Problems With Roundup?
Pacific Grove resident Ximena Waissbluth was walking her dog in Pacific Grove’s Washington Park when she saw a man spraying a clear liquid under the picnic tables. “I first thought that he was just watering the forest floor, because there was so much,” she told the PG City Council on Feb. 21. “Then I smelled it, asked him, and he said it was Roundup. Why? To kill the weeds.”
The revelation rattled Waissbluth, chair of the local Surfrider chapter. She worried about the herbicide’s effects on the park ecosystem, on the butterflies who famously rest there, and on the tourists who flock to see them. A little research convinced Waissbluth that the product’s main ingredient, glyphosate, is toxic to people, animals and the environment.
There’s plenty of evidence that she’s right. Then again, there’s evidence supporting the opposite view. More
posted by Surfrider Foundation at 11:35 AM
1 Comments:
1. I seriously doubt that anyone could smell applied Round-up. I am extremely sensitive to chemical odors and am unable to detect an odor from several feet away.
2. Round-up adheres to particles, either plant material or soil particles. It would be highly unlikely that a sprayer would produce enough volume to run off at all. It may drip from the plants surface onto the soil, but since it adheres to the soil, where it breaks down, it isn't going to run down into the the ocean.
If used on public property, it does need to be applied by a trained and licensed pest control operator. It is a useful tool for weed management, along with hand weeding and intergrated pest management.
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