Someone here asked recently about the toxicity of glyphosate, which the state of CA is considering declaring carcinogenic. I think this study may have been involved.
http://weedcontrolfreaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/GlyphosateWHOIARC2ALancetOncology.pdf
I realize that epidemiological studies have their problems from a scientific standpoint, but it is impossible to test human beings scientifically by exposing one group to a pesticide and another to a placebo. However, there is no question that conventional farmers that spray their crops are exposed to a wide range of pesticides at much higher levels than the general public and comparing their health histories to the general public has to be better than these tests on rats and mice to at least assess the general risk of pesticides to human health. The limitation is mostly in the inability to determine which pesticides are responsible in the cancers farmers consistently get more frequently than the general public- and there are at least a couple.
Glyphosphate is one of the most pervasive pesticides in the conventional farmers spray tool kit, but comparing the health of farmers to the general public just doesn’t show any red flags with this or the rest of the list of common pesticides. Farmers get less cancer than the general public, are much healthier and live longer, so it is difficult to see how glyphosphate could be terribly dangerous to the applicator- if it’s detrimental to human health I doubt it is seriously so.
The environmental issues of modern agriculture is the larger question, I feel. .
The study does not conclude it causes cancer, bottom line for me. They guess it might, that is useless info. I saw no controls either. It did nothing to bacteria, which reminds me that our normal flora breakdown Glyphosate also, so ingesting it is probably safe.
That statement is as conclusive as this study.
SHOCKING NEWS! - Study finds that ubiquitous chemical compound causes sudden death in mice and suggests it can be extrapolated to humans!
One thousand mice were included in the study. The control group was placed in glass terrariums and the study group were placed in identical terrariums but the chemical compound was added. After 20 minutes researchers checked each group. 100% of the control group showed no ill effects and 100% of the exposed group died.
Oh, I forgot to say that the chemical compound was H2O…