LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) — Popular oat cereals, oatmeal, granola and snack bars were found to come with a large dose of the weed-killing poison in Roundup, a Monsanto pesticide.
The Environmental Working Group commissioned independent laboratory tests for glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer, on more than a dozen brands of oat-based foods.
Glyphosate was found in 43 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. Some of the products with the highest concentrations of the herbicide include Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Cereal and Back to Nature Classic Granola.
The herbicide was also found in smaller concentrations in five samples of organic oat products.
The Environmental Protection Agency has calculated that 1-to-2-year old children are likely to have the highest exposure to glyphosate, at a level two times greater than California’s No Significant Risk Level and 230 times EWG’s health benchmark.
Roundup is the most heavily used pesticide in the U.S. More than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops each year. It is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans to kill the crop and allow earlier harvest.
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration released documents that say the agency has found “a fair amount” of glyphosate in several processed foods. The results could be made public later this year or in early 2019.
Last week, a California jury ordered Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to a school groundskeeper dying of cancer, who says his cancer was caused by repeated exposure to large quantities of Roundup. Thousands of lawsuits against Monsanto brought by farm workers and others also allege that they developed cancer from long-term exposure to Roundup.
View the original story on WKYT’s website.
Article source: http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/-Home-Health-Article-Weed-killing-poison-found-in-popular-cereals-oatmeal-granola-and-snack-bars-490943311.html