Monsanto's Herbicide Causes DNA Damage, Cell Death

Brazil is the world's second largest producer and exporter of soybean after the United States. | Photo: AFP/Archive

A new peer-reviewed scientific study has found that soybean farmers in Brazil who are using Monsanto's flagship product Roundup suffer from DNA damage and high cell death, reported RT on Wednesday.

The scientific team focused on farmers in Rio Grando do Sul, Brazil, exposed to fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides from the company, especially the chemicals Glyphosate and 2,4-D.

While the former is currently sprayed on crops twice more than it used to be five years ago, the latter has been used since the 1940s, meaning that soil and water are likely highly contaminated by the substance.

The study, published by the Elsevier, recommends “monitoring [of] genetic toxicity in soybean farm workers exposed to pesticides.”

However, farmers would not be the only ones contaminated, according to the Natural Society, citing a German study published in Ithaca that found that glyphosate levels in the blood and urine of city dwellers were often up to 20 times the allowable levels in drinking water.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not regularly test the toxicity of the chemical in humans; allegedly because of its high cost, other previous studies have already assessed it, coming to similar conclusions. The famous research team led by Gilles-Eric Séralini at the University of Caen, France, revealed in particular that the Roundup product completely destroyed kidney cells, even under low exposure.

Meanwhile, thousands of farmers using Monsanto's products still “mysteriously” died from kidney diseases – as the World Health Organization refused to directly indicate Monsanto's responsibility, but rather evoked a “possible cause” of their deaths.

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