More Bad News on Glyphosate

by Anna Lappé

As coauthors Stacy Malkan (US Right to Know), Kendra Klein (Friends of the Earth), and I wrote about in our report Merchants of Poison: A Case Study In Pesticide Industry Science Denial On Glyphosate, many folks have been raising concerns about the potential health risks of exposure to glyphosate. Now, a new study from UC Berkeley researchers who have been studying the communities living in the nation’s “salad bowl”—the agriculturally rich Salinas Valley—should raise even more questions for all of us: The study found that children who had glyphosate exposure levels fairly typical for the average American were at higher risk for liver inflammation and metabolic  disorders.  As one researcher noted: “The study’s implications are troubling,” said Dr. Ana Maria Mora, a CERCH investigator and coauthor, “as the levels of the chemicals found in our study participants are within the range reported for the general U.S. population.”