In what they claim is the first prospective birth cohort study of its kind, U.S. researchers have linked likely environmental and dietary exposure to glyphosate ( N -phosphonomethylglycine), the most heavily used herbicide worldwide, with shorter pregnancies. The study, by researchers at Indiana University and the University of California San Francisco (UCSD), found that 93% of a cohort of pregnant women in the central Indiana region had detectable urine levels of glyphosate— the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup ® —which correlated with reduced gestation time. While glyphosate wasn’t identified in any samples of drinking water tested, higher urine glyphosate levels were found in pregnant women who lived in rural areas, and also in those who consumed more caffeinated beverages. “One thing we cannot deny is that glyphosate exposure in pregnant women is real," says lead investigator Shahid Parvez, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of environmental ...
Original Article: Herbicide Found in Urine of Pregnant Women Linked with Shorter Pregnancies
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