One distressed homeowner made a post asking for help after their lawn service accidentally sprayed toxic chemicals all over their property.
A panicked Redditor took to a lawncare subreddit to find out how to mitigate the health risks of Roundup. Their lawn service company sprayed their lawn with Roundup, a popular herbicide, without permission. They posted four photos of their spacious property for reference.
The homeowner explained that they're usually very careful about avoiding such harmful chemicals. They said they've "never used it or allowed it to be used in any house I have owned in the last 30 years. I believe it is unsafe and a health risk." And they're not wrong.
One commenter said, "For what it's worth, Roundup also no longer contains glyphosate." However, this is apparently misinformed.
According to Friends of the Earth, Bayer, Roundup's parent brand, failed to completely remove glyphosate from all consumer Roundup products, as of a report in late October. To make matters worse, the new Roundup formula is more toxic to human health than ever before, per the report.
Bayer promised to remove glyphosate from products following thousands of lawsuits concerning the link between Roundup and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, the glyphosate was mostly replaced by chemicals 45 times more toxic with long-term exposures, according to the Friends of the Earth analysis.
In summary, many Roundup products reportedly still use glyphosate and now contain other severely dangerous chemicals. These chemicals are considered a risk to human health — according to organizations such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — and detrimental to the environment.
However, as Friends of the Earth has noted and critiqued, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not acknowledged human health impacts of glyphosate under recommended uses.
The best way to avoid risks of associated health problems is to ditch herbicides and pesticides completely. Thankfully, you can still have a flourishing yard. Rewild your yard or curate a natural lawn that won't need any nasty chemicals.
🗣️ Do you worry about pesticides in your food?
🔘 All the time 😨
🔘 Sometimes 🫢
🔘 Not really 🤷
🔘 I only eat organic 😤
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Native plants, clover, buffalo grass, and creeping thyme can all thrive without much maintenance. This saves you money and time on lawn care. If the original poster had one of these alternatives, they likely wouldn't have needed a lawn service.
Native plants and natural lawns also benefit pollinators and support the local ecosystem. We rely on pollinators for our food supply, so happy pollinators mean happy humans.
Some commenters sympathized with the poster. One said, "My lawn care did the same and sprayed around my garden as well." The dangers of herbicide can be avoided with a lush, natural lawn.
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