Parks and Public Landscaping Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2020 03 05

Home Browse Search

Glyphosate (Roundup) Fact Sheet “Glyphosate is a synthetic amino acid and an analogue of glycine, and is the most widely used biocide on the plant. Its presence in food for human consumption and animal feed is ubiquitous. Epidemiological studies have revealed a strong correlation between the increasing incidence in the United States of a large number of chronic diseases and the increased use of glyphosate herbicide on corn, soy and wheat crops. Glyphosate acts as a glycine analogue and may be mistakenly incorporated into peptides during protein synthesis. Glyphosate substitution for conserved glycines can easily explain a link with diabetes, obesity, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary edema, adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, lupus, mitochondrial dieses, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neural tube defects, infertility, hypertension, glaucoma, osteoporosis, fatty liver disease and kidney failure.” (1, references within) A direct correlation of these diseases and the use of glyphosate are extremely high, with the correlation similar to that found for lung cancer associated with smoking. This publication also details the biochemistry that occurs within many different metabolic systems within the body and how the glycine substitution with glyphosate has been shown to produce the above illnesses. Many neurological diseases, including autism, depression, dementia, anxiety disorder and Parkinson’s disease are associated with abnormal sleep patterns, which are directly linked to pineal gland dysfunctions. The pineal gland is highly susceptible to environmental toxins, with aluminum and glyphosate that work synergistically to induce neurological damage. (2, references within) Scientific research has been able to correlate a number of health issues to glyphosate exposure, including: • ADHD – likely due to the herbicide’s capacity to disrupt thyroid hormone functions (3) • Alzheimer’s Disease – glyphosate exposure can cause the same kind of oxidative stress and neural cell death found in Alzheimer’s disease. Glyphosate also affects CaMKII, an enzyme whose dysregulation has also been linked to Alzheimer’s. (3, 19-21) Evidence consistently suggests that a higher risk of Alzheimer’s is associated with pesticides. Occupational exposure to pesticides increases the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in later life. (23) • Autism – Exposure to glyphosate has a number of pathologies associated with autism, with one of the parallels being gut dysbiosis and suppression of pathogenic bacteria. (4) • Birth Defects – Glyphosate exposure can disrupt the Vitamin A signaling pathway, which is critical for normal fetal development. Babies born to women living less than a mile from fields sprayed with glyphosate herbicide were more than twice as likely to develop birth defects. (5) • Cancer – The World Health Organization published a study in 2015 that determined glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. There is a meta-analysis study (6) and a Swedish study (7) that link glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Other studies, including a study in Argentina of 65,000 people farming communities where Roundup was used, found cancer rates to be 2 to 4 times higher than the country’s national average. This study specifically noted increases in breast, prostate and lung cancers. In a comparison of two farming communities – one that sprayed Roundup and another that didn’t – 31% of residents in the Roundup sprayed community had a family member with 15