A Danish authority has now declared glyphosate a human carcinogen and says “don’t use it.” Will this declaration begin a rash of warnings from around the world?
Monsanto may have asked the World Health Organization for a retraction when one of their agencies declared glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s best selling herbicide, Roundup, ‘probably carcinogenic,’ but they are going to have to start begging others too.
A Danish professor says not to use glyphosate. Philippe Grandjean, professor of environmental medicine at the University of Southern Denmark, commented:
“We know that glyphosate cause cancer in other mammals, but it has not been demonstrated in humans. This is because the effects have not been investigated thoroughly enough in people yet. But when we see that other mammals get cancer from glyphosate, we must assume that people who are exposed to the substance can also develop cancer.”
This comes during a time that the newly elected president of Sri Lanka decided to ban glyphosate effective immediately
According to a report published in the Danish news outlet Nyhederne, the Danish Working Environment Authority (WEA) has declared glyphosate a carcinogen. Due to this classification, they have recommended a change to less toxic chemicals.
Grandjean is urging Danish gardeners to stop using Roundup on their flowers, vegetables and herbs:
“Gardeners should dispose of Roundup as hazardous waste. Pesticides have often proved more dangerous than we thought, and I do not think they belong in our homes.”
Roundup is most commonly used in Denmark as an agricultural pesticide. Gardeners who use the toxic chemicals make up only a small fraction of its total use, and without a change in farming methods, the toxicity of Monsanto’s favorite herbicide will only continue to put humans at risk for cancer.
Grandjean warns that the WHO report must be taken seriously, even though the Danish have used glyphosate extensively.
In 2013, 1,389 tons of the substance was sprayed on Danish crops, and grain meant for animal feed is often sprayed just 10 days before the grain is harvested. Of course, humans then consume much of that livestock, which has eaten glyphosate-doused food. This puts us further at risk than just by eating glyphosate-sprayed crops.
Sadly, though glyphosate is under fire around the world, Monsanto has a new weed killer now, called Xtend, a combination of cancer-causing glyphosate and dicamba. Dicamba is a benzoic acid herbicide. It was registered with the EPA in 1967 (#NPIC). Dicamba mimics the plant hormone auxin, causing uncontrolled growth, which eventually kills plants. It is meant for post-emergent plant control, but is soon to be green-lighted for overarching agricultural use.
This article originally appeared at Natural Society.
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