GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • Daily Digest
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Cornell videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
    • How donations will help us
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2021 articles
      • 2020 articles
      • 2019 articles
      • 2018 articles
      • 2017 articles
      • 2016 articles
      • 2015 articles
      • 2014 articles
      • 2013 articles
      • 2012 articles
      • 2011 articles
      • 2010 articles
      • 2009 articles
      • 2008 articles
      • 2007 articles
      • 2006 articles
      • 2005 articles
      • 2004 articles
      • 2003 articles
      • 2002 articles
      • 2001 articles
      • 2000 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • How donations will help us
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Cornell videos
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
  • Donations

LATEST NEWS

  • How to respond to the UK consultation on the deregulation of gene editing

  • Japan's first genome-edited food, a tomato, gets green light for distribution

  • New report shows EFSA systematically ignores risks of GM crops and foods

  • Brexit voters reject lower food standards

  • Victory in fight against deregulation of GMOs in Italy

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS

Help stop the new threat

LATEST VIDEOS

  • Seed keepers and truth tellers: From the frontlines of GM agriculture
  • Myths and Truths of Gene-Edited Foods
  • Dangers of gene-edited foods

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

Glyphosate study shows adverse health effects at "safe" dose

Details
Published: 16 May 2018
Twitter

Roundup bottle

Effects found on sexual development, genotoxicity, and the intestinal microbiome

Glyphosate-based herbicide caused adverse health effects in rats at a dose claimed to be safe by regulators, according to a new study. Glyphosate herbicides are used on the vast majority of GM crops worldwide.

The study used the US Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable daily dietary exposure level of glyphosate(1) – 1.75 mg per kg of bodyweight per day. The same concentration was given to the rats daily over a 3-month period.

The study was focused on the newborn, infancy and adolescence phases of life. The results reveal that glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) was able to alter certain important biological parameters, mainly relating to sexual development, genotoxicity, and the intestinal microbiome.

The effects occurred at a dose deemed safe by regulators to ingest on a daily basis over a long-term period. In human-equivalent terms the dosing period corresponded to the period from the embryo stage to 18 years of age.

Results in detail

The results showed an alteration in some sexual development parameters in rats treated with GBH, especially in females. Moreover, rats treated with GBH presented statistically significant changes of the intestinal microbiome in particular during development.

Concerning genotoxicity, a statistically significant increase was observed in micronuclei in rats treated with GBH, especially in the first part of life.

Rats treated with pure glyphosate or its formulation presented similar levels in urine of glyphosate and its principal metabolite (AMPA), thus showing no significant difference in the absorption and excretion of glyphosate among the two treatment groups, but suggesting a bioaccumulation effect of glyphosate that was proportional to the length of treatment.

The study was conducted at the Ramazzini Institute, Bologna, Italy. In over 40 years of activity, the institute has studied more than 200 compounds fro m the general and occupational environment and many of its results have provided a solid scientific base forregulating and limiting the exposure of a number of substances. Examples include vinyl chloride, benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and mancozeb.

Comments from scientists

Commenting on the glyphosate herbicide pilot study, Prof Philip J. Landrigan, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said, “By its very nature and purpose, the pilot study does not resolve the uncertainties puzzling the various agencies (IARC, EFSA, ECHA) as to whether glyphosate and Glyphosate Based Herbicides (GBHs) are carcinogenic or not, but it does highlight health effects that are equally as serious, that might manifest as long-term oncological pathology [cancer], and that might affect a huge number of people, given the planet-wide use of the GBHs. These early warnings must be further investigated in a comprehensive long-term study”.

Dr Fiorella Belpoggi, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center, Ramazzini Institute, said,“Whatever the outcome of the Ramazzini Institute study, the findings will provide regulatory agencies and policymakers with solid independent results obtained by a shared research project on which they can confidently base their risk assessments and their evaluations, includi ng the upcoming decision for the reauthorization for glyphosate use in Europe in 2022."

Prof Jia Chen, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said, “Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are of significant public health concern because of their widespread and sharply increased usage. As an herbicide, glyphosate exerts its herbicidal action by inhibiting the Shikimate pathway which exists not only in plants but also exist in some bacteria and fungi and other microbes. However, there are no studies on the potential effects of GBHs on the gut microbiome in the human population.

"Our study provides initial evidence that exposures to commonly used GBHs, at doses considered safe, are capable of modifying the gut microbiota in early development, particularly before the onset of puberty. Further long-term investigations are necessary to elucidate if the shift in the microbiota induced by GBHs exposure is contributing to the other health effects downstream. Nevertheless, understanding the microbiota changes during this critical window of susceptibility could be of great importance for disease prevention”.

Dr Alberto Mantovani, Italian National Institute of Health, said, “An interesting feature is the time-related increase of unchanged glyphosate in the urine. This finding might indicate that glyphosate bioavailability increases with a longer duration of exposure; increased bioavalability, in its turn, might flag an increased internal exposure of target organs and tissues.”

Publication and funding

Three peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts from the pilot phase of the Global Glyphosate Study are available online today (May 16) today. They will be published in the prestigious scientific journal Environmental Health in open access format later in May. The data on reproductive parameters and genotoxicity is currently in peer review and is soon to be published.

The pilot study involved the participation of multiple institutes and universities in Europe and the US. The study cost €300,000 and was funded by 30,000 members of the public in Italy, who are associates of the Ramazzini Institute cooperative.

A crowd-funding campaign(2) has been launched to help support a long-term comprehensive Global Glyphosate Study, which following these results is now urgently required.

Notes

1. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Glyphosate: Chronic Dietary Exposure Assessment for the Section 3 Registration Action. 2006. https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/cleared_reviews/csr_PC-103601_8-May-06_a.pdf
2. Global Glyphosate Study: http://glyphosatestudy.org/

Menu

Home

News

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

How Donations Will Help Us

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

Content 1999 - 2021 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design