Posted on 04/08/2019 7:48:34 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Clumps of dandelions have popped up in your yard, so you reach for a bottle of Roundup, the popular weed killer. It is known for being very effective, but its main ingredient, glyphosate, is getting a lot of attention because of lawsuits alleging links to cancer.
Last week, a federal jury ordered Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, to pay $80 million to a 70-year-old man with cancer who had used it for three decades on his 56 acres in Sonoma County, Calif. The jury found that Roundup was a “substantial factor” in his illness.
Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto last year, said it would appeal the decision.
Glyphosate is by far the most widely used herbicide in the United States
Last year, a California superior court jury in San Francisco reached a similar verdict against Monsanto in favor of a groundskeeper with the same disease — non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a potentially fatal cancer of the immune system. Monsanto also appealed that decision.
Glyphosate is by far the most widely used herbicide in the United States, and probably worldwide. It is used on nearly every acre of corn, cotton and soybeans grown in the U.S. You may have sprayed it on your lawn or garden.
But many jurisdictions, in more than two dozen countries, have banned or restricted its use. Among the latest: Los Angeles County announced last month that it was suspending use of glyphosate on county property until more is known about its health effects.
Bayer says on its website that the weed killer has been thoroughly tested, and “an extensive body of research” shows that products containing it “can be used safely and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.”
Cynthia Curl, an environmental health scientist at Boise State University in Idaho who studies the chemical, said, “many assumptions have been made about the safety of glyphosate that are now being actively questioned. We will see an explosion of information about glyphosate, and it’s about time. We’re really playing catch-up on this one.”
Let’s try to provide a few answers:
Q: What is glyphosate, and what is it used for?
First sold commercially by Monsanto in 1974 under the name Roundup, glyphosate kills weeds by blocking enzymes that regulate plant growth.
Over the four decades after its launch, use of Roundup increased a hundredfold. Monsanto genetically engineered crops to tolerate glyphosate in 1996, and these “Roundup Ready” seeds paved the way for the weed killer to be used on farm fields around the world.
Q: Roundup isn’t the only weed killer with glyphosate, right?
Right. Over 750 glyphosate-containing products are sold in the United States, either in solid or liquid form. In addition to Roundup, common ones include Ortho GroundClear, DowDuPont’s Rodeo, Compare-N-Save Concentrate Grass and Weed Killer, RM43 Total Vegetation Control and Ranger Pro Herbicide, also made by Monsanto. If you don’t know whether a weed killer contains glyphosate, read the label. It would be listed under active ingredients.
Q: How extensive is human exposure to glyphosate?
Because of its widespread use, glyphosate is in water, food and dust, so it’s likely almost everyone has been exposed. And human exposure, through food and water, will probably increase in tandem with growing use of the weed killer, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe.
But little is known about the magnitude of human exposure, because food and water are not regularly tested for glyphosate residue. However, a few years ago, researchers tested the urine of a small group of people across the United States and found glyphosate residue in 93% of them.
Curl said she is launching a project that will compare the exposure of pregnant women who live in farm areas and non-farm areas, then introduce organic diets to try to tease out how much of the glyphosate comes from food.
Q: What do we really know about the human health risks of glyphosate?
For decades, it was thought that glyphosate posed a risk only to plants, not people. That’s because it inhibits an enzyme that humans don’t even have.
Its possible link to cancer has prompted a blizzard of claims and counterclaims over the past several years, and major public health agencies disagree about it. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has called glyphosate a “probable human carcinogen,” and in 2017, the state of California added it to its list of cancer-causing chemicals.
The Environmental Protection Agency, however, decided in late 2017 that glyphosate was “not likely” to cause cancer in humans.
But evidence is mounting that people who are heavily exposed to it — farmworkers and landscapers, for example — have an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
A review led by University of Washington scientists published in February found that agricultural workers who used a lot of glyphosate had a 41% higher risk of contracting non-Hodgkin lymphoma over their lifetimes than people who used it infrequently or not at all.
On average, about 2 out of every 100 Americans develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For people who are highly exposed to glyphosate, the disease rate jumps to 2.8 per 100. That means they still have a relatively small chance of contracting the disease, but their risk is substantially higher because of glyphosate use.
Monsanto has submitted more than 800 studies to the EPA and European regulatory agencies suggesting that glyphosate is safe, according to Bayer.
Q: What about the risks to the rest of us, who only occasionally use glyphosate — and only on a small scale?
No one knows.
“The data is really starting to suggest that there is a correlation between high glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” said Curl. “But we have a lot of unanswered questions about the rest of us. We don’t know what that means for people who don’t have high exposures, and we don’t know what it means with a chemical that is so widely used.”
Q: Should people still use glyphosate at home, or are there safer substitutes?
All chemical pesticides are toxic. Some gardeners have limited success using vinegar or homemade remedies.
The best non-toxic solution for killing weeds is good old elbow grease: Get a trowel and dig them out.
“From a personal perspective, I prefer to use caution and avoid pesticides in my own garden,” said Rachel Shaffer, a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and co-author of the university’s study on glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“Our understanding of the health effects of glyphosate will continue to evolve as the science advances,” said Shaffer, who blogs on her findings. “Individuals who are particularly concerned in the interim may want to take steps to reduce use in their home gardens.”
Q: If I use glyphosate products, what precautions should I take?
