Glyphosate, the principle ingredient in the weed killer, Round-Up, is a dangerous chemical according to this fascinating book that I recently finished reading. Written by a senior research scientist at MIT, Stephanie Seneff, the book lays out a compelling case why glyphosate is perniciously toxic to the environment as well as the human biome. Writing from a technical viewpoint, but still accessible to a wide general audience, she presents a cornucopia of evidence at the bio-molecular level how glyphosate damages human organs, interferes with immune response, disrupts endocrine signaling, and even contributes to obesity.
Oftentimes in these complex topics, we read someone’s thoughts which are largely a regurgitation of someone else’s thought; which, in-turn, is based on someone else’s thought. However, this is a good primary discussion book on the topic, written with careful analysis of the issues and often shares both sides of the perspective. The book also explains why previous glyphosate toxicology studies often find no adverse effect at the macro-scale (animal, human, environment, etc) whereas studies at the cellular and bio-molecular level usually come to the diametrically opposite conclusions.
Although she includes some results from macro-scale tests and clinical studies (typically explaining where they were incorrect), presenting from a succinct cellular-biochemical perspective is partly what makes her book particularly fascinating. I think this approach is helpful because, while it can be tedious, it provides a solid explanation for understanding why glyphosate can seem so innocuous from the 1000ft view but is so particularly pernicious “under the hood”.
Seneff shows in depth how glyphosate is a highly biologically active chemical. Its biological affects can be grouped into three general categories:
- It is very similar to the amino acid glycine in shape and many chemical characteristics. In fact, she posits, it is so similar that it cannot be distinguished by t-RNA and readily substitutes for glycine during protein synthesis in some situations. This creates excessive “junk” proteins.
- Before it was ever used a weed killer, glyphosate was patented in 1961 as a chelating agent to clean mineral deposits from the interior tubes and boilers in commercial hot water systems. Through this same mechanism, glyphosate binds most common biologically active 2+ cations, hiding their charge enough to enable it to cross cell barriers. It also can transport heavy metals (such as aluminum) into the cell via the same mechanism.
- Glyphosate possesses strong antibacterial properties against certain types of bacteria and was actually patented for use as an antibiotic by Monsanto in 2010. This is because the metabolic pathway mechanism that it disrupts in weeds is also similarly disrupted in bacteria. While humans don’t posses this particular metabolic pathway, we do have some pathways with enough similarity that glyphosate could ostensibly disrupt them as well.
Seneff explains how these properties affect complex, interrelated biochemical mechanisms in the human body in negative ways. She traces glyphosate to possibly being complicit in an array of modern afflictions from kidney and liver failure to Alzheimer’s and autism.
Glyphosate is an endocrine disrupter. While other toxic effects of glyphosate are arguably dose proportional, experimental evidence cited by Seneff indicates an inverse effect on the endocrine system: the smaller the dosage the more toxic the effect.
In some rat exposure studies during gestation, at glyphosate concentrations of half the no observed adverse event limit (NOAEL), harm from glyphosate exposure was observed to appear to “skip” the exposed generation leaving them unscathed but afflict their progeny in second and following generations with a sad collection of health issues (such as, curiously, a high obesity rate) as well as high maternal death rate during gestation, premature and still births, as well as high incidences of rare genetic deformities.
Because glyphosate mimics other biologically active molecules and is often present in low exposure concentrations, it’s toxicity is diluted when a good diet is present. However, even discounting endocrine system disruptions, it can still wreck significant damage on the body at low concentrations because it’s effects, especially from protein substitution and subsequent misfolding, can be cumulative. This can become more pronounced in oxidative stress situations. Thus, it follows that the degradation of physiological functions and tissue damage would be expected to occur slowly over time, making it difficult for medical professionals and researchers to establish causality.
While she admits that glyphosate is certainly not the issue in every case, Seneff believes it to likely be a major contributing factor in the quickly rising rates of a bewildering array of health problems that Americans are experiencing at statistically higher and higher rates since 1980.
In the last chapter, she describes practical actions that her readers can take to help reduce the harmful effects of glyphosate.
Out of two minor criticisms of the book, one I have is that it did not discuss any of the metabolic by-products of glyphosate breakdown other than perhaps a passing reference or two. Considering how much of this chemical is applied yearly (1,820 million pounds worldwide in 2014), I think a discussion of the stability and toxicity of glyphosate by-products would be of interest.
The other is that in some places, the text does not seem to flow smoothly between paragraphs. There were many places, particularly chapters 4-6 where I felt that she was purposely trying to “dumb” down the text and it broke up the natural thought flow.
Overall, my impression reading this book is that it is a well-researched book and her conclusions are worth serious consideration. Considering the scale of usage, the points she presents, if true, could represent a huge ecological disaster in the making.
For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
Pr. 2:6-7
*Images credits: Glycine/glyphosate comparison: https://wildfreeorganic.com/wellness/pesticides-are-dangerous, Chelating effect illustration on 2+ ions: https://eurekaag.com.au/glyphosate-effect-hard-water/, Shikimate metabolic pathway: https://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/2007962229/2030677672/gr1.jpg
