Bayer’s New Formulation of Roundup is 45x More Toxic, Contains Ingredients Banned in Other Countries

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Knowing that its glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer represents continuing litigation risk for its consumer product line, Bayer has decided to pivot. It has introduced new residential lawn and gardening Roundup products that do not contain glyphosate.

However, these new formulations are, on average, 45 times more toxic to human health following exposures over long periods of time (chronic toxicity) and also pose greater risks to the environment.

This is according to a just-released report from Friends of the Earth called New Roundup, New Risks.

“Bayer’s willingness to deceive the public and disregard our health as it continues to cash in on the Roundup brand name is outrageous,” said Kendra Klein, deputy director of science for the non-profit group.

In 2021, with over 100,000 lawsuits pending from cancer victims who were exposed to glyphosate in the Roundup weed killer, Bayer announced it would remove glyphosate from its consumer products — but not its agricultural and professional products — starting in 2023.

Over the past few months, Friends of the Earth reviewed Roundup consumer products for sale at the two largest U.S. home and garden retailers, Home Depot and Lowe’s, to verify if Bayer had followed through on its promise.

While it appears that several legacy, glyphosate-based Roundup products are still for sale on shelves, three new formulations contain combinations of four different chemicals that pose a greater risk of long-term and/or reproductive health problems than glyphosate, based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) evaluation of safety studies.

Two chemicals of tremendous concern in the new formulations are diquat dibromide and imazapic.

Diquat dibromide, which is present in all of the new formulations and was banned in the European Union in 2019, is 200 times more toxic than glyphosate in terms of long-term, chronic exposure and is classified as a highly hazardous pesticide.

Imazapic, also banned in the EU, is exceedingly problematic when it comes to the environment. Its GUS index value (a value that estimates how likely a pesticide is to move into groundwater) is 20x higher than glyphosate, and imazapic is 36x more persistent in soil than glyphosate.

THE ANSWER IS CONGRESS

Despite courts around the country having ruled that Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused cancer, with tens of thousands of people losing their lives and their health, why is this company permitted to introduce a new Roundup with even greater toxicity?

“Drug companies are not allowed to replace the aspirin in a brand-name pain reliever with oxycontin or fentanyl, and for good reason,” said Sarah Starman, senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “It is unconscionable that the EPA allows this toxic sleight of hand.”

But this regulatory capture by chemical companies is pervasive.

Based on a 2019 peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Health, the U.S. allows the use of 85 pesticides that have been banned or are being phased out in the European Union, China or Brazil.

“It’s appalling the U.S. lags so far behind these major agricultural powers in banning harmful pesticides,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity and author of the study. “The fact that we’re still using hundreds of millions of pounds of poisons other nations have wisely rejected as too risky spotlights our dangerously lax approach to phasing out hazardous pesticides.”

In the meantime, Friends of the Earth and its allies have been actively campaigning to get Home Depot and Lowe’s to end sales of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides linked to pollinator declines and cancer. The efforts continue, but so far, both retailers still sell the product.

Until we get serious about electing politicians into Congress who are committed to strengthening how pesticides are regulated and approved at the EPA, weed killers such as these will be made available to the American public.

With gratitude, Max Goldberg, Founder