Glyphosate Toxicity: Smoke or Fire?

Glyphosate Toxicity: Smoke or Fire?

The latest IPM Practitioner is now online at http://www.birc.org/news.htm.

The featured article, “Glyphosate Toxicity—Smoke or Fire?” is a brief review of glyphosate toxicity. There is a lot of confusing and conflicting information available. But the key to understanding potential toxicity is likely human exposures. For instance, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has concluded that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, but the World Health Organization believes that anticipated dietary exposures are “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.”

The IPM Practitioner article makes rough estimates of U.S. glyphosate exposures using available data and compares results with regulatory thresholds. Likely exposures are below U.S. regulatory thresholds, but exceed some European guidelines. Estimated dietary exposures, though below regulatory thresholds, might cause oxidative stress and might have an impact on liver enzymes.

This issue also includes updates on the Zika virus, a cure for Pierce’s disease, and a Special Pheromone Report from the 2015 Conference of the Entomological Society of America.

The IPM Practitioner is a publication of the Bio-Integral Resource Center in Berkeley, California.