Glyphosate Hurts Gut Microbiome, Genes and Sexual Development at ‘Safe’ Dose

Heather Callaghan, Contributor
Waking Times

Glyphosate-based herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup are used the world over. In fact, Roundup is still the most popular and widely used weedkiller in the entire world. Pesticide propagandists are fond of leaning on the idea of “safe” dose, but can there really be a safe dose for a substance that causes breast cancer at parts per trillion?

A new study shows some startling, adverse health affects in mice given glyphosate in doses at levels considered “safe” by regulatory agencies. This news is more concerning now since recent revelations that glyphosate is in most of our food, FDA emails show.

Three peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts from the pilot phase of the Global Glyphosate Study are available online today (May 16), reports GM Watch. They will be published in the prestigious scientific journal Environmental Health in open access format later in May.

GM Watch reports:

The study used the US Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable daily dietary exposure level of glyphosate(1) – 1.75 mg per kg of bodyweight per day. The same concentration was given to the rats daily over a 3-month period.

The study was focused on the newborn, infancy and adolescence phases of life. The results reveal that glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) was able to alter certain important biological parameters, mainly relating to sexual development, genotoxicity, and the intestinal microbiome.

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The results showed an alteration in some sexual development parameters in rats treated with GBH, especially in females. Moreover, rats treated with GBH presented statistically significant changes of the intestinal microbiome in particular during development.

Concerning genotoxicity, a statistically significant increase was observed in micronuclei in rats treated with GBH, especially in the first part of life.

Rats treated with pure glyphosate or its formulation presented similar levels in urine of glyphosate and its principal metabolite (AMPA), thus showing no significant difference in the absorption and excretion of glyphosate among the two treatment groups, but suggesting a bioaccumulation effect of glyphosate that was proportional to the length of treatment.

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