April 2004

Glyphosate Quickly Cleared by Humans

An exposure study of farm workers and their families showed that a substantial number of workers who applied glyphosate (Roundup®) had no detectable residues, even though the detection limit was one part per billion (ppb). The study, which was cooperatively conducted between Monsanto, Exponent Corporation, Emory University, and University of Minnesota, examined urine samples of 48 South Carolina and Minnesota farmers, their spouses, and 78 children, aged four to 18. The samples were collected before application day, on the day after the application, and three days after the application. Farmes. rs had applied glyphosate to a minimum of ten acres to over 100 acre

On the day of glyphosate application, 60 percent of the farmers had detectable residues, with a mean of three ppb. This yielded a theoretical dose of 0.004 mg/kg. Only four percent of spouses were found to have detectable residues on application day and none had residues in later monitoring. Twelve percent of the children had detectable residues the day of application, and all but one of the children who had detectable residues had helped with the application or been present during mixing, loading, or application. None of the theoretical doses approached EPA’s reference dose of two mg/kg/day. The results are in March’s edition of Environmental Health Perspectives. (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 3/29/04).

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