Herbicide usage-Too much of a good(or bad)thing?

[huntsem]

quote; "My old college roomates girlfriend has an enviormental science degree from Duke and works for the Ohio EPA. She told me that herbicides such as roundup arent really all that bad for stream quailty, once its in the dirt it;s pretty well gone. Its the fertilizers/phosphurus that is really really bad"

gobucks,

I've read that glyphosate absorbtion rates into soil and leaching into surface water can partly vary by soil types and number of repeated applications over time. High phosphorus levels in soils also inhibit glyphosate absorbtion. Glyphosate can also fall on nearby surface waters through wind drift.

Most reports say glyphosate is generally not toxic but I've also read conflicting reports which suggest that it can be toxic and that there haven't been enough thorough long term multi level studies on it's cumulative effects on the environment and human and animal health. In many cases the chemical surfactants added to glyphosate formulas will be responsible for some increased and immediate toxic effects to humans and wildlife.

At any rate on many fields where it is applied it likely inhibits new plant growth and the number of invertebrates preferred as food by nesting hens and young pheasants.

Glyphosate is up for a safety review by the EPA in 2015.

See;

USGS; Widely Used Herbicide Commonly Found in Rain and Streams in the Mississippi River Basinhttp://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2909

"...Though glyphosate is the mostly widely used herbicide in the world, we know very little about its long term effects to the environment," says Paul Capel, USGS chemist and an author on this study. "This study is one of the first to document the consistent occurrence of this chemical in streams, rain and air throughout the growing season. This is crucial information for understanding where management efforts for this chemical would best be focused....".

---------
Highly lethal effects of the herbicide Roundup® on amphibians
http://www.pitt.edu/~relyea/Site/Roundup.html

--------
Safety Review of Glyphosate Herbicide Faces Tough Critics
http://gmo-journal.com/index.php/20...-of-glyphosate-herbicide-faces-tough-critics/

---------
the Glyphosate threat 1
http://www.rag.org.au/modifiedfoods/roundup1.htm
the Glyphosate threat 2
http://www.rag.org.au/modifiedfoods/rounduphealthissues.htm