Public health advocates call for pause on glyphosate use

(InvestigateTV) — Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States, but public health advocates warn it may be linked to serious diseases, including cancer. They are urging policymakers to pause its use until more research is conducted.

Glyphosate is commonly used by farmers and gardeners to kill weeds. But advocates say the chemical is turning up in food and even in people’s bodies.

Liam Sacino, a public health advocate with U.S. PIRG, said their research has revealed troubling signs of exposure.

“We’ve done reports in the past that showed that glyphosate is making its way to our end products in things like beer and wine,” Sacino explained. “There’s other reports that show glyphosate makes its way to end products like cereal. One study found that when they tested people for glyphosate exposure, four out of five people tested positive.”

Sacino also pointed to cancer research linking the chemical to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“In 2001, a study linked glyphosate to one of the most common forms of cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Sacino said. “And so, if we know that there’s this risk of cancer and that most people are being exposed to glyphosate, whether through the food, skin contact, or the air we breathe, we should stop using it until we determine what the total level of risk is here.”

In August, U.S. PIRG joined Moms Across America and Farmers’ Footprint in sending a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the MAHA Commission – a federal panel tasked with developing a childhood disease prevention strategy – urging them to include a moratorium on glyphosate in their recommendations.

“We hope that the MAHA commission will take seriously the concerns of everybody and promise to provide more publicly funded gold standard science to figure out there is a risk with glyphosate,” Sacino said.

The Trump administration’s MAHA report acknowledged studies about glyphosate and its potential health effects. However, the Commission’s Strategy Report released in September did not directly reference the herbicide.

“If this pesticide is potentially causing a risk of cancer, there’s other pesticides that cause a variety of other risks – things like Parkinson’s disease – people should know that and I think when people know that they tend to want to make the choice to reduce or mitigate that risk,” Sacino added.

Bayer, which manufactures glyphosate under the brand name Roundup, defends the chemical’s use. The company says glyphosate helps farmers control weeds, increase crop yields, and keep food costs down. On its website, Bayer highlights that regulatory agencies around the world have reviewed glyphosate and deemed it safe when used as directed.

InvestigateTV reached out to both Bayer and the MAHA Commission for comment, but has not yet received a response.

Editor’s note: The original version of this story said studies regarding glyphosate were mentioned in the MAHA Commission’s Strategy Report released in September. That has been corrected.

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