Carefully follow label instructions and warnings. Wear gloves and don’t let the chemical come in contact with your skin, clothing or eyes. Use it only on calm, rain-free days to prevent drift. Do not let it run off into waterways or gutters. Pets and people should wait until treated areas are dry before entering them.
People forget that one big contributor to cancer is viral infections.
If you’re workin’ the farm and outdoors you’re more likely to get that exposure as well compared to your average suburbanite.
The subject in this thread is quite interesting to me on many levels, and I could write a blue ton about herbicides in general. I pretty accurately recall in the huge case last year...I believe I saw a photo of a section of the court documents posted on TV...that there was ANOTHER herbicide besides Roundup named in the court documents. Surprisingly (to me) is that I did not recognize the brand name of the herbicide and thus its commercial name active ingredient.
I meant to look that up when I encountered this revelation. I did not. However it just goes to show you that there's ALWAYS something else to stories. And how old was this first plaintiff? How long did he use this stuff? Was it really the Roundup (glyphosate) or the other named product? Did this guy follow directions and precautions? Did he use tobacco and/or drink (both of which I feel will exacerbate or trigger potential health problems if used to excess for prolonged periods.)
Someone mentioned "Pedro" letting this stuff slosh around in the back of his truck. Well, I not sure but I would pretty much guarantee something along this line happened to a small college campus in Ohio some years ago. This college prided itself on how well the grounds were kept, but apparently some turf boobs applied a broad spectrum killer to pretty much the whole campus and really wiped out everything. At the time I said someone didn't or more likely can't read a label. I'll leave it at that.
I'm in favor of herbicides and of course, their proper use. However, these herbicide manufacturers are not blameless as their marketing and display techniques almost actively encourage the overuse and misuse of the products. I've got a real bad jones against them on how they label their stuff.
I could write an opus about this but will stop for now.
Atrazine.
Yep. I remember run off problems with it when I was a kid. The popular thing to do then was to top dress the corn and sorghum with a mix of atrazine and “28” nitrogen.
Atrazine is still widely-used in the US.
And, I’ve still got some Chlordane left in a coffee can in my garage. Inherited it from my Mom.
No ants in MY yard!
:: 1-1-1 Trichloroethane worked for me. ::
R-111. Montreal doesn’t like you!
Certainly better at generating birth defects.
I think the State of California causes reproductive harm.....TO BABIES.
Imagine what chemicals are poured on the veggies we get out of Mexico. They don’t care about our health but want prime good looking stuff to sell to us.
Since californicate has stopped the irrigation there to protect some stupid fish we have to eat the crap that comes out of Mexico.
I’m a farmer. I add lime to reduce acidity and raise pH.
And like the previous poster, honeysuckle is a bear and impossible to eliminate.
Both are safe WHEN USED ACCORDING TO LABEL INSTRUCTIONS.
Careless use of all sorts of chemicals — natural and synthetic — can be carcinogenic.
Nobody claims that anywhere close to 100% of the people even using it heavily get cancer, or anything else, from it.
How many Monsanto employees spend their time rolling in it?
Not too many, I’d imagine.
Why would environmentalists hate safe weed killers?
No need for herbicide along the fence lines of our farms, thank you. If weeds need cutting, we’ve plenty of mowers that can get close enough for that, including under electrified barbed wire.
Not that hard to compare farm populations exposed to specific herbicides — and those not.
OK. I need some salt and pepper...and maybe a dash of Emeril’s Essence. I’ve got some crow to eat.
Here’s the lawsuit from last year which is the first one I’ve heard of about regarding Roundup and glyphosate in general.
DeWayne Johnson v. Monsanto Company, et al, No. 3:2016cv01244 – Document 52 (N.D. Cal. 2016) (May 2, 2016). Retrieved from https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2016cv01244/296571/52/.
DeWayne Johnson was a groundskeeper for a school district in CA. During his course of work he applied Monsanto’s Roundup and Monsanto’s Ranger PRO herbicide. Ranger PRO is the other herbicide I saw mentioned in a court document a long time ago and was not familiar with it. Ranger PRO is another Monsanto glyphosate product with a glyphosate content of 41% plus a surfactant to help the applied mix adhere and absorb into the plant more efficiently.
So...I had suspected the “other” herbicide in this lawsuit was something in the Pramitol family. Turns out it was not...just glyphosate by another name.
You can safely ingest a teaspoon of DDT.
How much safer do you want your pesticides?
Geez...real slow this morning.
And another thing: I seriously doubt being a groundskeeper for a school district limited his herbicide use and application to broad spectrum products that contain glyphosate. I would strongly speculate that he also took care of the turf with regards to controlling/eliminating broadleaf weeds that are a constant battle to control. For that he would encounter and use a varied array of products that are quite common: 2,4-D, dicamba, MCCP, triclopyr, quinclorac, etc.
Maybe the suit is going after the wrong mfr and vilifying the wrong stuff? Just sayin’... if Johnson had a broad scope of turf duties AND if one of those duties was controlling broadleaf weeds, then his exposure to the 2,4-D types of herbicide would be far greater than his exposure to glyphosate. That stuff I listed above I’ve used at one time or another. Its very odor and appearance is way more sinister than glyphosate.
Speculating that Monsanto (and now Bayer) is getting sued for perhaps another chemical being at fault because Monsanto is a big target and already a “bogeyman” due to the GMO hysteria.
I sprayed some cancer this past weekend.
My wife’s uncle had Dementia. He kept going nuts with the Roundup so we replaced the contents with Gatorade.
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