with an agenda. They wish to support a ban on glyphosate.’ Monsanto added that all research to date has demonstrated there is no link between glyphosate and cancer.