Effects of Glyphosate on the Environment and Human Health

Abstract

Glyphosate is a herbicide of a wide spectrum that alters the production of amino acids in plants, leading to their death. Due to its properties, it is used to eliminate weeds that interfere with human activity. The intensive use of this herbicide in the past decades has led to its frequent encounter in the environment as it has been detected in water, animals, and food destined for human consumption. Its impact on human health and the rest of living organisms has not been fully explored, given that many authors enter into contradictions with one another, specifically surrounding the role of surfactants in the commercial presentation of herbicides. The use of pesticides can have significant impacts on ecosystems, threatening bio-cultural diversity due to genetic contamination from transgenic crops. The effectiveness of Glyphosate-based herbicides in weed control is diminishing due to weed tolerance. However, the use of herbicides remains prevalent in large-scale crops due to the challenges of organic food production. In addition, the probable conflict of interest by the agrochemical industry does not bring a full picture with respect to the actions that world governments should take. Banning GLP-based herbicides may lead to the use of other pesticides, in which the long-term impacts will require further studies. The motivation for this research is the review of the latest advances of glyphosate in the world, considering the use and prohibitions of this herbicide, its interaction with water and soil, as well as the effects on both the environment and health. The search for information for this paper was carried out in the Mendeley, Elsevier, and Springer databases by filtering by the suitable keywords.