New study reveals evidence for potential cancer-causing damage.

Glyphosate and the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup disrupt the gut microbiome by the same mechanism by which the chemical acts as a weedkiller, and these effects happen even at low doses that regulators claim to be safe, a newly published study has found.[1]

The new study was conducted by an international team of scientists based in London, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, led by Dr Michael Antoniou of King’s College London. It is published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The study is the first to describe a mechanism by which glyphosate and Roundup affect the function of the gut microbiome (bacterial populations and biochemical function) in rats, which are the standard model that regulators use for assessing the human health risks of chemicals. The study found that glyphosate disrupts the rat gut microbiome through the same route by which it kills weeds – inhibition of the shikimate biochemical pathway.