In March 2015,  after extensive research for more then ten years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified Monsanto' weedkiller glyphosate "probably carcinogen".

Glyphosate, Monsanto's best-selling herbicide,

is used in vast amounts by farmers around the world. Monsanto's  genetically modified (GMO) crop brands, like soy or wheat, stay alive when sprayed with Roundup while all other weeds die. But after the spraying these GM crops contain the herbicide glyphosate and other Roundup chemicals. Monsanto's weedkilling glyphosate formulation Roundup might get its EU licence extended. According to the Guardian, a EU key assessment has deemed the chemical "safe", based largely on secret industry reports. If the EU revokes the chemical's licence, Monsanto's profits will be severely hit.

High concentration of glyphosate found in mothers' breast milk

• 16 women from different regions all over Germany had between 0.210 and 0.432 nanograms Glyphosate per ml  in their breast milk, according to a Oldenburg university toxicologist's 2015 study. 
  Drinking water in Germany must not contain more than 0.100 nanograms of glyphosate per litre (= 0.1 parts per billion, ppb).
  
  

Glyphosate found  in bread and in urine

"Man findet die Substanz mittlerweile in Gewässern, im Urin, im Brot - auch in Deutschland", reports DIE ZEIT, a renowned German weekly newspaper. "Unstrittig ist: Die WHO-Krebsforscher gelten weltweit als Instanz. Auch vor Krebsgefahren durch Dieselabgase und Luftverschmutzung habe man früher als andere gewarnt."

• Read more about Glyphosate in food and water
• Read the WHO  IARC press release on glyphosate
• Read a summary of the WHO evaluations published in Lancet Oncology.
• Read the 2015 WHO IARC monograph on the chemical glyphosate
• Read more about the WHO IARC classification system
• Have a look at a 2015 Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast on glyphosate

read >>more

Women in the US who had their breast milk tested found it to contain glyphosate in concentrations 760 to 1600 times higher than what the European Drinking Water Directive allows for individual pesticides. The results also showed that glyphosate levels in the breast milk were 700 times higher than the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set for glyphosate by EPA, the US Environmental Protecion Agency.
EPA allows drinking water with a glyphosate level of up to 0.7 ppm (700 ppb), which is 7000  times more than the 0.1 ppb allowed in Germany.

Die Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitung zitiert 2014 den Kieler Toxikologe Dr. Hermann Kruse: Federführend für den Sicherheitscheck, die 2015 anstehende EU-weite Neubewertung des Pestizids,  sei Deutschland, das Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (BVL) und das Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR). Dr. Kruse vom Institut für Toxikologie und Pharmakologie an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität werfe den deutschen Behörden vor, „die Datenlage zu industriefreundlich zu interpretieren“.

Laut DIE ZEIT  verwendet das deutsche Bundesinstitut BfR bei seiner Beurteilung des Unkrautvernichters Glyphosat umfangreiche Forschung, die von den Agrarchemiefirmen Monsanto Europe, Syngenta und Dow ausgewählt wurde, darunter auch geheime, von den Firmen selbst in Auftrag gegebene Studien, die nicht an die Öffentlichkeit gelangen dürfen.

Statt die Bevölkerung zu schützen werden, wurden in Deutschland die Grenzwerte an die jeweilige landwirtschaftliche Realität angepasst. Nicht die Lebensmittel, die am seltensten gegessen werden, sondern diejenigen, die am intensivsten gespritzt werden, haben hierzulande die höchsten zugelassenen Grenzwerte. Bei Linsen wurde der Grenzwert von 0,1 mg/kg im Jahr 2008 auf das 100-fache, also 10 mg/kg in 2012 erhöht.

Die EU-Behörden haben in der Vergangenheit stetig die Grenzwerte für Lebensmittel angehoben: Für Weizen lag der Grenzwert 1999 bei 5 mg/kg. Heute sind 10 mg pro kg erlaubt, das 100-fache  gegenüber dem Grenzwert für Gemüse. Im Futtergetreide ist er sogar um das 200fache erhöht worden. (Medizinisches Labor Bremen)

In the UK, the Government's  Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food  conducted research into pesticide residues in bread sold in the UK.  Some result sof the food scientists'  2014 report on the weedkiller glyphosate in bread are given below. The maximum concentration of glyphosate allowed in UK bread is 1.05 mg/kg, for wholemeal the maximum is 3.5 mg/kg bread - more than three times as much.  The UK government's expert committee tested no bread samples from organic farming. 1 mg (milligram) = 1 million ng (nanogram).

BREAD, ORDINARY BREAD: WHITE
(47 samples analysed)
>> Pesticide glyphosate in high concentration
found in 11 out of 47 samples

Concentration range (mg/kg): <0.1
Number of samples: 36

Concentration range (mg/kg): 0.1 - 0.2
Number of samples: 11

BREAD, ORDINARY BREAD: WHOLEMEAL
(19 samples analysed)
>> Pesticide glyphosate in high concentration
found in 9 out of 19 samples

Concentration range (mg/kg): <0.1
Number of samples: 10

Concentration range (mg/kg): 0.1 - 0.8
Number of samples: 9

 BREAD, ORDINARY BREAD:  OTHER
(3 samples analysed)
>> Pesticide glyphosate in high concentration
found in 1 out of 3 samples

Concentration range (mg/kg): <0.1
Number of samples: 2

Concentration range (mg/kg): 0.4
Number of samples in range: 1

These findings might be compared with the maximum of 0.1 ng/kg,  or 0.1 ppb,  glyphosate allowed in drinking water in Germany: The glyphosate concentrations found in bread in the UK are up to 8 million times higher than the glyphosate concentration allowed in German drinking water.

1 mg/kg =  1 million ng/kg
1 mg/kg   =  1000  ppb   =  1000  per 1 billion parts   =  1 part per 1 million parts


1 ng/kg  =  0.001 ppb   =  0.001 parts per 1 billion parts
1 ppb     =  1000  ng/kg