Post a comment on the text below

Box 3.5: Behaviour of Glyphosate in the environment

Glyphosate

Glyphosate is a commonly-used herbicide which has the highest pesticides sales volume  in Germany. It is widely used for killing weeds on fields, public roads, parks and gardens, and glyphosate is often found in waters, crops and humans. Water protection measures to reduce erosion from ploughing – “minimum tillage” - often require the use of a herbicide, which is usually glyphosate.

Glyphosate is designed to kill plants via absorption through the leaves, where it inhibits a plant specific enzyme. When it reaches water, its herbicide action can damage algae and aquatic plants. However, glyphosate breaks down quite quickly in the aquatic environment, over timescales of a few days to a few weeks. Results of water and sediment studies show that, in addition to breakdown by bacteria, a major contributor to the reduction of glyphosate in surface waters is through adsorption to sediment and suspended particulate matter. For these reasons, glyphosate or its breakdown product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) may be regulated in water.