EPA says no health risk from trace amounts of herbicide in breakfast cereals

An environmental protection advocacy group reports the effects of a herbicide in the consumer's homepage, but there is cause for concern even though the amount is within the limits of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Just how much, if any, of the herbicide can be considered safe is a matter of long-running scientific and legal debate. The Environmental Working Group's standard for what is acceptable, by far, the most conservative, beyond even that of California, which has the tightest regulation in the country.

The Environmental Working Group, Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal and other breakfast cereals and found low levels of glyphosate, a weedkiller sprayed on crops, in all 28 samples it tested. The group says they should do more to eliminate chemicals from food products, even if the levels are within the limits of what the government considers safe.

Quaker insists its products are safe and called the EWG study "invalid."

Glyphosate is one of the most important ingredients in the history of cancer. The company that makes roundup, Monsanto, says its research shows glyphosate is safe but has a California jury commissioned $ 289 million to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was connected to RoundUp.

Monsanto is in the process of appealing that case. A judge upheld the verdict this week to $ 78 million, according to the Associated Press.

EWG released the results of an earlier set of tests in August. The group tested 45 grams of cereals and 16 organic products. It is said to have some amounts of glyphosate in three-fourths of the products with small amounts of five of the organic products.

Regulators like EPA and international groups say it is not likely to have an increased risk of cancer in humans, but at least one agency connected to the World Health Organization has listed a "probable carcinogen" in 2015. The California health office has also listed glyphosate it is known to cause cancer and the state is recommended by the EPA.

The EWG based on its threshold on California's conservative guidelines, but it starts with California's threshold for what is considered acceptable and reduced by 100 times. They claim this is to be considered for drinking and drinking.

The EPA says that it is safe for consumers.

"Glyphosate, the active ingredient of Roundup, found in cereal (and other foods containing commodities like wheat and oat) is cause for concern," said EPA spokesman said in a statement.

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The EPA is recommended for glyphosate in food is 30 parts per million, or 30,000 parts per billion, tested by the Environmental Working Group. EWG identified glyphosate in much lower levels of 28 tested samples, with the highest at 2,837 parts per billion in Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cereal.

In a statement sent after this story, a Monsanto spokesman said that even at the highest result in the EWG testing, consumers would have to eat 81.5 pounds of glyphosate to reach the EPA limit .

"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the levels of exposure to the lowest levels of environmental protection." The levels are sometimes remotely close to any level of concern. in a statement. "Indeed, on Oct. 2, 2018, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published results of its annual residue testing program and concluded," Levels of pesticide residues in the US food supply is well established ". Clear that the glyphosate levels "were below the tolerance levels set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."

The Food and Drug Administration has recently been tested for glyphosate and other herbicides in hundreds of crop samples, including grains and oats, but none of the violated samples EPA limits. The test did find some amount of glyphosate in a majority of corn and soybean samples.

Quaker strongly rebutted the EWG study in ABC News. The company says they are going to be able to do that.

"The EWG report is artificially created for the safety of consumers" "Quaker spokesperson said in a statement.

"We believe that we are going to be in a quake, and we are going to be able to say that we are Quaker products tested by EWG are safe.

EWG says it's a test for a lower bound of glyphosate because it believes the EPA is too high, saying that "just because something is legal, does not mean it's safe."

"Our main goal here is that we really do not want to have a parent who has been diagnosed with this drug. So, we really want to take the initiative and the steps to remove their glyphosate, "EWG toxicologist Alexis Temkin told ABC News.

The group tested 28 samples of products made with oats, and found the presence of glyphosate in 28 of them, with levels they considered unsafe in. In San Francisco and Washington, D.C., – area grocery stores and they were analyzed at Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco.