This pesticide issue is beginning to look a bit more serious; hands-up which Local Councils, farmer, forestery operation (Forestry Tasmania doesn’t even monitor for it after spray events any more), roads department, golf course, gardener, path protecter-from-weeds does NOT use this stuff??

Press Release 07/03/05 from the Institute of Science in Society

Glyphosate Toxic & Roundup Worse

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins call for urgent regulatory review of the most widely used herbicide in the light of new scientific evidence

New research findings are raising serious concerns over the safety of the most commonly used herbicide, and should be sending shockwaves through proponents of genetically modified (GM) crops made tolerant to the herbicide, which now account for 75% of all GM crops in the world.

Worse yet, the most common formulation of the herbicide is even more toxic than the herbicide by itself, and is made by the same biotech giant that created the herbicide tolerant GM crops.

Broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine), commonly sold in the commercial formulation Roundup (Monsanto company, St. Louis, Missouri USA) has been frequently used both on crops and non-crops areas world wide since it was introduced in the 1970s. Roundup is a combination of glyphosate with other chemicals including a surfactant (detergent) polyoxyethyleneamine that enhance the spreading of the spray droplets on the leaves of plants. The use of Roundup has gone up especially in countries growing Roundup- tolerant GM crops created by Monsanto.

Glyphosate kills plants by inhibiting the enzyme, 5-enolpyruvoyl- shikimate-3-phosphate synthetase (EPSPS), essential for the formation of aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan; which leads onto vitamins and many secondary metabolites such as folates, ubiquinones and naphthoquines. It is believed to be rather specific in action and less toxic than other herbicides, because the shikimate pathway is not present in mammals and humans. However, glyphosate acts by preventing the binding of phosphoenol pyruvate to the active site of the enzyme, and phosphoenol pyruvate is a core metabolite present in all organisms; thus it has the potential to affect other metabolic pathways. This is borne out by many reports of toxicities associated with the herbicide reviewed in the Independent Science Panel Report, The Case for a GM-free Sustainable World [1].

An epidemiological study in the Ontario farming populations showed that glyphosate exposure nearly doubled the risk of late spontaneous abortions [2], and Prof. Eric-Giles Seralini and his research team from Caen University in France decided to find out more about the effects of the herbicide on cells from the human placenta.

They have now shown that glyphosate is toxic to human placental cells, killing a large proportion of them after 18 hr of exposure at concentrations below that in agricultural use [3]. Moreover, Roundup is always more toxic than its active ingredient, glyphosate; at least by two-fold. The effect increased with time, and was obtained with concentrations of Roundup 10 times lower than agricultural use.

The enzyme aromatase is responsible for making the female hormones estrogens from androgens (the male hormones). Glyphosate interacts with the active site of the enzyme but its effect on enzyme activity was minimal unless Roundup was present.

Interestingly, Roundup increased enzyme activity after 1 h of incubation, possibly because of its surfactant effect in making the androgen substrate more available to the enzyme. But at 18h incubation, Roundup invariably inhibited enzyme activity; the inhibition being associated with a decrease in mRNA synthesis, suggesting that Roundup decreased the rate of gene transcription. Seralini and colleagues suggest that other ingredients in the Roundup formulation enhance the availability or accumulation of glyphosate in cells.

There is, indeed, direct evidence that glyphosate inhibits RNA transcription in animals at a concentration well below the level that is recommended for commercial spray application Transcription was inhibited and embryonic development delayed in sea urchins following exposure to low levels of the herbicide and/or the surfactant polyoxyethyleneamine. The pesticide should be considered a health concern by inhalation during spraying [4].

New research shows that a brief exposure to commercial glyphosate caused liver damage in rats, as indicated by the leakage of intracellular liver enzymes. In this study, glyphosate and its surfactant in Roundup were also found to act in synergy to increase damage to the liver [5].

ISIS Press Release 11/02/09
Death by Multiple Poisoning, Glyphosate and Roundup
Scientists pinpoint how very low concentrations of the herbicide and other chemicals in Roundup formulations kill human cells, strengthening the case for phasing them out, and banning all further releases of Roundup-tolerant GM crops
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Brett Cherry

These latest studies confirm a wealth of evidence on the toxicities of glyphosate and Roundup formulations [2] ( Glyphosate Toxic & Roundup Worse , SiS 26), and pinpoint the different sites of action, all of which result in cell death. Epidemiological studies have previously linked glyphosate to spontaneous abortions, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Laboratory studies showed that glyphosate inhibits transcription in sea urchin eggs and delays development. Brief exposures to glyphosate in rats caused liver damage, and adding the surfactant in Roundup had a synergistic effect, causing greater liver damage. Roundup was also found to be much more lethal to frogs than to weeds, and could have contributed to the global demise of amphibians within the past decades [3] ( Roundup Kills Frogs , SiS 26).

We have called for a new regulatory review on glyphosate and Roundup in 2005 [2]. There is a now a strong case for restricting, if not phasing out glyphosate and Roundup; in the first instance, by banning the release of Roundup tolerant GM crops worldwide. For the same reason, no further Roundup tolerant GM crops should be approved for commercial release.

References
Benachour N and Séralini G-E.. Glyphosate formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental Cells Chem. Res. Toxicol. , 2009, 22 (1), pp 97–105
Ho MW and Cummins J. Glyphosate toxic and Roundup worse Science in Society 26, 12, 2005. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GTARW.php
Ho MW. Roundup kills grogs Science in Society 26. 13, 2005.

An alarming aspect of this pesticide use is the fact that even some doctors just don’t believe the dangers. A local doctor, who was head of a Medical Practise in a nearby town told us “Oh, Im not bothered about sprays” This was in reply to our telling him that the apples that he bought from us, and consequently asked for more, were grown without any sprays on them or herbicides around them. What hope have we ordinary people of convincing his type of doctor to investigate fully?