Kim Gale  |  October 18, 2022

Category: Consumer News

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Male farmer sprays cropsEven though Roundup was promoted as safe to use since it was introduced in the 1970s, the herbicide has faced scrutiny by users who claim that they developed cancer such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from glyphosate, Roundup’s main ingredient.

Glyphosate is the main active ingredient in Roundup, which is a selective herbicide that targets plants that produce the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase.

This enzyme is found in weeds and can cause plant death when the enzyme is inhibited. This allows for crops to grow without the interference of weeds.

Glyphosate has been on the market for more than 40 years and has become one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, largely due to Monsanto’s promotion of Roundup.

Recently, Monsanto agreed to pay up to $45 million as part of a class action settlement resolving false advertising and breach-of-warranty claims surrounding certain Roundup®, HDX® and Ace® weed and grass killer products.

Is glyphosate safe?

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued an announcement, which stated that glyphosate and four other herbicides could be carcinogenic (that is, capable of causing cancer).

The IARC made this announcement after reviewing three different studies.

Research from a November 2001 Canadian study published by the American Association for Cancer Research found that some subjects exposed to glyphosate developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma within 10 years after exposure.

Another one of these studies was from the United States and was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, which concluded that glyphosate and certain other herbicides were “potentially carcinogenic” and linked with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

However, it is important to note that while glyphosate is not the same as Roundup, the weedkiller could still be considered dangerous. According to recent research reported by the New Food Economy and The Scientist, it has been suggested that the mixture of glyphosate and other chemicals making up the herbicide could be more dangerous than glyphosate alone.

What else is in Roundup?

Plants being sprayed with herbicideScientists and the general public are not aware of the other ingredients in Roundup, which makes further studies and risk evaluation difficult. Monsanto, and now Bayer, considers the “inactive” ingredients to be trade secrets, which means the company is not mandated to share what those ingredients are or how much of each inactive ingredient exists in each mixture of Roundup pesticide.

While “trade secret” reasoning is more often used to keep secret recipes under wraps that famous restaurants don’t want duplicated, chemical companies insist they deserve that same protection for their products.

However, some studies suggest that the Roundup mixtures affect living cells differently. A 2002 study from France led by scientist Julie Marc found that when applied to sea urchin embryos, Roundup interrupted the cell cycle regulation. When only glyphosate was applied, the sea urchin embryonic cell cycles were not interrupted. The scientists wrote that this discrepancy in reaction indicated “synergy between glyphosate and Roundup formulation products.”

POEA is listed as an inert ingredient, and it helps glyphosate soak into plants instead of running off the tops of wax-like leaves. Some scientists such as Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen Normandy, France suspect that POEA and other supposedly inactive ingredients help increase the toxicity of glyphosate.

“Adjuvants (other ingredients) are almost always declared as inert and their identity and quantity relative to the total formulation are kept confidential,” said Seralini in an article published in the Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry in 2015. “This also places public health at risk according to our discoveries.”

Is glyphosate dangerous?

Even though glyphosate is not the same as Roundup, it has still been linked to serious long-term health complications other than cancer, and there are side effects to watch for.

Researchers began investigating the link between glyphosate and other herbicides after noticing a number of farmers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reportedly suspected a correlation back in the 1980s.

While small amounts of glyphosate are reportedly harmless, people should still be aware of the potentially carcinogenic nature of the herbicide and where it is found.

If you or a loved one developed cancer after using Roundup as a farm worker or home gardener, you may have a legal claim. Legal migrant farm workers may also seek help. Learn more by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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