Weed killer kills human cells. Study intensifies debate over *inert* ingredients

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Weed killer kills human cells. Study intensifies debate over *inert*

ingredients.

_http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/roundup-weed-killer-is-toxi

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By Crystal Gammon Environmental Health News 23 June 2009

 

 

Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been

a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of

Roundup*s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic,

placental and umbilical cord cells.

 

 

The new findings intensify a debate about so-called **inerts** — the

solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers

add

to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

 

Glyphosate, Roundup*s active ingredient, is the most widely used herbicide

in the United States. About 100 million pounds are applied to U.S. farms

and lawns every year, according to the EPA.

 

 

Until now, most health studies have focused on the safety of glyphosate,

rather than the mixture of ingredients found in Roundup. But in the new

study, scientists found that Roundup*s inert ingredients amplified the toxic

effect on human cells—even at concentrations much more diluted than those

used on farms and lawns.

 

 

One specific inert ingredient, polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA, was

more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the

herbicide itself – a finding the researchers call **astonishing.**

 

 

**This clearly confirms that the [inert ingredients] in Roundup

formulations are not inert,** wrote the study authors from France*s University

of

Caen. **Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause

cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels** found on

Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and

gardens.

 

 

The research team suspects that Roundup might cause pregnancy problems by

interfering with hormone production, possibly leading to abnormal fetal

development, low birth weights or miscarriages.

 

 

Monsanto, Roundup*s manufacturer, contends that the methods used in the

study don*t reflect realistic conditions and that their product, which has

been sold since the 1970s, is safe when used as directed. Hundreds of studies

over the past 35 years have addressed the safety of glyphosate.

 

 

** Roundup has one of the most extensive human health safety and

environmental data packages of any pesticide that*s out there,** said Monsanto

spokesman John Combest. ** It*s used in public parks, it*s used to protect

schools. There*s been a great deal of study on Roundup, and we*re very proud of

its performance.**

 

 

The EPA considers glyphosate to have low toxicity when used at the

recommended doses.

 

 

** Risk estimates for glyphosate were well below the level of concern,**

said EPA spokesman Dale Kemery. The EPA classifies glyphosate as a Group E

chemical, which means there is strong evidence that it does not cause

cancer in humans.

 

 

In addition, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture both recognize

POEA as an inert ingredient. Derived from animal fat, POEA is allowed in

products certified organic by the USDA. The EPA has concluded that it is not

dangerous to public health or the environment.

 

 

The French team, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini, a University of Caen

molecular biologist, said its results highlight the need for health agencies to

reconsider the safety of Roundup.

 

 

**The authorizations for using these Roundup herbicides must now clearly

be revised since their toxic effects depend on, and are multiplied by, other

compounds used in the mixtures,** Seralini*s team wrote.

 

 

Controversy about the safety of the weed killer recently erupted in

Argentina, one of the world’s largest exporters of soy.

 

 

Last month, an environmental group petitioned Argentina*s Supreme Court,

seeking a temporary ban on glyphosate use after an Argentine scientist and

local activists reported a high incidence of birth defects and cancers in

people living near crop-spraying areas. Scientists there also linked genetic

malformations in amphibians to glysophate. In addition, last year in

Sweden, a scientific team found that exposure is a risk factor for people

developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

 

 

Inert ingredients are often less scrutinized than active pest-killing

ingredients. Since specific herbicide formulations are protected as trade

secrets, manufacturers aren*t required to publicly disclose them. Although

Monsanto is the largest manufacturer of glyphosate-based herbicides, several

other manufacturers sell similar herbicides with different inert ingredients.

 

 

The term **inert ingredient** is often misleading, according to Caroline

Cox, research director of the Center for Environmental Health, an

Oakland-based environmental organization. Federal law classifies all pesticide

ingredients that don*t harm pests as **inert,** she said. Inert compounds,

therefore, aren*t necessarily biologically or toxicologically harmless – they

simply don*t kill insects or weeds.

 

 

Kemery said the EPA takes into account the inert ingredients and how the

product is used, whenever a pesticide is approved for use. The aim, he said,

is to ensure that **if the product is used according to labeled

directions, both people*s health and the environment will not be harmed.** One

label

requirement for Roundup is that it should not be used in or near freshwater

to protect amphibians and other wildlife.

 

 

But some inert ingredients have been found to potentially affect human

health. Many amplify the effects of active ingredients by helping them

penetrate clothing, protective equipment and cell membranes, or by increasing

their toxicity. For example, a Croatian team recently found that an herbicide

formulation containing atrazine caused DNA damage, which can lead to cancer,

while atrazine alone did not.

