It’s a good good idea to avoid glyphosate (RoundUp) even at home. It’s spring so be mindful of what you and your neighbors use “around” your homes as it gets “into” your homes and into your bodies. 

I belong to a community of health professionals, called MindShare that supports each other in serving the consciousness of the planet on safety and human health. Recently, one member posted a comment that her gardener boyfriend wanted to use RoundUp on weeds close to their home, and didn’t think there was any science that backed up adverse issues with this small amount of personal application.

This created a huge set of comments and a long FB email thread.

I had Dr. Stephanie Seneff on my radio show last year, a senior scientist at MIT who has published a lot of science on how RoundUp paralyzes the human microbiome and, as an herbicide, remains for a long time in our environment. Dr. Seneff’s research has been attacked. I wrote Dr. Seneff about these attacks and questions, and, as always, Dr. Seneff responded swiftly and intelligently.

Dr. Seneff said I could share this with YOU.

“It is very disappointing to me that even people who are studying glyphosate’s toxic effects are unable to see glyphosate’s true colors. In this paper claiming that Anthony Samsel and I are wrong in our assessment of glyphosate, the arguments are in my opinion weak and unconvincing. I would hope that this paper will not give people an excuse not to read the papers that Anthony and I and a few others are writing, where we detail the strong evidence that glyphosate is in fact substituting for glycine during protein synthesis, with consequences that are cumulative, devastating, insidious and long-lasting (especially for the human microbiome).

 “The incredibly strong correlations between the rise in glyphosate usage on core crops (and on lawns and gardens) and the alarming rise in a long list of debilitating autoimmune, neurological and oncological diseases in the U.S. could be dismissed as mere coincidence, but then that begs the question: what else in the environment is causing this looming health care crisis?

“We are finding that glyphosate substitution in specific proteins linked to specific diseases and conditions that correlate strongly with its usage can explain the specific pathology of those diseases. Please read our papers and judge for yourself.”

Stephanie Seneff PhD
Senior Research Scientist
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

So I decided that since it’s spring, and so many Americans think nothing of buying RoundUp at their local Home Depot to spray on the weeds in the driveway and the rose garden, I am sharing very recent and disturbing science.

RoundUp aerosolizes in the air around your home. It can get into your water. It can kill embryo cells trying to take root in your womb. It is being labeled as cancer causing. It is combined with nasty other constituents. Much of the science on which it was called “safe” is outdated.

I put this blog together for YOU. Feel free to copy it and share it with your neighbors. This is similar to the articles I have been writing on various “natural” bug sprays like pyrethroids, which are now being linked to behavior issues in your children. But the professionals spraying it inside your home are not told by their corporations about this science and you and they think all these alternatives are safe.

Avoid chemicals as much as possible. Use flowers, mulch, and natural methods to get rid of weeds or just pull them. Nothing is worth harming our kids’ intelligence, our fertility, or our risk of diseases like cancer.

14 Glyphosate FACTS:

  1. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” This means cancer causing. This means it’s a good idea to avoid any contact with this! If you spray this on your driveway and your kid is upstairs sleeping and breaths what gets in through the window, why would you do this?
  2. It accumulates and persists longer than previously thought.
  3. It may be related to increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance.
  4. “Inerts” are added to this herbicide and are in themselves lethal to human cells, such as embryonic and placental cells. If something kills one kind of cell, who knows what other kinds of cells it might harm?
  5. Application can contaminate “air” – this means the air around your home, not just in farm fields.
  6. What is sprayed on lawns and fields “bio-accumulates” up into the air, and can form “mini-whirlwinds” that circle your neighborhood and planet for many years.
  7. GBHs are the most heavily applied herbicide in the world. Human usage and exposure continue to rise.
  8. About 100 million pounds are applied to U.S. farms and lawns every year, according to the U.S. EPA.
  9. Worldwide, GBHs often contaminate drinking water sources, precipitation, and air, especially in agricultural regions, but this can also happen in communities and in your backyard and cul-de-sac.
  10. The half-life of glyphosate in water and soil is longer than previously recognized.
  11. Regulatory estimates of tolerable daily intakes for glyphosate in the United States and European Union are based on outdated science.
  12. GBHs contaminate drinking water via rainwater, surface runoff and leaching into groundwater, thereby adding drinking water, bathing, and washing water as possible routine exposure pathways. This suggests that what a community sprays on its lawns and gardens may end up inside your home water.
  13. Used in gardens, farms, and parks around the world, the weed killer Roundup contains an ”inert” ingredient that has been shown to “suffocate” human cells in a laboratory, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. These new findings intensify a debate on so-called “inerts” — which are solvents, preservatives, surfactants, and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides.
  14. Several papers demonstrate that glyphosate paralyzes the health of the organisms that make up a healthy microbiome. Our hormone health depends hugely on our microbiome health.

Chemicals are not worth the risk.  We keep finding out more troubling issues when they get inside our tissues. There are many natural alternatives to consider. But it takes a village to clean up our air, water and health of our children.

Knowledge is power. Get buffed, even in your garden.

References:

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2009 Sep;16(6):689-701. doi: 10.1007/s11356-009-0177-6. Epub 2009 May 28. Farmer knowledge and a priori risk analysis: pre-release evaluation of genetically modified Roundup Ready wheat across the Canadian prairies.

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Mar;616-617:255-268. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.309. Epub 2017 Nov 5.Environmental and health effects of the herbicide glyphosate.

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2016 Oct;23(19):18988-9001. doi: 10.1007/s11356-016-7425-3. Epub 2016 Aug 19.Glyphosate: environmental contamination, toxicity and potential risks to human health via food contamination.

Environ Health. 2016 Feb 17;15:19. doi: 10.1186/s12940-016-0117-0. Concerns over use of glyphosate-based herbicides and risks associated with exposures: a consensus statement.

Hormone Deception 2000, 2016 Berkson Awakened Medicine Press. https://www.amazon.com/Hormone-Deception-Dr-Lindsey-Berkson/dp/1453741275

Surg Neurol Int. 2015 Mar 24;6:45. doi: 10.4103/2152-7806.153876. eCollection 2015. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies.

Interdiscip Toxicol. 2013 Dec;6(4):159-84. doi: 10.2478/intox-2013-0026. Review. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance.