Poisonous Spray on a Course Towards Drinking
Water
Af Anders Legarth Schmidt
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Research Institution (DGGRI) in an as yet unpublished article.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.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/glyphosate051503.cfm