Hazards of the World’s Most Common Herbicide

(Page 2 of 2)

October/November 2005
By Cheryl Long 
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  • Symptoms of exposure to glyphosate include eye irritation, blurred vision, skin rashes, burning or itchy skin, nausea, sore throat and difficulty breathing, headache, lethargy, nose bleeds and dizziness.
  • In lab tests, glyphosate and herbicides containing glyphosate caused genetic damage to human and animal cells.
  • Studies of farmers and other people exposed to glyphosate herbicides link this exposure to increased risks of cancer, miscarriages and attention deficit disorder. Additional laboratory tests have confirmed the results of these studies.
  • Laboratory evidence indicates that glyphosate herbicides can reduce production of sex hormones.
  • Application of glyphosate herbicides increases the severity of a variety of plant diseases.
  • Studies of glyphosate contamination of water are limited, but new results indicate that it can easily contaminate streams in both agricultural and urban areas.
  • Glyphosate herbicides cause more off-target damage incidents than all but one other herbicide — 2, 4-D.
  • Glyphosate herbicides cause genetic damage and harm to the immune system in fish. In frogs, glyphosate herbicides cause genetic damage and abnormal development.

RELATED CONTENT

“Every time there is another scientific study showing hazards to human health, to me it’s another reason why finding alternatives to pesticides is so important,” Cox recently told Mother Earth News.

To read Cox’s entire fact sheet on glyphosate, which cites 56 references, visit the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.

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  • Jenny 4/8/2009 8:43:05 PM

    this is the second article in 2 days i have read regarding this newly found old threat. Very scary. I am in my first year of organic gardening after finding out that my dad's lymphoma was triggered by pesticide exposure. How do we protect our children from this widespread threat? If we eat organic food, how do we avoid overspray from the neighbor's weed killer of choice, or the water? I am expecting a child soon , and the stats on chemicals in our environment is scary. what can we truely do? how do we stop the machine?is it possible to create a mini clean environment for ourselves?

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