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New scientific concepts to improve the regulatory assessment of pesticide toxicity

This article explores new scientific concepts to enhance the regulatory assessment of pesticide toxicity, focusing on the example of glyphosate. It discusses the need to test co-formulants, the potential health risks of glyphosate-based herbicides, and the effects of pesticides on the gut microbiome. The author proposes comprehensive mixture assessment, safety factors, endocrine disruptor testing, lifespan studies, and investigations into the effects on the gut microbiome as potential improvements to current pesticide risk assessment practices.

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New scientific concepts to improve the regulatory assessment of pesticide toxicity

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  1. New scientificconceptstoimprovetheregulatoryassessmentofpesticidetoxicity The caseofglyphosate Robin Mesnage, PhD, King’s College London, UK PEST Committee Public Hearing on 28 June 2018 from 14.00 to 17.30 in Brussels

  2. Glyphosate-based herbicides are the most heavily applied herbicide in the world and usage continues to rise Human exposures to glyphosate are rising Is glyphosate healthriskassessmentreliable?

  3. Glyphosate Co-formulants 1/ Chronic effects of commercial formulations have to be tested COMMERCIAL FORMULATION Glyphosate health risk assessment Tested alone to calculate acceptable daily intake Not included in glyphosate acceptable daily intake calculation The company asking for the pesticide commercialization is free to choose the molecule that they want to declare as an active principle.

  4. Are you sure co-formulants of pesticides are safe and do not need to be tested? Glyphosate formulations are up to 1000 times more toxic than glyphosate alone Formulations X 1000 X 1 Glyphosate If the toxic agent is not glyphosate, then what is it?

  5. We have tested toxicity and measured the composition of 9 Roundup formulations, their co-formulants, and glyphosate on human cells The toxicity was proportional to the concentration in co-formulants The toxicity of glyphosate commercial formulations was due to co-formulants and not to glyphosate itself

  6. Chemicalsused as co-formulantscanbeamong the mosttoxicpollutants in the environment Some adjuvants are associated with birth defects among populations exposed to pesticides (Carmichael et al, 2013) Some surfactants in rivers cause gender disturbances in fish, which affects reproduction (Jobling et al., 2009) Some highly toxic co-formulants are found in beehive samples and honey, and could be involved in bee colony collapse disorder (Chen and Mullin, 2014)

  7. Whatcanbedone? 1/ Pesticides shouldbeassessed as whole mixtures Whole-mixture approach is recommended for any unidentified materials in the mixture and for any interactions among mixture components (EU Scientific committees, 2011) 2/ Adding a safety factor to glyphosate acceptable dailyintake Proposed ADI calculation : Toxicity threshold in laboratory animal: 50 mg/kg/day Safety factor for population variability and species differences of 100: 0.5 mg/kg/day + Adjuvant safety factor of 10: 0.05 mg/kg/day

  8. Whatelsecanbedone to improve EU pesticide riskassessment? 2/ Some pesticides are suspected endocrine disruptors. Studies should incorporate testing principles from endocrinology (hormone dosages) 3/ Future studies should use designs that examine the full lifespan of the animal, including a prenatal period 4/ New studies should be performed to test the effects of pesticides on the gut microbiome

  9. The human body is a complex ecosystem …38,000,000,000,000 bacteria in the human body Changes in human gut microbiome composition have profound effects on human health Cani et al., (2017) Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 14:321-322

  10. Glyphosate effects on the gut microbiome? … suggests that Roundup could cause an alteration of the gut microbiome A new study testing the effects of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicide on the gut microbiome in a larger cohort of rats is ongoing

  11. Email: robin.mesnage@kcl.ac.uk Twitter: Robin_MesnageThank you for your attention! Open-access publications on the topic: Mesnage R, Antoniou MN (2018) Ignoring Adjuvant Toxicity Falsifies the Safety Profile of Commercial Pesticides. Front Public Health. 5:361. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00361/full Mesnage R, Antoniou MN (2017) Facts and Fallacies in the Debate on Glyphosate Toxicity. Front Public Health. Nov 24;5:316. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00316/full Myers JP et al. (2016) Concerns over use of glyphosate-based herbicides and risks associated with exposures […] Environ Health. 15:19. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-016-0117-0

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