Thanks a lot, Grandma: Negative effects of Roundup chemical doesn’t surface for generations, WSU researcher says
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April 26, 2019
Much of the food we eat today may impact our great-grandchildren, a prominent Washington State University researcher said. Bayer, the company that owns the chemical in question, is fighting that assertion.
Washington State University Biology Professor Michael Skinner studied the effects of glyphosate in rats. Commonly found in Roundup, Skinner will be the first to say direct exposure to the chemical has not been found to be harmful.
Skinner exposed pregnant rats to glyphosate. The mothers had no harmful side effects. The rats’ children were unharmed. The grandchildren? Also fine. But when the study reached the great-grandchildren, more than than 90% of the animals developed one or more diseases.
“The diseases ran from tumors to prostate disease to ovary disease and major birth defects,” Skinner said. “ … If that compound changes the epigenetics in the sperm or the egg of the individual exposed, then they pass that on to the next generation and it keeps going for generations to come.”
For 20 years, Skinner has worked in the field of epigenetics, a once controversial field now widely accepted that studies how outside influences can alter DNA. Skinner’s study was published in Scientific Reports on Tuesday. (LINK is below . . . .)
Bill Reeves, a toxicologist with Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, said Skinner’s study wasn’t credible for several reasons. Reeves said the control group of rats was switched out toward the end of the study, and the method for delivering the chemical – injected in the rat’s abdomen – was not indicative of how humans would be exposed to the chemical in Roundup.
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