The health risks of glyphosate revealed in a large study: Rural babies are prone to growth disorders

A farmer sprays pesticide in a field with spraying equipment attached to a tractor. — Although glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide worldwide, its effects on human health and the environment are still unclear. Stock photo.

In the rural United States, where glyphosate use has increased, especially black and unmarried children were more than 60 times more likely to be underweight.

Babies are born slightly earlier and at lower birth weights in rural US counties where the common herbicide glyphosate is used, a major study finds.

These changes can lead to learning difficulties and an increased risk of infection, researchers reported last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Although changes in baby weights are on average minor, they lead to more than a billion dollars’ healthcare costs every year, the study states.

EN Flaska Med Ogräsmedlet Roundup. — Glyphosate was removed from the Roundup herbicides sold to consumers in 2021.

A study in environmental economics at the University of Oregon analyzed the pregnancy and birth of more than 10 million rural children between 1990 and 2013.

The data was compared to the estimated amounts of glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals that had been sprayed per square mile in the counties published by the US Geological Survey.

In the years 1990–1996, there was no difference in birth weight or duration of pregnancy between counties. However, when genetically modified crops entered the market, birth weight began to decline in counties where more crops were grown and sprayed with glyphosate.

By 2005, babies born in counties dominated by genetically modified corn, soybeans, and cotton weighed about 30 grams less on average than those born in counties that grow mostly other crops that don’t use glyphosate.

Babies were also born 1.5 days earlier in places where glyphosate was common.

The introduction of genetically modified crops tolerant to glyphosate promoted the rapid and large-scale use of glyphosate in the USA. In the two decades following the introduction of GM seeds, the amount of glyphosate used in the United States increased by more than 750 percent.

Reddish thistles and milk thistle grow at the edge of the field. Behind a green field and yellow rapeseed. — In the EU, the glyphosate received a 10 -year extension permit in 2023. It is also one of the most selling plant protection products in Finland.

Environmental injustice also emerged. Children of black or unmarried parents were more than 60 times more underweight or very underweight and had almost twice the weight loss.

Other agricultural chemicals and other influences, such as parents’ unemployment, excluded from the results.

The study is peer -reviewed. Some evaluators pointed out that the study utilized the use of a district -wide glyphosate, not individual exposure information.

According to the researchers, the results suggest that regulations on the use of glyphosate may be insufficient.

In the EU, glyphosate may be used until at least 2033.