EPA Should Begin an Immediate, Rapid Phase-out of Roundup
- by: Susan V
- recipient: EPA
A new study on Roundup’s link to liver and kidney disease supports the growing body of evidence that says Roundup is not safe - not even at very very low levels!
Previously, adverse effects on animals found in most studies with glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) like Roundup were based on levels that were generally higher than levels humans and wildlife were regularly exposed to. However the new study, published in last month’s Environmental Health, found “ultra low-dose” exposure to Roundup” to be “associated with wide-scale alterations of the liver and kidney” enough to cause “pathological changes in these organs.”
Though it may take time for serious adverse effects on these organs to show up, study author Michael Antoniou told Truthout, there will indeed “be harm given enough time.”
“Meanwhile,” says Truthout, use of Roundup “has skyrocketed, increasing more than 250 times over the past four decades in the US, according to estimates.”
Despite Monsanto and EPA attempts to discredit and downplay the science prompting WHO's decision to label GBHs as probable human carcinogens, the results of this new and other studies are “concerning“ warns Antoniou, "given glyphosate's widespread use.”
EPA has run out of excuses for keeping Roundup on the market.
Sign this petition to insist EPA begin an immediate and rapid phase-out of Roundup and other GBHs.
We, the undersigned, say there is sufficient evidence to support a rapid phase-out of Roundup.
In addition to presenting evidence showing serious adverse effects on livers and kidneys of rats exposed to ultra-low levels of Roundup in water, the study authors also suggest that low-level exposures may be disrupting endocrine systems of humans and animals. This could help explain why intersex fish are being found at very high levels in US waters.
Truthout notes that “health researchers and environmental groups” had already “called on governments to either ban or more strictly regulate glyphosate, especially after the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer in March determined glyphosate is probably cancer-causing in humans.”
However, this new evidence presents more than just another nail in Roundup’s coffin.
Evidence of Roundup's damage to liver and kidney organs further supports the WHO’s decision to classify Roundup and other GBHs as probable human carcinogens. These organs act as the main routes of metabolism and detoxification of toxic substances from the body, and when they are compromised, the entire body is subject to damage, including proliferation of cancer cells.
Monsanto’s excuses for its “outrage” over WHO’s carcinogen classification can be summed up in its misleading statement that “all labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health” Although the EPA, under FIFRA, requires “all pesticides used and sold in the U.S. … undergo a rigorous, science-based review process to ensure that they can be used safely “it also requires that they “do not pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.”
The studies revealing damage to kidney and liver genes as well as carcinogenic effects are not investigating the safety of a use of Roundup. These studies are investigating chronic exposures to Roundup, compounded from years of use, and found in our food and water and even mothers‘ breast milk.
The EPA must address this new evidence bolstering previous study results showing that Roundup in our environment is not, in fact, safe. We insist EPA begin an immediate and rapid phase-out of Roundup and that it not allow Monsanto to replace it with anything similarly or more toxic.
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