Notorious Weed Killers Causes Seizure-like Convulsions in Roundworms

Roundup, the world's most popular herbicide has been found to cause dramatic seizure-like convulsions in roundworms.

According to Science Alert, the soil-dwelling species, Caenorhabditis elegans, exhibited prolonged paroxysms when exposed to highly diluted samples of Roundup. Researchers said that the toxic effects in a third of the worm models and its main component, glyphosate, could only be stopped using drug intervention.

Roundup was originally made by Monsanto and acquired by Bayer, used at both industrial and consumer levels. However, its use was projected to dramatically increase over the coming years with little knowledge about its potential impact.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University say their findings were "pretty dramatic" and "come at a crucial moment" for Bayer and the future of Roundup.

Health Effects of Glyphosate

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported more than 80 percent of urine samples from children and adults in the U.S. containing the herbicide glyphosate, yet potential impacts on health of such widespread exposure remain "extremely contentious". The agency requires separate research to determine which concentrations are safe and which ones could be associated with disease or an adverse health effect.

"It is concerning how little we understand the impact of glyphosate on the nervous system," says neuroscientist Akshay Naraine from Florida Atlantic University.

"More evidence is mounting for how prevalent exposure to glyphosate is, so this work hopefully pushes other researchers to expand on these findings and solidify where our concerns should be."

Leaders at Bayer have persistently argued that Roundup is safe and non-carcinogenic for humans, but scientists, policymakers, and the public have questioned those assertions in recent years. People even claimed to have developed cancer from using Roundup, which embroiled Bayer in several legal battles.

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Concerning Effects on Roundworms

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had firmly ruled in 2020 that they found no risks to human health from the appropriate use of Roundup, but some critics are unconvinced two years later.

A federal court ruled recently that the "Trump-era decision" overlooked the emerging evidence on the toxic effects of Roundup. The EPA now has until October to reconsider its decision, and the current study among worms is "worth considering".

Apparently, the US version of Roundup caused convulsions on worms that went for just over a minute, nearly twice as long as the effect of glyphosate on its own. The UK formula also caused more seizures than glyphosate on its own.

Scientists are convinced that there were other dangerous ingredients in Roundup interacting with other chemicals to overstimulate the animal brain since worms without GABA-A receptors did not have seizures when exposed to glyphosate or Roundup.

"As of now, there is no information for how exposure to glyphosate and Roundup may affect humans diagnosed with epilepsy or other seizure disorders," neuroscientist Ken Dawson-Scully from Nova Southeastern University in Florida explained. "Our study indicates that there is significant disruption in locomotion and should prompt further vertebrate studies."

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