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Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment

Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in agriculture. It contains glyphosate as the ‘active ingredient’, together with formulants. There are various versions of Roundup, with somewhat different effects depending on the formulants. Most genetically-modified crops are designed to tolerate Roundup,...

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Autor principal: Novotny, Eva
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229215/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35736929
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10060321
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author Novotny, Eva
author_facet Novotny, Eva
author_sort Novotny, Eva
collection PubMed
description Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in agriculture. It contains glyphosate as the ‘active ingredient’, together with formulants. There are various versions of Roundup, with somewhat different effects depending on the formulants. Most genetically-modified crops are designed to tolerate Roundup, thus allowing spraying against weeds during the growing season of the crop without destroying it. Having been so heavily used, this herbicide is now found in the soil, water, air, and even in humans worldwide. Roundup may also remain as a residue on edible crops. Many studies have found harm to the environment and to health, making it imperative to regulate the use of Roundup and to ensure that its various formulations pose no danger when used in the long-term. Unfortunately, regulators may only assess the ‘active ingredient’, glyphosate, and ignore the toxicity of the formulants, which can be far more toxic than the active ingredient. This omission is in violation of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are close ties between the regulators and the industry they are supposed to regulate. Objectionable practices include ‘revolving doors’ between the regulators and the industry, heavy reliance on unpublished papers produced by the industry while dismissing papers published by independent scientists, and strong covert influence on the regulatory process by industry. Although this paper focuses on the European Union (EU), the situation is much the same in the United States.
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spelling pubmed-92292152022-06-25 Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment Novotny, Eva Toxics Review Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in agriculture. It contains glyphosate as the ‘active ingredient’, together with formulants. There are various versions of Roundup, with somewhat different effects depending on the formulants. Most genetically-modified crops are designed to tolerate Roundup, thus allowing spraying against weeds during the growing season of the crop without destroying it. Having been so heavily used, this herbicide is now found in the soil, water, air, and even in humans worldwide. Roundup may also remain as a residue on edible crops. Many studies have found harm to the environment and to health, making it imperative to regulate the use of Roundup and to ensure that its various formulations pose no danger when used in the long-term. Unfortunately, regulators may only assess the ‘active ingredient’, glyphosate, and ignore the toxicity of the formulants, which can be far more toxic than the active ingredient. This omission is in violation of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are close ties between the regulators and the industry they are supposed to regulate. Objectionable practices include ‘revolving doors’ between the regulators and the industry, heavy reliance on unpublished papers produced by the industry while dismissing papers published by independent scientists, and strong covert influence on the regulatory process by industry. Although this paper focuses on the European Union (EU), the situation is much the same in the United States. MDPI 2022-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9229215/ /pubmed/35736929 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10060321 Text en © 2022 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Novotny, Eva
Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title_full Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title_fullStr Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title_short Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment
title_sort glyphosate, roundup and the failures of regulatory assessment
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229215/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35736929
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10060321
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