Monsanto narrows Glyphosate / Roundup Argument
The world was shocked in 2015 when the World Health Organization declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen. The larger, nearly unmentioned problem, is that focusing on glyphosate alone obscures the real issue: the toxicity of Roundup. Glyphosate is merely a red herring that hides the real dangers of Roundup. Farmers and homeowners don’t poison weeds and driveways (and themselves) with glyphosate alone. They use Roundup, which is an entirely different animal.
Monsanto would like to keep the discussion narrowed to glyphosate alone. Glyphosate alone can be shown – in some studies, at least – to have a much safer profile than Roundup. Roundup is a combination of Glyphosate plus other active ingredients that support adherence and absorption on plants, and product stability, called adjuvants. Some studies have shown that the adjuvants increase glyphosate toxicity by allowing it to penetrate animal, plant, and human cells more easily. Many of these adjuvants are toxic by themselves, yet their own toxicity can increase exponentially when mixed with glyphosate. The half-life of many Roundup adjuvants also outlast glyphosate alone.
Most studies of Roundup’s safety focus on glyphosate alone. The EPA has not researched, in any meaningful way, the entire chemical product that is Roundup, and how the chemicals working together may potentially magnify or alter the effects of the separate ingredients.
1,000 times more toxic
An in vitro study looked at eight major pesticides – including Roundup – in terms of their complete formulations. The products were all shockingly many times more toxic to human cells when tested against their isolated adjuvants, or so-called active ingredients. Some were as much as 1,000 times more toxic.
Another in vivo study of pigs showed glyphosate and the adjuvant POEA combined in herbicide formulations were toxic to the pigs and lethal in high doses. Glyphosate alone, however, was not. A similar study using rats showed Roundup formulations were far more toxic than glyphosate alone.
Roundup Lawsuits Look at the Chemical Mix in Roundup, Not Glyphosate Alone
Roundup lawsuits change the entire game. The suits argue that the mixture of glyphosate with the many other ingredients that comprise Roundup is what makes Roundup carcinogenic to people. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), Chronic Lymphocytic Lekemia (CLL), and some other NHL subsets have all been linked to Roundup exposure.
Related
- Roundup more toxic than Glyphosate
- Roundup Lawsuit
- Monsanto Lawsuit
- NIH: Unidentified Inert Ingredients in Pesticides
- Why Inert Ingredients may be most harmful of all
- Judge says EPA not required to disclose extremely dangerous “inert” ingredients
- New Evidence about the Dangers of Monsanto’s Roundup
by Matthews & Associates
