What is Glyphosate?
Basic information: Glyphosate is a broad spectrum,
non-selective systemic herbicide.
It is very effective in killing all unwanted vegetation such as grasses and weeds.
Origin/ Chemical class: Because glyphosate contains carbon
and phosphorus, it is classed as an Organophosphate. However it is not a cholinesterase inhibitor, and does not
affect the nervous system.
The Effects of Glyphosate
Glyphosate is one of the most effective herbicides. Application of this herbicide of less
than 10 micrograms per plant kills many
species of wild plants.
Glyphosate can be more damaging to wild flora and especially to
endangered animals and plants than many other herbicides. The toxicity of glyphosate and its
formulations affect a variety of species including mammals, birds, fish,
insects, soil, water, air and humans.
Glyphosate exposure damages or reduces the population of many animals,
including beneficial insects and earthworms. In other cases, glyphosate reduces population of living
organisms by damaging the vegetation that provides food and shelter for the
animals.
Terrestrial Effects
Soil and plants - When glyphosate-containing products are
used in agricultural systems, the chemicals may exert certain side effects as a
result of their activity on the soil microflora. Although glyphosates direct
toxic effects on the ecosystem may not be extremely harmful, long-term
ecological effects are severe. One
of the main examples is when glyphosate is aerial sprayed over vast areas. This will kill non-target
vegetation. Some of the vegetation
may be endangered species.
Glyphosate aerial spraying can give average drifts of 370 to 760 meters
depending on droplet size, and ground spraying with glyphosate may cause change
to sensitive plants up to 100 meters from the field sprayed.
Glyphosate, as a broad-spectrum herbicide, has toxic effects
on all plant species.
Birds
Because glyphosate kills
plants, its use creates a dramatic change in the ecosystem. This affects bird populations because
birds depend on the plants for food, shelter and nest support kilogram of
food. However, there are
indications that sub-lethal doses may affect reproduction.
Insects
Glyphosate-containing products can cause hazards to
beneficial insects that kill pest insects.
Animals
Glyphosate-containing products are acutely toxic to animals.
In animal studies, feeding of glyphosate on animals for three months caused
reduced weight gain, diarrhea, and salivary gland lesions. However, continuous feeding of
glyphosate over the life of the animals (lifetime feeding) caused excess
growth, death of liver cells and even death as well as cataracts, lens
degeneration and increases in the frequency of thyroid, pancreas and liver
tumors.
Aquatic Effects
Fish, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates are sensitive to
glyphosate. Fish - Both
glyphosate and glyphosate-containing products are acutely toxic to fish. However, glyphosate alone is less toxic
than the glyphosate product such as Roundup.
Human Effects
As with all mammals and aquatic organisms, glyphosate
obviously affects humans. Humans
do not normally suffer acute toxicity from glyphosate, however acute toxicity
was first widely publicised by physicians in Japan who studied 56 cases of
Roundup poisoning. Many of the
cases were suicides. Symptoms
shown in humans were gastrointestinal pain, vomiting, excess fluid in the
lungs, pneumonia, clouding of consciousness and destruction of red blood cells