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The threat of Glyphosate

Several countries have turned their alarms to the danger of using the most popular pesticide of the company Monsanto. In Brazil, a court ordered the temporary suspension of this product, while in Bolivia they demand to evaluate its toxicity. This is in addition to the sentence of a US court that links it to the terminal cancer of a gardener.

By José Díaz

Servindi, 20 August, 2018.- In recent years, one of the most controversial companies in the field of the environment has been Monsanto (now in the hands of Bayer corporation). Particularly it is the famous and controversial herbicide used by this company known as Glyphosate, product which has been discovered with a wide range of negative impacts on the human body.

A few weeks ago, in the United States, a Californian court sanctioned Monsanto with a payment of US$ 290 million towards an American citizen. The judges determined that the plaintiff, a former gardener who used Glyphosate during his activities, contracted cancer due to the handling of this product.

This sentence awoke the alarms in various countries. One of them was Brazil, where a court ordered the suspension of the commercialization of all products using Glyphosate a few weeks ago. This judicial decision was taken, even against the will of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, while the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) conducts a toxicological evaluation of Monsanto products.

A few days after the temporary sentence in Brazil, in Bolivia the Plataforma Bolivia Libre de Transgénicos y Pesticidas (PBLTP) sent the government of that country a letter requesting the evaluation of the use of Glyphosate in Bolivian crops. This letter also called for considering the analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) that considers the Monsanto product as a potential generator of cancer cells.

Increasing concern

The judicial sentences that have been accumulating against Monsanto, in addition to the recommendations of the WHO, have caused concern to increase in recent months. A few weeks ago, in the United States, an investigation was published by the Environmental Working Group that analyzed samples of multiple brands of processed foods for breakfast.

This research found that in a variety of food products of known brands (Cheerios, Quaker) there was a high amount of Glyphosate. "They are levels above what can be considered safe and very popular breakfast foods", said Alex Temkin, one of the researchers of this group.

In Peru the risk is not less, last weekend a report published by the newspaper La República noted that glyphosate is the herbicide most used by farmers in this country. To this is added that the manipulation of the product is not done following the most appropriate safety parameters, so there is a risk of registering more cases such as the Californian gardener.

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