A study by the Heinrich Boell Foundation has found that 99.6 per cent of Germans have glyphosate residues in their urine. Meat-eaters are most affected, due to animal feed containing GM soy and maize.
Glyphosate has entered the human food chain. This is demonstrated by the results of studies that are emerging one after another around the world: as reported by Aiab, the Italian Association of Organic Agriculture, in order to establish the presence of the controversial herbicide in everyday life, England analysed bread, France analysed water, the United States analysed breast milk and even tampons…
Germany, by contrast, opted for a simple urine test on a sample of the German population, comprising 2,009 people. The results revealed that 75 per cent of them are heavily contaminated with glyphosate, at a concentration at least five times higher than the permitted limits for water. In one third of those contaminated, the concentration was found to be between ten and forty-two times higher. Only 0.4 per cent of the 2,009 samples proved completely free of glyphosate residues, meaning it can be said that almost all Germans (99.6 per cent) have traces of the herbicide in their bodies. The highest levels of contamination were recorded in children aged between 0 and 9, in young people aged between 10 and 19, and, among occupational categories, particularly in farmers.
Meat-eaters were found to be more exposed to glyphosate than vegetarians and vegans. Consumers of organic products also showed greater protection compared to consumers of conventional products.
"The analysis carried out confirmed the previous results of the Federal Environment Agency, which had found glyphosate present in the urine of the majority of the samples examined (400, ed.). It is numerically the largest study of this kind conducted in the world, carried out with volunteers from across Germany. The health significance of these results makes it essential that further scientific studies be conducted to identify possible correlations between exposure to glyphosate through food, drinking water or occupational contamination and the health status of the population, namely the onset of certain diseases," underlined veterinarian Monika Krüger, the study's author.
The Federal Environment Agency itself has called for further analyses of the population to be carried out, since substances classified as "probably carcinogenic" cannot be authorised as pesticides under current European legislation.