Roundup Doesn't Poison Only Weeds

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Roundup Doesn't Poison Only Weeds

By Hervé Morin

Le Monde

 

Saturday 12 March 2005

 

The most used herbicide in the world: Monsanto's Roundup and its

competitors, formulated, like Roundup, on a base of glyphosate, have

long enjoyed a reputation for harmlessness to human health and the

environment. However, several recent studies seem to indicate that

this active ingredient, used by farmers as well as by public road

services and Sunday gardeners, could well not be as inoffensive as its

promoters claim. The stakes are big, because the usage of glyphosate

grows along with that of genetically modified organisms, the great

majority of which have been specifically conceived to " tolerate " this

active ingredient, fatal to plants.

 

In fact, while Roundup and similar products were originally used

against weeds, " they have become a food product, since they are used

on GMOs, which can absorb them without dying, " maintains the

biochemist Gilles-Eric Séralini. A member for years of the French

Commission on Biomolecular Genetics (CBG), responsible for preparing

the files for requests for field studies, then GMO commercialization,

he ceaselessly demands more intense studies on their eventual health

impact.

 

Also a member of Criigen, an association which has made control of

GMOs its passion, he has oriented his own research toward the study of

the impact of glyphosate. In an article published February 24 in the

American journal Environmental Health Perspective, the biochemist and

his team from the University of Caen demonstrate, in vitro, several

toxic effects of this compound as well as of the additives associated

with it to facilitate its diffusion.

 

For their study, the researchers used human placental cell lines,

in which very weak doses of glyphosate showed toxic effects and, at

still weaker concentrations, endocrinal disturbances. This, for

Gilles-Eric Séralini, could explain the high levels of premature

births and miscarriages observed in certain epidemiological studies -

which are, however, controversial - covering women farmers using

glyphosate. " The effect we have observed is proportional to the dose,

but also to the length of exposure, " he emphasizes.

 

His team has also compared the comparative effects of glyphosate

and Roundup. And it has observed that the commercial product is more

disruptive than its isolated main active ingredient. " Consequently the

evaluation of herbicides must take into account the combination with

additives in the product, " he says.

 

Gilles-Eric Séralini acknowledges that his study must be extended

by animal experiments. But he rejects criticisms that have been made

on the absence of any real link between in vitro and normal

utilization: " Farmers dilute the pure product and are punctually

exposed to doses 10,000 times stronger, " he insists. " Our results show

that the length of exposure must be taken into account. "

 

Sea-Urchin Models

 

He is joined in his conclusions by Robert Bellé, from the National

Center for Social Research (CNRS) biological station in Roscoff

(Finistère), whose team has been studying the impact of glyphosate

formulations on sea-urchin cells for several years. This recognized

model for the study of early stages of cancer genesis earned Tim Hunt

the 2001 Nobel Prize in medicine. In 2002, the Finisterian team had

shown that Roundup acted on one of the key stages of cellular division.

 

" This deregulation can lead to cancer, " warns Robert Bellé, who,

to make himself understood, insists on summarizing the mechanisms of

cancer genesis: during the division of a cell into two daughter cells,

the two copies of genetic inheritance, in the form of DNA, may give

rise to very numerous errors, up to 50,000 per cell. That's why repair

mechanisms or natural cell death (apoptosis) are automatically set in

motion. However, it happens that a cell escapes these alternatives

(death or repair) and can perpetuate itself in an unstable form,

potentially cancerous over the long term.

 

The Breton team has recently demonstrated (Toxicological Science,

December 2004) that a " control point " for DNA damage was affected by

Roundup, while glyphosate alone had no effect. " We have shown that

it's a definite risk factor, but we have not evaluated the number of

cancers potentially induced, nor the time frame within which they

would declare themselves, " the researcher acknowledges. A sprayed

droplet could affect thousands of cells. On the other hand, " the

concentration in water and fruits is lower, which is rather reassuring. "

 

For the researcher, it's not necessarily a matter of banning the

product - " Now it's for the public authorities to evaluate the

benefits and the risks " - but it is important that users take every

possible precaution, for themselves as well as for the public. " I've

seen people in their underwear spray several square meters in a

playground, " he exclaimed, revolted.

 

" Such in vitro studies are not adequate for deducing the effects

on people, " however, insists Sophie Gallotti, coordinator of studies

on contaminants at the Agence française pour la sécurité sanitaire des

aliments (Afssa) [French Agency for Food Health Security]. The same

sentiment is expressed by Rémi Maximilien, toxicological expert at

Afssa, for whom the sea-urchin experiment " shows a potential mechanism

for cancer genesis that remains to be proved in human beings. "

 

Contested Interpretation

 

Monsanto is not impressed by these results. " It's not up to us to

judge the interest of these publications, the validity of which we do

not contest, but the interpretation, " indicates Mathilde Durif,

spokeswoman for the French subsidiary of the American giant. These

results contradict sixty other available studies and " neither the

European authorities nor the World Health Organization, nor the United

Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) have classified this

product as carcinogenic. "

 

Glyphosate is, however, an active ingredient and " it is necessary

to use it according to the recommended usage. " A cautious attitude

that seems slightly in contradiction with the firm's marketing

efforts. And these are now already under attack by the Breton

association, which reproaches Monsanto with making its product's

" biodegradability " an advertising argument - one already judged to be

a lie by the American legal system.

 

Translation: t r u t h o u t French language correspondent Leslie

Thatcher.

 

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