New Study Shows Roundup Is Dangerous Even In Small Amounts

Media Contacts
Kara Cook-Schultz

U.S. PIRG

A newly-released study provides yet more evidence that it is time to ban Roundup.  According to the study published in Nature, low levels of Roundup can cause serious liver disease.[1]  This is the first study to show that Roundup causes serious health problems at levels found in the real world.  In this study, researchers exposed rats to extremely low doses of Roundup over two years.  The “low dose” of Roundup from the study is thousands of times lower than the amount of Roundup found in America’s tap water.[2]  At this low exposure, the team found cell damage, fatty liver disease and areas of dead tissue in the liver.

Fatty liver disease and tissue damage to the liver can be life-threatening.[3]  It can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, and other risks like heart disease and diabetes complications.  About 100 million people in the US have fatty liver disease.[4] Further, this study comes out less than two years after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.”[5]

This new research is especially alarming because in 2013 the EPA increased the amount of Roundup allowed on fruits, vegetables, and grains.  EPA allowed this increase because it believed that Roundup causes no harm “to the general population or to infants and children from aggregate exposure.”[6]  Since the EPA allowed this increase, Roundup has been found in baby food,[7] cereal,[8] and beer[9] at amounts greater than the concentrations used in the Nature study. 

With these dangers in mind, Roundup should be banned in the United States unless and until it can be proven safe.  As one of the experts of the study, Dr. Michael Antoniou, said, “Our results also suggest that regulators should reconsider the safety evaluation of glyphosate-based herbicides.”[10]  The body of evidence showing the danger Roundup poses to our health is growing, and that’s why US PIRG has asked the EPA to ban Roundup and has delivered over 24,000 petitions to the EPA in support of that sentiment.  Join in by asking the EPA to ban Roundup here.