Glyphosate is an organophosphorus compound. It is first made
as a isopropylamine salt. Although it is an organophosphorus compound , it
cannot be described as a organophosphate but more of a phosphanoglycine since
it does not contain any cholinesterase qualities. Glyphosate is used on crops
and home lawns to kill unwanted plants and also crop eating insects. The most
popular products that you can find it in are Roundup, Rodeo, and Pondmaster. It is an herbicide and also a pesticide.
Glyphosate is not super toxic, but is still harmful enough to force companies
to a warning label on the products containing it. During acute toxic testing,
it caused severe eye irritation, but it did not cause any changes to the skin.
The chronic toxic tests was performed on animals, however there was no harm
done from the compound. There were no reproductive, teratogenic, mutagenic, or
carcinogenic effects caused by the glyphosate. It is not easily absorbed by the
digestive tract and it did not cause any changes to the rate of body weight
gain, the blood, kidneys, or liver. Some benefits of using glyphosate are it is
low in toxicity and it is very effective weed control. Glyphosate has a
half-life of 40 days, which means half of it will be gone after 40 days. One of
the biggest cons is the fact that it still toxic. Considering everything in
this world being a form of poison, glyphosate is not that bad for our health in
small dosages. Although it kills it’s intended target, glyphosate needs to be
handled with care. The way it works is it prevents a plant’s ability to use
certain enzyme pathways to grow. When it is being applied, it can do this to
any other plants that it comes into contact with. This is part of the reason
people who use high concentrations of it need a license first because they
understand the damage that this compound can do to foliage.
http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/our-modern-plagues/pros-and-cons-herbicide-tolerant-gmos
