Is round up toxic to humans

Expert response from Rmorris

Monday, 31/07/2017 17:01

As a mom, I am concerned about the safety of products as well. As a toxicologist who focuses on pesticide safety, I can tell you that glyphosate herbicides are backed by one of the most extensive worldwide human health, safety and environmental databases ever compiled for a pesticide product. In fact, evaluations spanning four decades, the overwhelming conclusion of regulatory agencies and independent experts worldwide has been that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® branded agricultural herbicides, and glyphosate-based products can be used safely when used according to label instructions.

This conclusion follows 40-years of evaluating a large number of different toxicology studies. These toxicology studies are required by regulatory agencies, like the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), for the evaluating the safety of pesticides.

All pesticides are evaluated for acute, sub-chronic and chronic effects. Acute toxicological testing evaluates whether a single high-dose exposure to a substance will produce acute effects. (An acute effect could be anything from a skin rash to death.) Sub-chronic effects are related to several days or weeks of continuous exposure to a substance. Chronic effects occur after a long period (approaching a lifetime) of continuous exposure. Longer-term studies evaluate whether continual exposure to a substance has the potential to cause adverse effects, such as cancer, neurotoxicity, birth defects or reproductive problems.

The U.S. EPA places pesticides in one of four categories for acute toxicity. Category I is considered the most toxic, and category IV the least toxic. Glyphosate is categorized as having low acute toxicity following oral, dermal and inhalation exposure, since all studies are in Toxicity Categories III or IV.

Regulatory agencies, like the U.S. EPA, whose job it is to approve and regulate pesticides, have reviewed and re-reviewed over the past 40 years all the sub-chronic and chronic toxicity studies and have consistently concluded based on a weight-of-evidence analysis of all the data that glyphosate is not carcinogenic and shows no evidence of genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, immune-toxicity, disrupting the endocrine system, reproductive or developmental toxicity and it does not produce malformations. 

It is the evaluation of all these toxicology studies spanning four decades that have been the basis for the overwhelming conclusion of regulatory agencies and independent experts worldwide that glyphosate and glyphosate-based products like Roundup branded herbicides can be used safely when used according to label instructions.

In addition, here are just a few Q&A, plus other resources, that can help provide additional information and details on this topic.

Q&A found on GMOAnswers.com:

• Glyphosate in Round-up is listed as the "Active" ingredient, toxicity level III of IV (IV being the least toxic). Is this correct?
• If roundup is safe for human consumption in trace amounts in food, then is it safe to drink it? If not, where is the line between safe levels and toxic levels of roundup? Thanks
• DOES GLYPHOSATE CAUSE CANCER?
• In response to, does glyphosphate cause cancer you quoted a WHO source from 1987. Didnt the WHO recently change this opinion? I believe they now consider glyphosphate a a likely carcinogen.

Resources:

• Applied Mythology Blog:  An Example of How Much Pesticides Have Changed by Steve Savage
• Video: Setting the Record Straight: Glyphosate Safety
• Video: Give it a minute - Glyphosate
• Benefits and Safety of Glyphosate
• Since 2015, regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, and now Canada have reaffirmed that glyphosate does not cause cancer.