General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells GMO Critics to "Chill Out" [View all]HuckleB
(35,773 posts)That's what Google often leads people to do, especially when their goal is to support a preconceived notion, and several important scientific concepts are not in their knowledge base. I used to buy into what you now buy into, but I challenged by preconceived notions. Studies on cells in a lab, tell us almost nothing, btw, though they are the prime feature of the fear mongering community. Of course, glyphosate is an herbicide, not a GMO, though it appears to be a fall back tool for the anti-GMO, when they have no actual arguments against GMOs.
Full reviews of the matter of glyphosate (and any topic) are far more valuable than cherry picking and cell only studies.
"Reviews on the safety of glyphosate and Roundup herbicide that have been conducted by several regulatory agencies and scientific institutions worldwide have concluded that there is no indication of any human health concern. ... This review was undertaken to produce a current and comprehensive safety evaluation and risk assessment for humans. .. It was concluded that, under present and expected conditions of use, Roundup herbicide does not pose a health risk to humans."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10854122
"These data demonstrated extremely low human exposures as a result of normal application practices. Furthermore, the estimated exposure concentrations in humans are >500-fold less than the oral reference dose for glyphosate of 2 mg/kg/d set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA 1993). In conclusion, the available literature shows no solid evidence linking glyphosate exposure to adverse developmental or reproductive effects at environmentally realistic exposure concentrations."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22202229
And another review of the literature that shows no correlation to disease and glyphosate:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22683395
And one should, of course, note that the EPA has looked at the full literature:
http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/0178fact.pdf
And an independent consortium of several universities shows that it's quite safe:
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/dienochlor-glyphosate/glyphosate-ext.html
As for those lab tests:
Debunking pseudo science lab testing health risk claims about glyphosate (Roundup)
http://academicsreview.org/2014/04/debunking-pseudo-science-lab-testing-health-risk-claims-about-glyphosate-roundup/
And just for kicks, this graph shows glyphosate toxicity compared to other common substances. It quiet enlightening.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxXxn0qh5nntRzE3WGd4cVNwR2s/image?pagenumber=1&w=800
Of course, if one want to cherry pick, one can find a study that shows glyphosate killing cancer cells, without killing healthy cells, in a lab setting: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23983455
In other words, when you look at the whole of the literature, well, you find out that those who are spouting extreme hyperbole about glyphosate are not being accurate.