KUSA — A jury recently awarded $289 million to a man with cancer for his exposure to Roundup weed killer, which contains glyphosate. The Environmental Working Group has found this same pesticide in many common oat-based foods.
What is glyphosate?
Glyphosate is one of the most commonly used pesticides. It is sprayed on areas both before and after planting to kills weeds, so crops do not compete for essential nutrients in the soil and water. It is also used pre-harvest for weed control and to speed up the process of drying out the grains. It is used throughout the world.
Is glyphosate potentially cancer-causing? In 2015, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer said that glyphosate was a “probable carcinogen” based on the links to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, animal studies and potential damage caused to cells in the laboratory. Then in 2016 the WHO and the United Nations released a second report looking mostly at the ingestion of glyphosate in animals.
There was a link to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, but the levels were very high. As a result, they determined glyphosate did not appear to be a carcinogen. The European Food Safety Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency all have come out saying glyphosate is not a carcinogen. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, however, did list it as a carcinogen as of 2017. The EPA is currently re-examining their thoughts on glyphosate
A new study from The Environmental Working Group says that many oat-based products contain this same potential carcinogen. The group tested 45 oat-containing products like cereals, granola, snack bars and whole oats. Only two did not have detectable levels of glyphosate. They also tested 16 organic products and found only five of these products had detectable levels of the pesticide. The EWG set their own much more conservative limit than even what the California and EPA offices have set. They found many common oat-based products had “high” levels of glyphosate. It’s important to remember that the EWG’s definition of “high” is about 100 times more conservative than California’s, which is stricter than the EPAs.
Should you eat those breakfast foods?
The science is really confusing, with a lot of different groups weighing in with their own interests. Eating weed killer is probably not what most of us want to do. But, an adult would need to eat about 12 servings per day of the cereal with the highest amount of glyphosate to get to the conservative California level.
Now with children and toddlers who are eating these products, especially over the course of a lifetime, I think it is reasonable to say eat those oat-based products in moderation and choose organic if possible. The bigger question is if your toddler is eating Cheerios all day, what is he NOT eating that he should, like fruits and vegetables. It probably isn’t time to throw away all your oat-containing breakfast products at home but think more about what is going into them.
