New research from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health shows that childhood exposure to glyphosate is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorder in early adulthood, which could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life.
Thousands of people have filed lawsuits against Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, and its parent company, Bayer, claiming that exposure to glyphosate caused them to develop cancer.
Levels of glyphosate found in our foods have always been within the Environmental Protection Agency’s "regulatory safe levels", but all the prior research was focused on cancer risk. What about liver and metabolic syndromes? Other health risks?
Today's episode explores new findings and continuing research in this area.
Episode Resources:
IARC Monographs Volume 112: evaluation of (who.int)
Roundup ingredient found in Cheerios, Quaker Oats, and other cereals | Fox Business
Kids’ glyphosate exposure linked to liver disease and metabolic syndrome - EHN
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Welcome back my gardening friends to another focal point
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Friday episode. Let's spend just a few minutes
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together, reviewing a snippet of information, from a previous
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episode, highlighting a new topic or quickly focusing on a
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current event in the food and agriculture world.
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Let's get down and dirty. If there was ever a time to be
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an organic Gardener and understand where our food is
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being grown and how its produced, its now
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environmentalist and scientists have talked for years about the
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possible side effects of glyphosate use, which is the
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world's most widely used. Herbicide scientists have
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speculated about the long-term effects.
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It could have and only recently have we begun to see the studies
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that are definitively showing these effects.
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So, over the last ten years, a family medicine practitioner in
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East Salinas, California began noticing something very strange
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with his younger patients. Dr. Charles limbach had kids and
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his practice between five and 15 years old showing elevated
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levels of liver enzymes. This is a sign of liver
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inflammation. So limbach ordered a full panel
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of medical tests on each of his patients and he repeatedly.
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Saw the same result fatty liver disease.
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He said, when I trained in Family Medicine here in Salinas
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about 30 years ago. Fatty liver was never even
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mentioned. Now, 100 kids in his practice
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have fatty liver disease which is characterized by excess fat
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stored in the liver which can lead to long-term liver damage
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so dr. Limbach had read a research
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study out of UC San Diego. That showed a link between fatty
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liver disease These in adults and exposure to glyphosate.
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So this was cause enough for alarm and then he noted that
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many of the kids in his practice ate cereal products from crops
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that are treated with glyphosate.
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Thousands of people have filed lawsuits against Monsanto, the
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maker of Roundup and its parent company.
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Bayer claiming that exposure to glyphosate, cause them to
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develop cancer, especially Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma to some of
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these lawsuits have resulted in Three large verdicts for the
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plaintiffs others have been settled by bear the plaintiffs
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allege that Monsanto failed to warn users of the carcinogenic
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potential of the glyphosate which was classified as probably
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carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organization.
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Of course, these lawsuits all resulted from adults using these
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products in both professional and home environments and being
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directly exposed but lab tests conducted by the environmental
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working group which is a Profit advocacy group that specializes
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in toxic chemicals and corporate accountability back in 2018
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indicated that almost three-quarters of the 45 food,
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products they tested contained levels of glyphosate, these
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Foods included cereals, and other Foods marketed to
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Children. Glyphosate is routinely used on
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crops, like corn, soy wheat, oats barley, lagoons, and other
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produce. So the fact that it's in our
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food should be no surprise to anybody.
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Through all the levels of glyphosate found in these Foods,
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was within the epa's regulatory safe levels, were now seeing the
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long-term effects of this exposure played out right in
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front of us, new research, from the UC Berkeley School of Public
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Health shows that childhood exposure to glyphosate is linked
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to liver inflammation. And metabolic disorder in early
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adulthood, which could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and
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cardiovascular disease later. In life.
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So now we have the research that may be proving doctor Lim box,
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suspicions about his patients and their exposure, Brenda
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Eskenazi is the director of UC Berkeley's Center for
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Environmental Research and Children's Health.
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And her team used data, that she started Gathering way back in
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2000. So from 2000 to 2002, the
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researchers, enrolled pregnant women and babies into their
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research from birth to age 18. Esca These team collected
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hundreds of thousands of biological samples, health
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records and glyphosate, exposure data from 480, mother-child
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pairs. Now it's important to note that
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these families lived in the Salinas Valley and it is
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nicknamed America's salad bowl for a reason.
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It produces nearly half of all of our lettuce here in the US.
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It's a highly agricultural area. And of course glyphosate use in
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that area has continued to climb Just like it has on the rest of
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the world. So in their new study, the
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researchers analyzed urine samples from the pregnant
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mothers, and their children at ages 5, 14 and 18.
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So the samples that were collected in 2000.
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When the mothers were pregnant had non-detectable levels of
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glyphosate and a MPA, which is a derivative of glyphosate, which
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the researchers noted is consistent with the relatively
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low use of glyphosate at that time.
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But by 14 years of age, though. Many of the study participants
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had measurable levels of glyphosate and a MPA in their
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urine which was consistent with the rising Global glyphosate
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application levels, high concentrations of glyphosate and
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a MPA in the children's urine was linked to liver
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inflammation, and metabolic syndrome.
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By the time, they were 18 years old.
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And even though the EPA says there's no evidence of human
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health, ask most of the previous glyphosate research has been
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focused on its potential for causing cancer.
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This is the first time that researchers have examined the
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potential connection between exposure to glyphosate early, in
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life, and metabolic, and liver disease, both of which are
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increasing among children and young adults Nationwide.
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So Eskenazi and her team have plans to go deeper into this
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investigation. The researchers have Also been
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collecting Health Data on neurodevelopment.
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Respiratory disease, hormones, puberty among other things in
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the same population. They've already studied Eskenazi
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said, and I quote, we need to follow up with the whole cohort
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and see what associations we see, not only with metabolic
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disease but other health outcomes as well.
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Like I said, one more reason to be vigilant in what we grow,
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what we buy and what we eat, we've got enough environmental
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disturbances going on around us causing health problems.
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We don't need our food. Especially the food.
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We feed to our children, to be another cause, as always, if you
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want to see the research for yourself, or maybe just read the
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highlights. The links to all of my resources
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are in the show notes. Thanks for joining me on this
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focal point Friday, I'll be back again on Tuesday for another
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regular. Pisode of the just grow
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something podcast. So, until next time, my
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gardening friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden
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and we'll talk again soon. Pisode of the just grow
00:07:20
something podcast. So, until next time, my
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gardening friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden
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and we'll talk again soon.