Glyphosate, “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans” — How This Study Was Skewed to Favor RoundUp Manufacturers
You’ve probably heard the word “glyphosate” by now. It’s been buzzing around the health & wellness industry for years as one of the most, if not THE most health hazardous chemicals that’s widely used, on everything from your kids’ soccer field to the food you buy at the grocery store. What’s worse, is this chemical’s pervasiveness in our air, water & land as it’s use continues to accelerate in the U.S. due to it’s powerful manufacturers as well as government lobbyists with the revolving door principle. Even organic food now contains minimal amounts of this heinous substance. This is because, while organic food cannot be sprayed directly, particles of these pesticides become airborne, then rest into the soil and end up in waterways. Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely avoid them. In 2015, the World Health Organization deemed it as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Glyphosate is the active component of RoundUp, from Monsanto & now Bayer manufacturers. It’s used because of it’s ability to destroy weeds from the root and to accelerate harvest by desiccating grains. Bayer and Monsanto has, for decades, claimed it’s safety, but food & health conscious individuals like Dave Murphy, founder of the advocacy group, Food Democracy Now, which tests for glyphosate in food, begs to differ. Additionally, the EPA’s safety limits for glyphosate are twice the levels allowed in the European Union, so what is actually safe? Clearly there are discrepancies for what is considered safe… the actuality is we don’t know.
Dr. Stephanie Seneff has performed several studies showing glyphosate disrupts normal body functions and induces disease, linking it to infertility, Parkinson’s and cancers, most notably, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In fact, this type of cancer kicked off a huge number of lawsuits, costing Bayer over $10 billion. It’s an accumulation of this volatile agent in the body that overtime will lead to health issues, and because it may take years to build up in the body and have an effect, it’s been difficult to prove that glyphosate is playing a root cause role and by the time it’s recognized as a key player in health issues, it’s often too late. This study shows just how much it resists excretion and accumulates in the human body.
Glyphosate has two main actions in humans. It destroys our gut microflora, the microbes that literally support nearly every action at a cellular level, including much more than just “gut health”. In fact, glyphosate was first introduced as an antibiotic. Next, glyphosate has a destructive impact on the P450 enzyme used in the body’s detoxification processes.
In terms of where you’ll find glyphosate being used on food crops, there’s a big misconception: that it’s solely used on “RoundUp ready crops” or GMO crops that have been designed to withstand glyphosate, such as corn and soy, however, as I mentioned before, it’s actually used much more widely. It’s used to dry out crops of nuts, grains and legumes, such as wheat, oats and chick peas so that harvest is quicker, increasing farmer’s profits. When this desiccation process is performed on foods, “washing it off” isn’t going to happen because the glyphosate is directly absorbed into the parts of the plants eaten and / or processed. Sadly, glyphosate is used on over 70 crops, whether to clear the land before planting or to desiccate before harvest. Since the introduction of GMO crops aka RoundUp ready crops in 1996, it’s use has skyrocketed, from around 30 million pounds sprayed annually to nearly 300 million pounds sprayed in 2016.
The graph below was taken from the EPA in 2015, and when compared to previous years, it’s obvious to see how much glyphosate usage has increased.
As you can see, nearly all of the nuts, grains and legumes are heavily sprayed— this is because these crops have moisture, and would therefore be prone to mold & mildew if they aren’t properly dried. Ironically, even though these crops are dried with glyphosate, they still rank among the highest contaminated with molds, so something isn’t mathing. Glyphosate helps to dry these crops quickly, getting them ready for processing & packaging and decreases the product weight and time required of the farmers. Luckily, it is illegal to spray organic crops with glyphosate, so you can be sure to avoid direct exposure by purchasing organic food. Still, organic food does contain some amount of glyphosate and other pesticides due to their widespread use as I’ve mentioned before, but your exposure is greatly reduced when you opt for these alternatives. In addition to the crops that are annually listed as the worse offenders (called the “dirty dozen”) by the Environmental Working Group, I certainly think this list should also be taken into account.
The greatest potential exposure from glyphosate is among farm workers and gardeners using the chemical and those who live near farms or manufacturing plants where glyphosate is produced, according to the 2020 Department of Health and Human Services. This includes schools, parks & golf courses. Although the EPA says glyphosate residues are safe up to certain thresholds, claiming exposure through food is fine, both the amount studied and the accumulation of the chemical are issues. There’s no telling just how much one is being exposed to or has been exposed to in the past. There are constituents in glyphosate that we can test for, but where the exposure came from (and thus how to stop it) will remain a mystery for most. Additionally, there are many people who may have an average, or even low exposure, but have a poor or difficult time detoxing, thus accumulation becomes more of an issue. Robin Mesnage, a toxicologist who has been studying various toxins, including glyphosate and litigating against them for over a decade at King’s College London says in his own research, glyphosate can cause DNA and liver metabolism changes in doses up to 100 times lower than the permitted levels, values that still exceed any value in the CDC study. This clearly negates the CDC’s research. He also says that combining various herbicide and pesticide ingredients in addition to glyphosate continues the accumulative effect and massive health hazard.
I found the excerpt below on the NBC News website:
The following links support this excerpt:
From my understanding, there is a clear issue with this chemical. Even if it's "speculation" (which it isn't!), do we want to test the waters as much as we are? At what point is there no return for our planet and ourselves?
My advice: take a look at the chart above, snap a pic of it to have with you at the grocery store and purchase only organic produce of anything with high levels, especially if you eat them often. As for wheat, soy and corn, look for the "glyphosate residue free" label.
