The herbicidal ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup, and other Weedkiller products can kill the bacteria of the intestine and damage the organs in many ways, show new studies.
The ingredient, Dikut, is widely used in the United States as a weed in vineyards and orchards and is increasingly spraying elsewhere, such as the use of contradictory herbicidal substances such as glyphosate and charts in the United States.
But the new part of the data suggests that Diquat is more toxic than glyphosate, and the substance is prohibited because of its risks in the UK, EU, China and many other countries. However, EPA resisted calls for ban and depicting formulas with the ingredient hit the shelves last year.
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“From the point of view of human health, these things are much more gorgeous than glyphosate, so we see, unfortunately, replacement, and the ineffective regulatory structure allows it,” says Nathan Donley, a scientific director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which is advocating for more stress rules for pesticides, but does not participate in new research. Unfortunately, replacement is a scientific term used to describe the replacement of a toxic substance in a consumer product with an ingredient that is also toxic.
Diquat is also thought to be a neurotoxin, carcinogen and associated with Parkinson’s disease. October analysis of the EPA data by The Friends of the Earth for non-profit has found that it is about 200 times more toxic than glyphosate in chronic exposure.
Bayer, which makes Roundup, has been confronted with nearly 175,000 court cases claiming that product users have been injured by the product. Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, reformulated Roundup after the International Cancer Research Agency classified glyphosate as a possible carcinogen.
The new review of scientific literature is partly focusing on the many ways in which the dickeracks or bacteria of the intestine, including by reducing the level of proteins, which are key pieces of the bowel mucosa. Weight loss can allow toxins and pathogens to move from the stomach in the blood and cause inflammation in the intestine and throughout the body. In the meantime, Dika can inhibit the production of beneficial bacteria that support the mucous membrane of the intestine.
Damage to the mucous membrane also inhibits the absorption of nutrients and energy metabolism, the authors say.
The study further examines how the substance harms the kidneys, lungs and liver. Diquat “causes irreversible structural and functional damage to the kidneys” as it can destroy the membranes of the kidney cells and interfere with cellular signals. The effects on the liver are similar and the ingredient causes the production of proteins that break the organ.
In the meantime, it seems to attack the lungs by triggering inflammation that damages the tissue of the organ. Shorter, the inflammation caused by dicut can cause a multiple organs of organs of organ dysfunction, a scenario in which organ systems begin to fail.
The authors note that many studies are on rodents and more low, long -term exposure studies are needed. Bayer did not immediately answer a request for comment.
Despite the risks of the background of the use of Diquat, the EPA does not review the chemistry and even for non-profit purposes, which insist on more stringent pesticide rules, largely focused their attention elsewhere.
Donley said this is partly because the rules of pesticide in the United States are so weak that defenders are bound by the battles for ingredients such as glyphosate, champion and chloripirifos – substances that are forbidden elsewhere but are still widely used here. Diquat is “overshadowed” by these ingredients.
“Other countries have banned Divw, but in the US we are still struggling with the battles that Europe has won 20 years ago,” Donley said. “It has not reached the radar of most groups, and that really speaks a lot about the sad and regretting state of pesticides in the United States.”
Some defenders have accused the EPA of being captured by the industry, and Donley said that US pesticide laws are so weak that it was difficult for the agency to ban ingredients, even if the will exists. For example, the Agency banned Chlorpyrifos in 2022, but the court quashed the decision after the industry filed a case.
Moreover, the EPA pesticide service seems to have a philosophy that states that toxic pesticides are “necessary evil,” Donley said.
“When you approach a problem from this lens, there are only so many that you will do,” he said.