According to an article in German in the Ithaca journal, a German university study has found significant concentrations of glyphosate in the urine samples of city dwellers.

The analysis of the urine samples apparently found that all had concentrations of glyphosate at 5 to 20-fold the limit for drinking water.

As well as being used increasingly widely in food production, glyphosate-based weedkillers often also get sprayed onto railway lines, urban pavements and roadsides.


[link to www.ithaka-journal.net]

Glyphosate, the main ingredient of most commercial herbicides.

It poisons not only plants but also animals and humans slowly.

At a German university Urine samples of the urban population were examined for contamination with glyphosate.

All samples showed significant concentrations of the herbicide active ingredient, they were around the 5 to 20 times above the limit of drinking water.


News of this study comes not long after the publication of a study confirming glyphosate was contaminating groundwater.

Last year also saw the publication of two US Geological Survey studies which consistently found glyphosate in streams, rain and even air in agricultural areas of the US.

[link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Roundup herbicide found in air, rain, and streams

[link to www.gmwatch.eu]


BACKGROUND: Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] is a herbicide used widely throughout the world in the production of many crops and is heavily used on soybeans, corn and cotton.

Glyphosate is used in almost all agricultural areas of the United States, and the agricultural use of glyphosate has increased from less than 10 000 Mg in 1992 to more than 80 000 Mg in 2007.

The greatest intensity of glyphosate use is in the midwestern United States, where applications are predominantly to genetically modified corn and soybeans.

[link to www.gmwatch.eu]