RoundUp - Kills Weeds… and People?

The “American Dream” is often pictured as a large home, with a white picket fence surrounding a beautiful yard. However, today people go to greater lengths to have lush green grass than ever. Commonly you see yard-enthusiasts perusing their yards and gardens looking for weeds to kill in order to keep them looking pristine. Some pick the weeds, but today more and more people turn to pesticides and chemicals in order to keep the weeds away. A popular choice is RoundUp, by Bayer, which you can buy at your local Home Depot. Maybe you even have it in your garage, here’s a picture just in case:

So what’s the big deal? Now Bayer has over 8,000 litigation cases against them for this product. In 2001, Bayer was sued for $289 by a groundskeeper in San Francisco, who claimed that he contracted cancer from using RoundUp. The main chemical in focus in RoundUp is Glyphosate, which can be seen below:

 

Glyphosate has become one of the most commonly used pesticides for farmers and gardeners. In fact, “Over more than four decades, about 3.5 billion pounds of glyphosate was sprayed in the U.S.” However, in 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared glyphosate was a human carcinogen. This decision was disputed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017, who allowed the product to again be widely used. Bayer not only made RoundUp, but they also genetically modified crops that were resistant to the pesticide.

This article worked to increase chemophobia on two fronts. First, it highlights how a commonly used chemical, glyphosate, can cause cancer. There is already heightened fear over what is used in household cleaners and other products, and now families need to worry about what is put on their lawn too. Although it has a greater chance of affecting the individual who applies the chemicals to the ground, this will strike fear in parents whose children and pets play in the yard. Second, they bring up the largely talked about issue of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). They show how consumers can be taken advantage of by large corporations. Bayer first made a pesticide only to follow it up with me resistant crops, all to their profit. So, next time you think about adding pesticides to your lawn consider the risks first.