ArticleToxicology reports2018
Toxicity of formulants and heavy metals in glyphosate-based herbicides and other pesticides.
Article in Toxicology reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 396 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review on Neurotoxic Implications of Lead-Induced Gene Expression Alterations in the Etiology of Alzheimer's Disease.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2025Pooled it
- Urinary Glyphosate Concentrations among Pregnant Participants in a Randomized, Crossover Trial of Organic and Conventional Diets.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Trial
- Heavy Metals in Agriculture: Sources, Industrial Applications, Plant Toxicity, and Remediation Approaches.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Effects of the herbicide 2,4 D active ingredient and commercial formulations on the early life stages of the amphibian Physalaemus gracilis.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Pesticides and Trace Element Residues in Honey from Northern Croatia.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Emerging Bacterial Resistance and Genotoxicity of Water-Soluble Fractions of Agricultural Soils from the Semiarid Region of Brazil Affected by the Continuous Use of Glyphosate.Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2026Article
- Monitoring Environmental Glyphosate in Northeastern Romania and Its Cytotoxic Impact on Human Fibroblasts.Journal of xenobiotics · 2026Article
- Comparative toxicity of plant protection products, their active substances and mixtures in zebrafish embryos and HepaRG cells.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Pathophysiology and histological anomalies in testicular tissues of Calosoma olivieri exposed to heavy metals generated by pesticide industries.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Ecological and Human Health Risk Assessment of Metals in Peruvian Avocados Using a Probabilistic Approach.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Review
- Review
- An Innovative Multi-Omics Approach Reveals the Interactions Between Honeybees and Their Environment.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Toxicological concerns regarding glyphosate, its formulations, and co-formulants as environmental pollutants: a review of published studies from 2010 to 2025.Archives of toxicology · 2025Review
- Impacts of Metals on Infectious Diseases in Wildlife and Zoonotic Spillover.Journal of xenobiotics · 2025Review
- Types of Pesticides Interaction in Mixtures: Results of Inhibitory Assay.Doklady. Biochemistry and biophysics · 2025Article
- Elevated Metal Levels in U.S. Honeys: Is There a Concern for Human Health?Biological trace element research · 2025Article
- The bacterial species' degradation activities at maximum threshold doses of glyphosate across different pH levels and temperature glyphosate biodegradation by soil bacteria at high doses under variable pH and temperature.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Scientists' warning: we must change paradigm for a revolution in toxicology and world food supply.Environmental sciences Europe · 2025Article
- Article
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The major pesticides of the world are glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH), and their toxicity is highly debated. To understand their mode of action, the comparative herbicidal and toxicological effects of glyphosate (G) alone and 14 of its formulations were studied in this work, as a model for pesticides. GBH are mixtures of water, with commonly 36-48% G claimed as the active principle. As with other pesticides, 10-20% of GBH consist of chemical formulants. We previously identified these by mass spectrometry and found them to be mainly families of petroleum-based oxidized molecules, such as POEA, and other contaminants. We exposed plants and human cells to the components of formulations, both mixed and separately, and measured toxicity and human cellular endocrine disruption below the direct toxicity experimentally measured threshold. G was only slightly toxic on plants at the recommended dilutions in agriculture, in contrast with the general belief. In the short term, the strong herbicidal and toxic properties of its formulations were exerted by the POEA formulant family alone. The toxic effects and endocrine disrupting properties of the formulations were mostly due to the formulants and not to G. In this work, we also identified by mass spectrometry the heavy metals arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead and nickel, which are known to be toxic and endocrine disruptors, as contaminants in 22 pesticides, including 11 G-based ones. This could also explain some of the adverse effects of the pesticides. In in vivo chronic regulatory experiments that are used to establish the acceptable daily intakes of pesticides, G or other declared active ingredients in pesticides are assessed alone, without the formulants. Considering these new data, this assessment method appears insufficient to ensure safety. These results, taken together, shed a new light on the toxicity of these major herbicides and of pesticides in general.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.