RESEARCHERS say they are continuing to gather valuable data on the impact the commonly used herbicide glyphosate can have in Australian soils.
University of New England weed expert Professor Brian Sindel, pollution specialist Associate Professor Susan Wilson and PhD student Kirsten Drew comprise a UNE team exploring the ecological and environmental consequences of glyphosate weed management on our high conservation islands.
Working in collaboration with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Australian Antarctic Division, they are investigating how effective the herbicide is, and how it persists and moves in these environments under different temperatures and rainfall patterns.
"This is especially important on high conservation islands, like sub-Antarctic Macquarie, where glyphosate could be used in rapid response to weed incursions that threaten vulnerable habitats. Our findings will provide the science to guide policy-makers on future management."
The broad-spectrum herbicide is a primary tool of agriculture internationally, and millions of litres are used every year in home gardens and by municipal councils. Glyphosate has been approved for use in Australia for more than 40 years and is the active ingredient in about 500 products on sale.
The UNE team has developed advanced analytical techniques to quantify the concentrations and transfer of glyphosate in soils, waters, plants and organisms. Their findings will provide ground-breaking data for regulators to make decisions about where and how to use the herbicide, widely sold as RoundUp, in landscapes where it hasn't been used before.
"Our trials aim to understand efficacy and whether glyphosate causes damage to off-target native plants," Prof Sindel said.
Interest in the impact of glyphosate has grown following a controversial ABC Four Corners program highlighting human health concerns, after a Californian jury's verdict that exposure to RoundUp had resulted in groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson's terminal non-Hodgkinson lymphoma. It ordered the agrochemical company Monsanto (now acquired by Bayer) to pay $289 million in damages.
The US jury drew on a 2015 study by the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer, which classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans".
However, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority says products containing glyphosate could continue to be used safely according to label directions.
The UNE team is expected to report on its glyphosate studies next year.
