Uht-oh. This is troubling. In the first of its kind study scientists have just discovered that adverse effects on the body from popular weedkiller RoundUp (glyphosate) carry over to future generations–and even get worse.

Think you are okay because you live in a city apartment and don’t need to use it?  Think again. Remember that previous research has detected RoundUp/Glyphosate in a wide variety of processed foods sold at the grocery store (1, 2).  Given this, a sizeable swath of the U.S. population is regularly putting glyphosate into their bodies.  The U.S., as the data demonstrate, is a nation of people with serious chronic conditions–conditions that have been linked in numerous other studies to synthetic and industrialized chemicals of concern in our food, products and environment.  Clearly we need more studies on glyphosate’s effects on the body–and the bodies of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of people who regularly used the weedkiller.

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Researchers see health effects across generations from popular weed killer

and ‘Dramatic increases’ in several diseases

Researchers have found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate, the world’s most popular weed killer. In the first study of its kind, the researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities.

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Study Overview

Scientists exposed pregnant rats to the herbicide between their eighth and 14th days of gestation. The dose — half the amount expected to show no adverse effect — produced no apparent ill effects on either the parents or the first generation of offspring. However, the researchers saw “dramatic increases” in several pathologies affecting the second and third generations…

The second generation had “significant increases” in testis, ovary and mammary gland diseases, as well as obesity. In third-generation males, the researchers saw a 30 percent incidence of prostate disease — three times the rate of a control population. The third generation of females had a 40 percent incidence of kidney disease, or four times the rate of the controls.

More than one-third of the second-generation mothers had unsuccessful pregnancies, with most of those affected dying. Two out of five males and females in the third generation were obese.

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Generational Toxicology

The adverse effects of RoundUp (glyphosate) where it skips generations and then reappears at dramatic levels is familiar to scientists.  The same thing has been discovered in studies on the effects of fungicides, pesticides, jet fuel, the plastics compound bisphenol A, the insect repellant DEET and the herbicide atrazine.  What occurs is epigenetic changes that turn genes on and off, often because of environmental influences.

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Other recent scientific findings on RoundUp (Glyphosate)

A University of Washington study published in 2019 found the chemical increased the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by as much as 41 percent. A Washington State University study published in December 2018 found state residents living close to areas subject to treatments with the herbicide are one-third more likely to die an early death from Parkinson’s disease.

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Journal Reference: Deepika Kubsad, Eric E. Nilsson, Stephanie E. King, Ingrid Sadler-Riggleman, Daniel Beck, Michael K. Skinner. Assessment of Glyphosate Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Pathologies and Sperm Epimutations: Generational Toxicology. Scientific Reports, 2019; 9 (1).

Overview;  Study DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-42860-0

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