Teratogenic Effects of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides: Divergence of Regulatory Decisions from Scientific Evidence

Abstract

Chemotherapeutic agents lead to the damage of healthy cells because they react with cells which are dividing at a high rate by inhibiting the DNA synthesis and interfering with the process of cell division. "Therapeutic drug delivery allows for an increase in the efficacy of the chemotherapeutic agent while minimizing the interaction with nontumour sites in the body by controlling the release rate of the therapeutic agent and having targeted sites on the nanoparticle which will allow the nanoparticle to release its contents at targeted sites." There are three main methods of creating nanocarriers for drug delivery that will be consider in this paper, nanoprecipitation, single emulsion and double emulsion. N Single emulsion is the formation of nanoparticles through oil in water emulsion. Another way to decrease the toxic effect of the drug loaded nanoparticle on the cells is by having specific ligands attached to the nanoparticle that specifically targets a cancer cells or have magnetic particles that one can move to the area where the tumour is located by using a magnet

Pesticides, environment, and food safety

“…The EU set the daily chronic reference dose for glyphosate to 0.5 mg/kg body weight per day, while the US EPA has set glyphosate daily chronic reference dose at 1.75 mg/kg body weight per day. However, recent compilation of toxicological data on glyphosate supports the need for reducing further the daily chronic reference dose to 0.1 mg/kg body weight per day (Antoniou et al 2012).…”

Re-registration Challenges of Glyphosate in the European Union

“…As glyphosate-based herbicides have been indicated to be associated with birth defects in the exposed population (Antoniou et al, 2011(Antoniou et al, , 2012, the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe and Greenpeace brought forward a lawsuit against the EC in connection to the postponement of authorization of glyphosate until 2015, based on the claim that they failed to properly consider the teratogenicity and cytotoxicity data in the risk assessment provided by the German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL). Although the legal case has not been finalized to date, it has led to a decision by the Court of Justice of the EU that the EC has to make information on the release of PPPs into the environment accessible to any applicant requesting it, including the "identity" and the quantity of all of the impurities contained in the active substance, as well as the composition of the PPPs (InfoCuria, 2017).…”

A critical review of glyphosate findings in human urine samples and comparison with the exposure of operators and consumers

“…In agriculture, PPPs containing glyphosate are mainly used in pre-emergence weed control for seedbed preparation and in stubble fields on cropland, for pre-harvest treatment (desiccation) and for grassland renewal. However, glyphosate itself and in particular the extensive use of glyphosate-based herbicides on genetically modified (i.e., glyphosate-resistant) crops, especially in North and South America, came in for a lot of criticism with regard to exposure of human beings and possible health effects (e.g., Antoniou et al 2012;Samsel and Seneff 2013).…”