Bad news about Roundup herbicide is endless. It seems as if every month, a new study is released staining the name of the Bayer-Monsanto weed killer. It is sad to see that some people’s life-threatening illnesses are becoming evermore linked to the world’s most popular herbicide.
The latest news is worse than many imagined: Roundup is affecting children. Children who grow up in agricultural areas are experiencing Roundup-related illnesses just for calling a farm their home.
Lifetime Exposure to Glyphosate
A new study released in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal (https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP11721) has found that lifetime exposure of children to Roundup’s glyphosate can result in liver and metabolic disease, and even cancer.
Brenda Eskenazi, one of the researchers leading the study, ran the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas study. She has been collecting samples from mothers and their children for over 20 years in California, and it was her two years of dedication that led to these alarming results.
Suspicions had grown within the area following other studies completed that showed a connection between glyphosate exposure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Salinas health professionals had noticed a rise in the disease within their agricultural community and sought Eskenazi as her collected data would provide them with the answers.
They found their answer. Exposure to glyphosate in childhood, equalled a higher likelihood of fatty liver disease or metabolic disease amongst young adults.
The results reflected the health of those between 18 and 20 years old in the area. And suffering such diseases at that age, means they’re more likely to end up with liver cancer, develop diabetes, or suffer a stroke in the future, taking away the chances of a healthy, happy future from many young adults in agricultural regions of the United States.
The study tested the levels of glyphosate in the local area of their subject. It also tested the urine of pregnant mothers, and children at the ages of 5, 14, and 18, looking for examples of glyphosate or aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), the main by-product of glyphosate.
They found that children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic disease at the age of 18 had substantially higher levels of glyphosate or AMPA in their urine samples.
The study states the necessity for more research to be done on the other health risks of Roundup, other than its carcinogenic properties.
“Metabolic and liver diseases are increasing among youth and young adults,” concluded the study. “This study indicates the need for further investigation of [glyphosate’s] association with metabolic and liver outcomes.”
The World’s Most Popular Herbicide
Roundup first came on the market in the 1970s but became one of the most ubiquitous products found in all gardeners’ sheds by the 1990s.
Over the last decade, its popularity hasn’t worked in Bayer-Monsanto’s favor. Roundup has become a term used in courtrooms rather than on farms. After years of use, the curtains finally parted as evidence of cancers could no longer be ignored.
Some, who unfortunately spent years working with the supposedly ‘safe’ chemical, found themselves going through treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma and other cancers as the years went by.
Monsanto and Agent Orange: A History of Toxicity
Every year we are flooded with research on glyphosate and Roundup, like that in Salinas Valley, and every year we are finding out how dangerous the substance is. It shouldn’t be surprising when you remember Monsanto’s link to Vietnam.
Agent Orange was a herbicide developed by the company to eradicate foliage where VietCong were hiding. Between 1965 and 1969, the herbicide was deemed the perfect weapon. Fighting became difficult for U.S. troops due to dense jungle forest, and Agent Orange was the tool to clear the path. It also killed and maimed all who touched it, including U.S. troops, many whom developed horrible illnesses and whose children were born with birth defects years after their exposure. It was eventually banned due to its hazardous effects.
Vietnam is the perfect case study for what these herbicides can do to humans. Millions of people — including those on both sides of the war effort, suffered visible disfigurement, cancers, birth defects, skin diseases, and other serious health problems in the ensuing decades.
It is no surprise then that another one of Monsanto’s money makers is now at the center of the latest controversy, and that lives are once again on the line.
