Glyphosate

        Roundup is back in the news.  The jury verdict this past spring was surprising.  To me this looked like an easy win for Monsanto with the plaintiff being a groundskeeper with only two years history using Roundup, while there is a American Health Study (AHS) on farmers and farm families  that summarizes: --In this large, prospective cohort study (#1 link), no association was apparent between glyphosate and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including NHL(Non-Hodgkin lymphoma) and its subtypes. There was some evidence of increased risk of AML(Acute myeloid leukemia) among the highest exposed group that requires confirmation.  This study was revisited and updated in 2018 with no change in the summary.  Links #2 & 3, describes why it is so difficult to predict an outcome with a jury trial.  The facts are so ambiguous and they can be blurred by how a question is framed/phrased/developed.   I am slowly coming to the conclusion that there is no conclusive science surrounding this subject, and that public perception, emotion, and political correctness will rule the day on the use of Glyphosate, --or any other subject that catches the publics attention.
      I'm including a link (#4) to an AHS site showing increased risk for farmers and farm families to certain diseases/conditions.  This is not a comprehensive list, but recent determinations.  It's a bit sobering.  I think I am a typical farmer in that safety frequently takes second place to expediency when it comes to working with agriculture chemistry.  An Antidote: (recently we took old, and in some cases unidentifiable (lost label) agricultural chemistry to a state sponsored collection area. Every year the Dept of Ag sponsors these collections as encouragement for  farmers to not dump this chemistry on the ground when it's determined to be unusable for their crops.  The collection "professionals" were all dressed in hazmat suits, and the farmers were delivering their jugs and other containers wearing normal working clothing of leather boots, cotton pants, shirts, bill caps and no gloves.)  After viewing PBS's documentary on "9 Months That Made Me", I have become more aware of how life style effects our health and life expectancy and general quality of life.   It's a little late for me; however, the younger generation should pay more attention to personal protection when using Ag Chemistry.  The AHS studies show that we not only have elevated levels of these chemistry's in our bodies, but we expose our families to the effects of these chemistry's when we wear contaminated clothing around them.
1)  Farmer Health study :  (This is an abstract of the AHS mentioned above on Glyphosate.)
2)  Popular Science on Jury's & Science :  (A short article on dilemma associated with Juries reconciling legal and Science evidence.)
3  SNOPES: Juries & Science :  (A long article explaining the difficulty in reconciling legal and science evidence.)
4  News & Findings (on Farmers Health)  (A list of findings on increased risks for farmers.)