permaculture

[MARTHA ANNE BOYD <boyd@students.wisc.edu>]

LL - 
Thanks for the Roundup resistance forward from SANET. In addition to the 
great research being done on the realities of genetic resistance developing 
to glyphosate, I wanted to make a plug for research here at the Univ of WI in 
Madison on its *true* toxicological/health effects.

Long touted - and (thus) perceived as - benign (esp in comparison to other 
herbicides), Roundup has been the "drug of choice" for ecologically concerned 
landscapers, restorationists, conservation land managers, and homeowners 
confronting invasive exotic or "pest" plant problems. I am of the opinion 
that there are valid reasons for using it, sparingly and knowledgeably, as a 
tool in certain circumstances. However, since the initial approval of Roundup 
for market was largely conducted and underwritten by Monsanto and/or didn't 
include testing of inerts and surfactants, it has enjoyed an overly and 
unduly easy acceptance. I think much homeowner Roundup use is based on a 
belief that it is essentially "nontoxic" or "safe" - which leads to less 
questioning about its use in agriculture as well.

Warren Porter, a zoology professor at UW-Madison, studied common mixtures 
(off the shelf, and at levels easily encountered in groundwater) of agric 
chemicals on mice and now is studying neurological and other effects of 
Roundup. Check out his UW website - 
http://www.wisc.edu/zoology/faculty/fac/Por/Por.html. (See his 1999 article 
on aldicarb, atrazine, and nitrates, and the 2002 Cavieres-Porter article).

Carolyn Cox at NCAP has published Roundup toxicity and persistence related 
info in the Journal of Pesticide Reform - the following comes from NCAP's 
Glyphosate factsheet. (www.pesticide.org)

"Glyphosate-containing products are acutely toxic to animals, including 
humans. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, headache, nausea, numbness, 
elevated blood pressure, and heart palpitations. The
surfactant used in a common glyphosate product (Roundup) is more acutely 
toxic than glyphosate itself; the combination of the two is yet more toxic.
Given the marketing of glyphosate herbicides as benign, it is striking that 
laboratory studies have found adverse effects in all standard categories of 
laboratory toxicology testing. These include medium-term toxicity (salivary 
gland lesions), long-term toxicity (inflamed stomach linings), genetic damage 
(in human blood cells), effects on reproduction (reduced sperm counts in 
rats; increased frequency of abnormal sperm in rabbits), and carcinogenicity 
(increased frequency of liver tumors in male rats and thyroid cancer in 
female rats).
In studies of people (mostly farmers) exposed to glyphosate herbicides, 
exposure is associated with an increased risk of miscarriages, premature 
birth, and the cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Glyphosate has been called “extremely persistent” by the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, and half lives of over 100 days have been measured in 
field tests in Iowa and New York. Glyphosate has been found in streams 
following agricultural, urban, and forestry applications."

Martha B