Dear Editor:
The recent court ruling in San Francisco that the herbicide Roundup was responsible for a man’s terminal cancer should give local municipalities cause for thought.
Glyphosate, the main ingredient used in weed killers like Roundup is routinely injected or sprayed by our municipalities, often near playgrounds and on or near blackberry bushes.
In October 2016 the Pesticide Action Network published a Glyphosate Monograph, a 97-page, painstakingly referenced review of more than 400 independent, peer-reviewed scientific studies about the human health and environmental impacts of glyphosate. This review revealed that long-term exposure to glyphosate is harmful to human health in a whole range of ways. It can cause conditions such as kidney and liver disease, act as an endocrine and immune system disrupter, and result in reproductive and neurological problems. It also showed that glyphosate drives negative environmental impacts to water, soil, flora and fauna, including bees, birds, amphibians and beneficial insects such as earthworms.
Last year the World Health Organization also published a report that found Roundup is a probable carcinogen.
Weeds can be controlled by other means, even species sometimes arbitrarily labelled “invasive.”
I hope there will be a change in policy when new municipal councils are elected in October, even if it means standing up to provincial or federally mandated regulations.
Patricia Mason
North Vancouver
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