A farmer sprays glyphosate on crops in Bavaria, Germany, June 2020. FRANKHOERMANN / SVEN SIMON / DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA AFP
The procedure often amazes the discoverers: European regulations stipulate that agrochemical companies that want to have their pesticides approved carry out the necessary toxicological studies themselves. But how can you be sure that all the data you have has actually been transmitted to the authorities? This is the question two Swedish scientists ask about glyphosate in the journal Environmental Health on Monday, September 5th. In a brief commentary, Axel Mie and Christina Ruden, researchers at Stockholm University’s Department of Environmental Sciences, announce that they have identified an industry study completed in 2001, the results of which – embarrassingly – have never been brought to the attention of European authorities. The authors do not mention it in their article, but the sponsoring company was the Swiss agrochemist Syngenta.
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The case opens a new front in the controversy surrounding the famous herbicide: This time, it’s not about its carcinogenicity, but rather possible harmful effects on brain structure from prenatal exposures. “Reading a scientific article published in 2009 [dans la revue Environmental Health Perspectives] by toxicologists at the US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], I happened to see that an industry study was briefly mentioned examining the possible toxicity of a glyphosate salt on neurodevelopment, says Axel Mie. I was very surprised because I didn’t even know that such a study existed. »
Piqued his curiosity, the Swedish scientist began looking for other traces of this work, but found none. Neither in the data transmitted to the European pesticide police officer, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), nor anywhere on the internet. “I searched US government databases,” says Mie. There I found a 3,000-page compilation of internal documents with summaries of how EPA scientists evaluated numerous studies, including this one. »
“An effect on neurobehavioral function”
The study in question consisted of exposing pregnant rats to different doses of a glyphosate salt (glyphosate trimesium) and then evaluating the motor activity of their offspring in comparison to that of unexposed rats. According to the EPA, the Swedish researchers write: “This study shows that this form of glyphosate has an effect on neurobehavioural function and motor activity in the offspring [des rats de laboratoire], at a dose not previously known to cause harm.” In particular, the motor activity of animals exposed in utero was reduced by 45% to 72%, depending on sex and dose administered, compared to animals whose mothers were not exposed to the product.
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