Newsweek: World Is ‘Awash In Glyphosate’
February 11, 2016 The world is awash in glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, produced by Monsanto. It has now become the most heavily-used agricultural chemical in the history of the world, and many argue that’s a problem, since the substance comes with concerning albeit incompletely-determined health effects, reports Newsweek’s Douglas Main.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe reveals that Americans have applied 1.8 million tons of glyphosate since its introduction in 1974. Worldwide, 9.4 million tons of the chemical have been sprayed onto fields. For comparison, that’s equivalent to the weight of water in more than 2,300 Olympic-size swimming pools. It’s also enough to spray nearly half a pound of Roundup on every cultivated acre of land in the world.
Anyway you look at it, this is a staggering amount, says study author Charles Benbrook. And it’s troubling, considering that in March 2015 the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer unanimously determined that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” says Bill Freese, a science policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety, who wasn’t involved in the work. A carcinogen is a substance known to cause cancer.
Research has also shown that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it interferes with the proper functioning and production of hormones, in human cell lines. It’s not yet clear how much of an impact glyphosate has had on cancer rates.
Head on over to Newsweek.com to get the full story on glyphosate becoming the most-used ag chemical in world history.
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