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Review
. 2019 Jan 7;18(1):2.
doi: 10.1186/s12940-018-0435-5.

The evidence of human exposure to glyphosate: a review

Christina Gillezeau  1 , Maaike van Gerwen  1 , Rachel M Shaffer  2 , Iemaan Rana  3 , Luoping Zhang  3 , Lianne Sheppard  2   4 , Emanuela Taioli  5
Affiliations
Review

The evidence of human exposure to glyphosate: a review

Christina Gillezeau et al. Environ Health. .

Abstract

Background: Despite the growing and widespread use of glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide and desiccant, very few studies have evaluated the extent and amount of human exposure.

Objective: We review documented levels of human exposure among workers in occupational settings and the general population.

Methods: We conducted a review of scientific publications on glyphosate levels in humans; 19 studies were identified, of which five investigated occupational exposure to glyphosate, 11 documented the exposure in general populations, and three reported on both.

Results: Eight studies reported urinary levels in 423 occupationally and para-occupationally exposed subjects; 14 studies reported glyphosate levels in various biofluids on 3298 subjects from the general population. Average urinary levels in occupationally exposed subjects varied from 0.26 to 73.5 μg/L; environmental exposure urinary levels ranged from 0.16 to 7.6 μg/L. Only two studies measured temporal trends in exposure, both of which show increasing proportions of individuals with detectable levels of glyphosate in their urine over time.

Conclusions: The current review highlights the paucity of data on glyphosate levels among individuals exposed occupationally, para-occupationally, or environmentally to the herbicide. As such, it is challenging to fully understand the extent of exposure overall and in vulnerable populations such as children. We recommend further work to evaluate exposure across populations and geographic regions, apportion the exposure sources (e.g., occupational, household use, food residues), and understand temporal trends.

Keywords: Environmental carcinogens; Exposure assessment; Glyphosate; Herbicides; Human biomonitoring; Round-up.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval

N/A.

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N/A.

Competing interests

All authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA diagram of articles included in study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Urinary GM glyphosate concentrations in occupational and para-occupational exposure settings& & Mesange 2012 excluded because values were only available from one participant. *indicates that when the lower end of the range was below the LOD, we replaced this value with 0. ** the reported range excluded values below the LOD. +values below the LOD imputed using single imputation
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Urinary GM glyphosate concentrations in the general population. * indicates that > 50% of the values were below the LOD, and therefore the LOD was selected as the central tendency. **indicates that when the lower end of the range was below the LOD, we replaced this value with 0. +Highest value reported was 130 μg/L
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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