Can Glyphosate Affect Your Health

The past few years have seen glyphosate and the weed killers that contain that specific active ingredient front and centre in the news, coming under fire about legal cases claiming that the substance causes cancer. This article will delve into what the truths are about this product and whether it is as dangerous as the claims make out…

What is glyphosate?

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in many total herbicides including Gallup Home and Garden Weed Killer. It is created when methylphsphonic acid and glycine are combined. Products made with glyphosate are non-selective which means that they are total weed killers and will kill most plants that they come into contact with. Glyphosate works by blocking an enzyme that is essential for plant growth and controlling the weed that has been targeted. Plant enzymes are very different to those that humans and animals have so would not have effects on us.

What is the problem with glyphosate? 

Over the last couple of years, glyphosate products have received many lawsuits in America from people claiming that they developed non-Hodgkin Lymphoma due to being exposed to glyphosate weed killers. As a result of these claims, many research studies had to be carried out to see if there was any validity to these claims.

What was the verdict?

When searching through the internet on this matter, there are many articles on this subject. The one that stands out the most was a question and answer post on Cancer Research UK where “Can glyphosate cause cancer?” was asked. Their response was as follows: 

“There is no evidence that people exposed to glyphosate at low levels, for example when using a weed killer in their garden, have an increased risk of cancer” 

This essentially means that there is no firm evidence that glyphosate does cause cancer. This verdict can also be backed up by research studies carried out by the United Stated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who performed an independent evaluation of available data for glyphosate and they found: 

“No risk of concern to human health from current uses of glyphosate” 

“No evidence that glyphosate causes cancer in humans – the Agency concluded that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans” 

When you look into the LD50 (lethal dose) tables and toxicity ratings, glyphosate ranks lower than many household substances. Glyphosate comes in on the ratings at the same toxicity rating (slightly toxic) as citric acid that is found in oranges and lemons. In fact the likes of chocolate and table salt are classed as moderately toxic. 

As well as this, glyphosate has been used for more than 30 years in various industries so is one of the most tested and studied active ingredient around.

What can I do to protect myself?

On every product label there is information about the different hazards that there may be for that product as well as full guidance on the type of PPE that should be worn. This may make it sound like the claims are true if you are having to protect yourself, however if you were using household bleach you would wear protective gloves to make sure that nothing comes into contact with your hands. This is a very similar situation, you are just making sure that you are protecting your body from coming into contact with a chemical.

Blog Sources

(Cancer Research UK - https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/cancer-controversies/can-pesticides-or-herbicides-cause-cancer) 

(United States Environmental Protection Agency - https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyphosate) 

(Product toxicity table - https://pesticidesinperspective.org.uk/media/1037/glyphosate-toxicity-table.pdf)