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A new study finds that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup Bioforce as well as glyphosate alone reduced testosterone levels in testicular cells at very low concentrations; and at higher concentrations – still 10 times below agricultural use – the cells died in 24-48 hours.

The study, carried out by Gilles-Eric Seralini and his colleagues at the Universite de Caen Basse-Normandie in France, was published just ahead of reports on glyphosate contamination of groundwater in Catalonia, Spain, and the presence of glyphosate in urine samples of Berlin city residents at 4-20 times the level allowed in drinking water (o.1 micrograms per litre, or 0.1 parts per billion (ppb)). American consumers exposed to glyphosate through residual levels in genetically modified (GM) foods are likely to have even higher levels in their system; although no studies appear to have been done.

These studies are emerging amid growing concern for the effects of environmental contaminants on decreasing levels of male fertility in humans and animals in industrialized nations, and there are already indications that glyphosate herbicide is linked to infertility and other reproductive problems.