 

 

POEA was recognized as a common inert ingredient in herbicides in the

1980s, when researchers linked it to a group of poisonings in Japan. Doctors

there examined patients who drank Roundup, either intentionally or

accidentally, and determined that their sicknesses and deaths were due to POEA,

not

glyphosate.

 

 

POEA is a surfactant, or detergent, derived from animal fat. It is added

to Roundup and other herbicides to help them penetrate plants* surfaces,

making the weed killer more effective.

 

 

**POEA helps glyphosate interact with the surfaces of plant cells,**

explained Negin Martin, a scientist at the National Institute of Environmental

Health Sciences in North Carolina, who was not involved in the study. POEA

lowers water*s surface tension--the property that makes water form droplets

on most surfaces--which helps glyphosate disperse and penetrate the waxy

surface of a plant.

 

 

In the French study, researchers tested four different Roundup

formulations, all containing POEA and glyphosate at concentrations below the

recommended lawn and agricultural dose. They also tested POEA and glyphosate

separately to determine which caused more damage to embryonic, placental and

umbilical cord cells.

 

 

Glyphosate, POEA and all four Roundup formulations damaged all three cell

types. Umbilical cord cells were especially sensitive to POEA. Glyphosate

became more harmful when combined with POEA, and POEA alone was more deadly

to cells than glyphosate. The research appears in the January issue of the

journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

 

 

By using embryonic and placental cell lines, which multiply and respond to

chemicals rapidly, and fresh umbilical cord cells, Seralini’s team was

able to determine how the chemicals combine to damage cells.

 

 

The two ingredients work together to **limit breathing of the cells,

stress them and drive them towards a suicide,** Seralini said.

 

 

The research was funded in part by France*s Committee for Research and

Independent Information on Genetic Engineering, a scientific committee that

investigates risks associated with genetically modified organisms. One of

Roundup’s primary uses is on crops that are genetically engineered to be

resistant to glyphosate.

 

 

Monsanto scientists argue that cells in Seralini’s study were exposed to

unnaturally high levels of the chemicals. " ** It*s very unlike anything

you*d see in real-world exposure. People*s cells are not bathed in these

things,** said Donna Farmer, another toxicologist at Monsanto.

 

 

Seralini*s team, however, did study multiple concentrations of Roundup.

These ranged from the typical agricultural or lawn dose down to

concentrations 100,000 times more dilute than the products sold on shelves. The

researchers saw cell damage at all concentrations.

 

 

Monsanto scientists also question the French team*s use of laboratory cell

lines.

 

 

** These are just not very good models of a whole organism, like a human

being,** said Dan Goldstein, a toxicologist with Monsanto.

 

 

Goldstein said humans have protective mechanisms that resist substances in

the environment, such as skin and the lining of the gastrointestinal

tract, which constantly renew themselves. **Those phenomena just don*t happen

with isolated cells in a Petri dish.**

 

 

But Cox, who studies pesticides and their inert ingredients at the Oakland

environmental group, says lab experiments like these are important in

determining whether a chemical is safe.

 

 

**We would never consider it ethical to test these products on people, so

we're obliged to look at their effects on other species and in other

systems,** she said. **There*s really no way around that.**

 

 

Seralini said the cells used in the study are widely accepted in

toxicology as good models for studying the toxicity of chemicals.

 

 

** The fact is that 90 percent of labs studying mechanisms of toxicity or

physiology use cell lines,** he said.

 

 

Most research has examined glyphosate alone, rather than combined with

Roundup’s inert ingredients. Researchers who have studied Roundup

formulations

have drawn conclusions similar to the Seralini group’s. For example, in

2005, University of Pittsburg ecologists added Roundup at the manufacturer’s

recommended dose to ponds filled with frog and toad tadpoles. When they

returned two weeks later, they found that 50 to 100 percent of the populations

of several species of tadpoles had been killed.

 

 

A group of over 250 environmental, health and labor organizations has

petitioned the EPA to change requirements for identifying pesticides* inert

ingredients. The agency*s decision is due this fall.

 

 

**It would be a big step for the agency to take,** said Cox. **But it*s

one they definitely should.**

 

 

The groups claim that the laws allowing manufacturers to keep inert

ingredients secret from competitors are essentially unnecessary. Companies can

determine a competitor*s inert ingredients through routine lab analyses, said

Cox.

 

 

**The proprietary protection laws really only keep information from the

public,** she said.

 

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