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Monsanto's Roundup herbicide contaminates Danish drinking water
(Tuesday, July 15, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Anders Legarth Schmidt, Politiken, 05/10/03: Denmark's most popular herbicide Roundup is polluting the underground water
far more than previously thought. Agriculture uses yearly 800 tons of active
glyphosate in herbicide. The Environment Minister is looking at taking steps
to address this.
The Danish drinking water resources are under attack from an unexpected
quarter. The chemical glyphosate that is in the popular herbicides Roundup
and Touchdown is against all expectations sieving down through the soil and
polluting the ground water at a rate of five times more than the allowed
level for drinking water.
This has been shown from tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological
Research Institution (DGGRI) in an as yet unpublished article.
Believed Bacteria broke down glyphosate
"When we spray glyphosate on the fields by the rules it has been shown that
it is washed down into the upper ground water with a concentration of 0.54
micrograms per litre. This is very surprising, because we had previously
believed that bacteria in the soil broke down the glyphosate before it
reached the ground water."
It is the Environment Ministry that has given permission to use glyphosate -
based on the producers [Monsanto's] own research.
Used against Twitch and Thistles
Farmers spray glyphosate on their fields after the harvest to keep the soil
free of twitch and thistles. It had been earlier found in wells in Roskilde
and Storstroms regions as well as the Copenhagen district council area.
Critics say glyphosate causes cancer, while its defenders call it a wonder
herbicide.
Professor Mogens Henze the head of the Institute for Environment and
Resources at Denmark's Technical University, says that the consequence of
the new knowledge is that water works in five to ten years will need to
clean the water before Danes can drink it.
"The results show that glyphosate is polluting our drinking water. And
unfortunately we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, because glyphosate
and many other spray chemicals are on their way through the soil at this
point in time. Politicians need to look at agriculture in relation to clean
drinking water and decide what it is they are going to do." says Mogens
Henze, who isn't blaming the farmers who use something that the authorities
have allowed.
Use Doubled
Statistics from the Environment Ministry show that the use of glyphosate has
doubled in the last five years. In 2001 800 tons was used and that made up a
quarter of farmers total use of pesticides. This shows that glyphosate is
the most used herbicide by farmers.
As a result of the new research from DGGRI the Environment Minister Hans
Christian Schmidt is currently thinking about doing something about the use
of glyphosate on Danish fields.
"It is simply not acceptable that this stuff is turning up in our
groundwater in such a concentration so high over the acceptable level. If
this is the case then we must react quickly" says the Environment Minister,
who is awaiting a report from the Environment Ministry.
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