Glyphosate, a herbicide dangerous to health

What is glyphosate?

Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in agriculture, the active ingredient in the product called Roundup, marketed by the multinational Monsanto since 1974 in the United States. Monsanto held the patent for the production of Roundup until 2001. Glyphosate is currently the most widely used herbicide in agriculture in the world

Research on glyphosate in agriculture began in the 1950s, and it was later used as a tool to rid fields of weeds and make them arable. Later, the herbicide Roundup began to be combined with genetically modified (GM) seeds to resist the herbicide. The US has sprayed 1.6 million hectares of poppy plantations in Colombia over a 20-year period to combat cocaine production.

Glyphosate is currently sold in all countries, including Italy, and its patent has expired almost everywhere. In Europe, it is produced by 14 companies. It is used in agriculture, but also for the care of green spaces, gardens and near railways to keep tracks clear of weeds. Traces of glyphosate have been found in pasta and other food products following tests on cereals and drinking water. Glyphosate has been shown to be carcinogenic and its use by farmers, gardeners, maintenance workers, farm workers and many others as an all-purpose herbicide poses a serious health hazard. However, since Roundup first came on the market in the 1970s, Monsanto has always denied that it is a health hazard and that it can cause cancer, claiming instead that Roundup is safe. In one advertisement it was even claimed that Roundup is ‘safer than table salt’.

The Monsanto Papers and Roundup lawsuits

However, it has emerged that Monsanto has been fully aware of the dangers of Roundup for years, thanks to the famous scandal known as ‘The Monsanto Papers‘ where internal company emails were made public showing knowledge of the risks and the intent to keep them hidden from the public and consumers.
In 2015, research concluded that the herbicide is likely to be carcinogenic to humans and added that the form of cancer most linked to glyphosate exposure is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Following the release of the Monsanto scandal, more than 100,000 people decided to file a lawsuit over Roundup claiming that exposure to Roundup causes cancer.