The EPA’s finding that glyphosate exposure does not cause any health risks is a blatant act of reckless endangerment to public health. Americans should be outraged, not just because our EPA is not protecting us, but because our government is allowing the collapse of democracy by pandering to corporate greed.
Summary
- The EPA assessed risks to humans from exposure to glyphosate from all registered uses and all routes of exposure and did not identify any risks of concern, including cancer.
- The EPA did not review any cumulative health impacts of glyphosate.
- The EPA did reduce the list of crop types with allowable levels of glyphosate residues from 160 to 15, however the crops removed likely did not utilize glyphosate, and the list is not complete.
- The EPA still has not responded to the EWG et al petition about discontinuing the use of glyphosate on oats and wheat as a desiccant or made a determination on residue levels.
- The EPA will do further assessments on the impact of glyphosate on bees and endangered species due to the Center for Biological Diversity mitigation.
- The EPA is limiting the amount of glyphosate used per acre, by category of use, in order to prevent further weed resistance.
- The EPA is requiring additional labeling for aquatic use which warns of fish kill from the lack of oxygen from dead water vegetation (note: not from glyphosate).
- A final decision will be made after a decision about the desiccation of wheat and oats, endangered species review, and an assessment of endocrine disruption. Decisions could be in 2020 for some and August 2021 for others.
The EPA has been reviewing glyphosate, the declared active chemical ingredient in glyphosate-based herbicides most commonly known as Roundup or Ranger Pro, for over 10 years. During the last 120-day public comment period on glyphosate, the EPA received roughly 283,300 comments. Over 12,000 unique submissions were received from various stakeholders, including glyphosate registrants, grower groups, non-governmental organizations, pesticide industry groups, states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and members of the general public.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are the most widely used herbicides in the world. According to the EPA’s own study, between 2012 to 2016 approximately 281 million pounds of glyphosate was applied to 298 million acres annually in agricultural settings, on average. Most glyphosate was applied to genetically modified soybeans (117.4 million lbs applied annually), corn (94.9 million lbs applied annually), and cotton (20 million lbs applied annually). Many citrus fruits (e.g., grapefruit, oranges, lemons), field crops (e.g., soybean, corn, cotton), and tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pistachios) have the highest percentage of their acres treated with glyphosate. LEARN MORE HERE
